Steve Jobs Got Mad After Microsoft Bought Bungie
Microsoft snuffed out hopes for a Mac Halo.
Bungie Studios, before they were known for the Halo series, was a dedicated Mac games developer with classics such as Marathon.
The game developer was working on a great-looking title called Halo for both the PC and Mac – that is, until Microsoft swooped in and acquired the developer to make them an exclusive Xbox games maker.
This pained both PC and Mac gamers (especially Mac gamers), but it also hit Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
In an interview with Develop, Ed Fries, the former vice president of game publishing at Microsoft, revealed that he had to call Steve Jobs and appease him with a game development deal to make-up for snatching Bungie away from the Mac.
“As soon as we announced we bought Bungie, Steve Jobs called,” Fries said. “He was mad at [Microsoft CEO Steve] Ballmer and phoned him up and was angry because we’d just bought the premier Mac game developer and made them an Xbox developer.”
“So, during the day, I got an email from Steve Ballmer asking me to phone Steve Jobs and calm him down about the whole thing,” he added. “Anyway, we did this deal with Apple where we’d port some PC games to the Macintosh and help Peter Tamte create this company to do it, and I had to go to a Mac developer conference and get on stage and talk about this whole new partnership. It was a pretty strange time.”
Of course, that's ancient history now, and Bungie's divorced itself from Microsoft only to find a new partner at Activision. The lasting effect seems to be that Bungie is now a console game developer rather than for the platforms with keyboards and mice.
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Funny how Apple would not through PC/Microsoft a rotten bone if they were dying in a ditch, but the MS does one thing that Jobs does not like and he goes on a tantrum till he gets his way. Childish...
If Bungie was that important why didn't Apple buy them?
It's nothing personal Steve. Just business.
IB
How dare anyone else try to lock up exclusive content for their platform.....
Really? Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, of course Jobs was pissed.
I wasn't thrilled either... HALO would have been a better PC game, and there would be MAC and PS3 versions.
Oh yeah... PC gaming is still dying... but will never actually die.
#1 PC game... Gems.. stones.. whatever that colorfull stone matching game that anyone with half a brain can play.
But when it comes to AAA titles... PC go bye bye.
If Bungie was that important why didn't Apple buy them?It's nothing personal Steve. Just business.IB
It was decade ago, from my point of view, America use to have more brain and people who could decide what they want, when they want it. Apple wasn't as big at it is now.
IDIOCRACY wasn't in it's prime!!
How dare anyone else try to lock up exclusive content for their platform.....
It is called business strategy
Come on, at the time Apple hardly had any computers except for the expensive Mac Pro that could really play games well. I mean most of Mac's today even desktops still use Mobile versions that are good for media but marginal for heavy gaming. Steve Jobs has never expressed a big interest in gaming. Even if you look at some of the games for the iPad they are hardly what a gammer would consider high quality. They may be fun. But their is a difference.
So Steve is a MS product gamer after all, wanting to buy bungie just so he wont have to play in the closet where no one is watching!
Whew at least now he has Valve.
No wait, he's still locking graphics card drivers out. Can't run good games if you hide graphics card functionality Steevie.
But when it comes to AAA titles... PC go bye bye.
Not as far as i can see, PC gaming has lost a lot of the focus due to consoles being a much popular choice for the masses and the cash strapped, but PC's still play host to some of the best games out today; MW2, BC2, Black Ops & MoH are the four i can think of most recently. Civilisation 5 is an excellent title, Batman AA, practically ALL MMO's, Borderlands, Fallout 3 (and associated expansions), Dead Rising, L4D, L4D2, Half Life Series.
Not to mention, you better hope that PC gaming never dies. Because, in case you didn't know, its the technology advancements made on the PC platform (i.e Direct X) that eventually filter down to the consoles a few years later. PC's are currently on DX11, titles such as Bad Company 2 utilise this and my PS3 gamer friend who plays the same game on his console says the PC version is way better looking than the console version as well as playing smoother (console FPS rates are locked at 30 for BC2).
So in a way you're right, PC Gaming will never die, because it isn't right now.
/truth
Just out of curiosity, how many Macs are really capable of playing the new generation of games properly rendered at blazing speed especially the newer titles using the techniques from DX11 (wich mac dont have natively). Its strange a mac users who wants to play some real games have to use a win pc emulator !?
lol u mad? Steve Jobs?
