Mac Gaming to See Exciting 2011?

This past May, Valve did something that literally blew our minds… it released a Mac-based Steam client. We of course knew that the game selection at first was going to be lackluster, because let’s face it… Macs aren’t known for their gaming abilities, and until recently, it seemed like the company’s own CEO hated to even pair the two words together.

But for Mac users who refuse to use a Windows machine (as a Linux user, I can understand), the lack of games could be a bit depressing, but with Valve’s action, it inspired hope like never before. After all, Valve is a major player in the gaming industry, and if it was to support Mac, then maybe other developers would as well. So far, the reception has been pretty good, but unfortunately, the most popular games for Macs aren’t quite on par with the top games for the PC.

So, when, if ever, is the transition going to occur? Well, according to Valve, it seems that 2011 is going to be the year for Mac gaming to shine. The reasons are many, but most of them have to do with developer schedules. Some developers might love to make their game work for Mac, but game development isn’t a piece of cake… there are many factors to take into consideration. If there’s a chance the game couldn’t ship on time just because the Mac gets involved, then it’s not worth the risk.

Next year might be a different story, though, as developers are able to plan for next year’s titles this year, and keep Mac in mind. It’s hard to say what kind of games we’ll see, and from which developers, but we can hope that all of the big names will dip into the Apple pie soon enough. Hopefully at the same time, the graphics drivers and OpenGL could improve as well, since there are performance concerns at this point in time.

Graphics performance is still an issue on Mac OS X, though, and so is OpenGL coding for developers more accustomed to DirectX. Apple still has plenty of work to do to support newer versions of OpenGL and better optimize graphics drivers to achieve performance parity with Windows. But to help developers accelerate development schedules and work around these issues somewhat, Valve is making code it has developed for the GL layer available to Steamworks partners.