E. A. Sports. “It’s in the game…” – just not on the Mac like they promised


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At WWDC this year the folks at EA game took up a significant amount of stage time showing off Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. They told us Madden 08, and Tiger Woods 08 would ship day and date with their Windows counterparts.

Well, on Tuesday Madden 08 was released for just about every platform in the world…but there was no Mac release to be found. Now, EA has officially delayed Madden and Tiger Woods game until September or October of 2007 – but I’ll honestly be surprised if they EVER end up store shelves….why?

Well, it’s not because they’re delayed – that happens in gaming all the time – and with EA’s lack of experience developing for the Mac (since they have been away for a while), it’s this little bit that they told Apple Insider that makes me think something odd is going on.

When AI spoke with a representative from EA they claimed that 4 titles they were porting to the Mac – Battlefield 2142, Command and Conquer 3, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and Need for Speed Carbon – were already available on shelves.

But they’re not. EA couldn’t name one single store where you can buy them, and I’ve looked online at places like Amazon, and I can’t even find a place to pre-order them, much less take them home. AI even called around to Apple Stores asking about the software – no one has it. It flat out isn’t out there.

Why would they lie about this?

It makes absolutely no sense. Regardless, that seems to be what they’ve done. So, I’m honestly not sure if we should ever expect them on the Mac.

What do you think?

UPDATE: After every major Apple site on the web reported on EA’s broken promises, and lack of any games in stores on Friday, suddenly the games popped up on Apple.com – and reports started coming late Friday afternoon that the games were shipped and headed to stores.


Kossi Adzo

Kossi Adzo is a technology enthusiast and digital strategist with a fervent passion for Apple products and the innovative technologies that orbit them. With a background in computer science and a decade of experience in app development and digital marketing, Kossi brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to the Apple Gazette team.

10 Comments

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  1. Meh who cares? Apple doesn’t even put very good video cards in their machines so its not just EA not taking gaming seriously on the Mac. The day Apple actually offers some quality cards on their machines, specifically the iMacs, as few people buy Mac Pro’s so they can game on their mac, that will be the day EA and other companies consider making simultaneous releases for both PC and Mac. I think we need to take some of the blame on EA and give it to Apple for not taking gaming seriously. I used to play games like no tomorrow on my PC, but since I’ve switched I rarely do it, occasionally when I’m in boot camp, but very rarely as these machines just can’t output graphics very well.

  2. @Steve

    I would agree that games are not a primary focus for the Mac…and I’m not even saying that EA really needs to release versions on the Mac…

    I probably wouldn’t have even written about it, except for the fact that they’re lying about their own product being out. That makes no sense, and is very curios to me.

    I also hate win companies clearly have no intention with following threw with something like they said…and I think EA is doing that in this case. They got their chance to be on stage at WWDC (which we all know is watched by WAY more people than those of us that actually OWN Macs), and they got a good chunk of free publicity out of it, and now they’re backing out of what they were saying they were going to do.

    That’s just bad business.

  3. I think the graphics cards in the current Apple computer products are fine for gaming; at least at the level most home users will need.

    In my case, and, I suspect, the case of many Mac users, I just don’t have time for games. If I did, I would probably by a gaming console. They are way cheaper than dedicated gaming PCs anyway.

  4. Video cards in Macs (mostly iMacs) are good for casual gaming yes, but when we are asking companies to release games for both systems we need Apple to also take it seriously and offer better video cards in their systems. In PC world you can get any card you want, I admit that wouldn’t work in Apples case, but at least offer more high end cards for those who want to game a lot of their Macs.

    I guess my whole point was that theres no point in pushing for game releases on Mac if not even Apple will take it seriously and offer more gamer friendly macs.

  5. Why dish out more money for a game console when you already have a computer? Then the game console is free.

    All I can say is thank goodness Blizzard games are my games of choice regardless of platform so I don’t feel like I’m being shorted. I can only spend time on one game at a time and again luckily Blizzard has been able to hold my undivided attention for years now. Apple should be very thankful for those guys. I know I am.

  6. I do see the four titles now listed on the Apple Store available to order, all with a short wait. We’ll see.

  7. Yeah, if you go to apple.com/games you’ll see them. I’m surprised thry didn’t make them a little easier to find.

  8. @Drew –

    Yeah – they weren’t there when this article was written. EA has been on the ball, though. Once the web started griping and givng them hell, they got moving.

  9. jeff,

    if you don’t know anything about gaming on the mac, why make comments…

    the most used macs are iMacs, mac minis, macbooks… except for the higher end models of the old iMac and all the new iMacs, these machines don’t even have dedicated graphics!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    that leaves the “lucky” ones with X1600 or HD 2600 PRO…

    ever heard of people running dual 8800GTX cards in SLI at resolutions of 2650 x 1600…

    there is no mac gaming… it’s beyond a joke…

    Jeff August 17th, 2007 at 4:55 pm 3

    I think the graphics cards in the current Apple computer products are fine for gaming;