Steve job shut up you moron.
this is just a blatant back track lie of a story.
Steve Jobs never thought Gaming was important to MAC which is why support for games was always on the backburner.
Steve Jobs was actually a negative force when it came to gaming.
This is just another article trying to change the image of MACs so they can be a gaming platform too.
I thought that Jobs didn't want his equipment to be "slumming" by playing games?
It says a lot about how bad gaming on the Mac was, if Bungie was considered the premier Mac game developer. There were at least a dozen PC game developers at Bungie's level or higher at the time. Gaming on Macs was dieing or dead (and still isn't too good) and yet Apple wasn't doing anything to help developers out. With all of their faults with the Xbox line of consoles, Microsoft has helped and encouraged gaming on the pc (ex: Direct X is better for gaming than OpenGL). Maybe if Apple did for Mac gaming what MS did for PC gaming, Bungie would have been easily replaced or not even been missed.
I dont think Apple had the money then to buy Bungie. Furthermore i`m not paying 3 grand to game on a Mac.
Tough s#$t! Call Steve Jobs and calm him down?! First of all if I work for Microsoft I do not have to answer to the likes of Jobs. So he can just kiss it. Second he should know that not everyone is drinking the Apple flavored Koolaid and if someone comes along with what looks like a BBD then you know their going to go for it. Eat it Steve and grow up.
"Why don't just mosey on over to mammy pammy land. Cry baby."
--R. Lee Ermey
Who gives a rats ass whats stevie thinks....i was rather unhappy though tbh. But seriously, gaming on a Mac is and never will be a viable option for anyone with functioning frontal lobes.
Microsoft releases statement " You mad bro?"
Bungie produced some of the most innovative and imaginative games before MS's acquisition. The MYTH series were brilliant strategy games with great story depth, beautiful graphics and wonderful humour. The Marathon series (pre-cursors to HALO) were similarly clever games with epic story lines. There was widespread fury when Mac users heard about the buy-out. Why? Because there were no PC games that came close to the quality of those produced by Bungie. You needed no autoexecbat tweaking, there were absolutely no in-game crashes…it was tight, polished coding the like of which I had never experienced on my PC gaming rig. They were Mac developers, head and shoulders above the PC gaming brigade and that was why MS snapped them up. Of course Jobs would be furious. Though he only had himself to blame. Little was done inside Apple to support games developers. Now there is OpenGL 4 and that sees off DirectX 11. Sadly, sloppy PC coders, used to feeding from the sourly lactating breast of mother MS whilst ignoring the smell and discomfort to themselves and others, will snuggle into their shit filled diapers until every one of them have been weaned off the Home Computer and onto Consoles.
Valve appears to be the exception to the above and that may reap dividends for themselves and developers with vision. May Bungie be back on the Mac soon.
this is just a blatant back track lie of a story.Steve Jobs never thought Gaming was important to MAC which is why support for games was always on the backburner.Steve Jobs was actually a negative force when it came to gaming. This is just another article trying to change the image of MACs so they can be a gaming platform too.
Frankly - I think Steve is smart in the regards of keeping Mac out of the gaming arena, the hardware is usualy atleast one generation behind the newest on a win PC and at the same time costs more and if poeple would start to see the truth of whats inside their shiny cases the sales would dvindle. So yeah, i understand that desiré completly. Ofocrse in Steven style he have to maintain the Mac is best in everything so his believers wont start to think for themselves but everyone with some knowlage sees the truth!
thomshardware needs to find some new stock photos of steve jobs. i'm tired of seeing the same 3 over and over.
Who gives a rats ass whats stevie thinks....i was rather unhappy though tbh. But seriously, gaming on a Mac is and never will be a viable option for anyone with functioning frontal lobes.
Yeah, there are not enough developers with functioning frontal lobes to see that coding in OpenGL would give them Windows, Mac, Linux market share. DirectX does not a good game make…great game development should not be dependent on proprietary API's. OpenCL and OpenGL will give you all the eye-candy you need with fantastic physics.
