By Tim Bissell
edge staff blogger
tbissell@themaineedge.com

Mac users rejoice! Well, not all Mac users, but those of us who were hardcore gamers on our old PC’s but had to give it up for the overall better computing experience that is Apple, our time has come!

Valve software, the brains behind some of the best titles in gaming in the past decade (Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Portal, and Left 4 Dead) has announced that their popular ‘Steam’ gaming client will soon be released for Mac. This will open the doors for numerous games that were previously available exclusively on PC’s running Windows to release versions compatible for Mac.

In the ongoing Mac vs. PC campaign, Windows users have had little to hang their hat on, except for that one thing. There are no games available for Mac. This has been the mantra of PC stalwarts since the whole PC vs. Mac thing began. I remember back when I refused to entertain the idea of owning a Mac simply because they offered little in the way of gaming. I was addicted to first-person shooters at the time, and there was nothing out there for Mac, so I saw little reason to switch.

Fast forward 10 years, and my penchant for gaming has greatly subsided. I am now a dedicated Mac user and I would never go back to Windows for my personal computing needs. I love the stability, the clean design and the overall performance of my MacBook Pro, but since I switched, there has always been that one thing missing. I miss being able to fire up a video game and blow off some steam by mowing down countless radioactive zombies with unreal weapons in a consequence free environment. It was one of those, “Don’t know what you got till it’s gone,” situations. Well now I get to have my cake and eat it too!

So, Microsoft, this puts you in a tricky situation. Your new Operating system, while much improved, does very little to set itself apart from the competition, and still faces the daunting task of repairing the brand after the “Vista era.” As numerous personal and business users (especially those in media) made the switch to Mac, the one market Microsoft could continually rely on was the gaming market. With this exclusivity in jeopardy, look for Microsoft to do one of two things. Either they will return to the strong armed tactics of their past, or they will embrace this as an opportunity to perhaps release some Microsoft developed games on the Mac platform; whether or not they can swallow their pride that much remains to be seen.

The bottom line is this: I will soon be able to play Half-Life 2 on my Macbook. Until then, all video game zombies should be on notice, I’ll be back…