Nah, Steve Jobs has been barking mad for many years now
Yeah, there are not enough developers with functioning frontal lobes to see that coding in OpenGL would give them Windows, Mac, Linux market share. DirectX does not a good game make…great game development should not be dependent on proprietary API's. OpenCL and OpenGL will give you all the eye-candy you need with fantastic physics.
And as a developer, im sure you acounted for the extra time it takes to develop titles using thoose API's instead when you get pretty much everything served with DX9-DX11 allowing you to spend more resources to develop the content rather than the engine?
Open GL have really taken a turn downhill and its for a reason, windows machines (including xbox that only support DX9 thoo) stand for the vast majority of the matketshare so why spend extra recourses that won't even repay in the end ?
Sites like Tom's should be dispassionate and objective. That means looking at what is best for all consumers and not just one group or another.
When it comes to gaming, if THW contributors and editors were a little less trenchant in their MS world-view bias they would champion all open standards.
People hereabouts may knock Apple to the core but their own coddled brains are trapped in proprietary DirectX which actually makes them no better than Mac fanboys (as some people ironically like to term them). Remember, DirectX is as closed as Mac OS X. Your choices are subsumed either way. All you're really left to fight about is Frames Per Second. So, don't kid yourselves.
Oh look ATI just gave Nvidia a black eye…but wait, Nvidia struck back and ATI has a blooded nose. Ding…Ding!
And as a developer, im sure you acounted for the extra time it takes to develop titles using thoose API's instead when you get pretty much everything served with DX9-DX11 allowing you to spend more resources to develop the content rather than the engine?
Argue that with Valve then. They are quite happy with their increased market share…and Steam for Linux will be coming soon.
Open GL have really taken a turn downhill and its for a reason, windows machines (including xbox that only support DX9 thoo) stand for the vast majority of the matketshare so why spend extra recourses that won't even repay in the end ?
So, you don't want to help change the world then? Steve Jobs has, over and over again. I suppose some people are simply too lazy or mollycoddled to think beyond the cradle. OpenGL has actually come on a staggering pace (or hadn't you noticed?). I can't help it if you prefer to have your hand held. Bungie managed to produce excellent games for the Mac without any aid from MS. That's what good game developers did/do. XBox has been a commercial disaster, I'm not even sure if MS have yet turned (much of) a profit on that particular division. They hadn't last time I looked. DirectX 9? Yep, wonderful…cough.
Bungie managed to produce excellent games for the Mac without any aid from MS. That's what good game developers did/do.
And now Microsoft has put games made by Bungie to a potential marketplace 18 times larger than Apples.
Go figure.
i would happily accept halo on mac if it means it is on PC. the custom maps in halo CE were the best! beat the hell outta "forge".
Oh…
Just in case people are LOL'ing about my comment re Steve Jobs changing the world…
Think…Apple
Think…Mac
Think…NeXT
Think…WWW (Berners-Lee)
Think…Carmack (iD)
Think…iMac
Think…iPod
Think…iPhone
Think…iPad
Think…what other technology persona has added so much colour to our western culture?
So, you don't want to help change the world then? Steve Jobs has, over and over again. I suppose some people are simply too lazy or mollycoddled to think beyond the cradle. OpenGL has actually come on a staggering pace (or hadn't you noticed?). I can't help it if you prefer to have your hand held. Bungie managed to produce excellent games for the Mac without any aid from MS. That's what good game developers did/do. XBox has been a commercial disaster, I'm not even sure if MS have yet turned (much of) a profit on that particular division. They hadn't last time I looked. DirectX 9? Yep, wonderful…cough.
All developers know that OpenGL has one major drawback wich Khronos hasn't been able to leverage in all these years: backwards compatibility. Since OpenGL was "the man" back in the day, a lot of complex things were made, and want support even on this day in current APIs. That leaves little room for real improvement, since you have to watch the whole thing so it doesn't break old code. DirectX doesn't have that "flaw" since you could really call it a "gamer API", wich has no relevance at all in "srs business". That's why DirectX is a really nice API to use, contrary to Source, wich is very complex/hard/brain-hurting, but it's been for every piece of hardware out there from some time now.
On the other side, if you ask for a change in the market, well... Telling developers to do so is a little immature or naive, since the cash for every project out there using DirectX is not from the Devs, but the Publishers in like 90% of the cases. And a 100% in AAA games.
Cheers!