http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/blog/19932055/#faq
And this isn’t just for the beta.
At this time, we are only developing the game for Windows. However, I play on Mac and have been able to run the game on BootCamp without issue and the gameplay has been smooth.
Source: http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/19612291043 (post by Blizzard Support Agent Glaxigrav)
And yes, there is also this….
Source: http://www.overpwn.com/news/77-overwatch-for-consoles-officially-confirmed
Note that the meta tag on Blizzard’s Overwatch site has since been changed to “Overwatch™ is a team-based shooter where heroes do battle in a world of conflict.” Datamining has also revealed console authentication initialization strings for both PSN and XBL. Console makes absolute sense for this game and they already have a console group (the actual coders and UI designers that work on the console versions of Diablo 3) with expertise in this area.
This makes the absence of a Mac version even more interesting since this will be the first Blizzard game in awhile that is Windows only. The support agent did throw in the “at this time” remark which means there is the possibility the game may eventually show up on the Mac. The point still stands though that this breaks 15 years of simultaneous releases (as well as code being ready during beta). True, modern day Mac’s can dual boot to a Windows install; the problem is that it’s an inconvenience (and running a game like this via a virtualized environment like VMware or Parallel’s isn’t going to work well due to the graphical performance hit).
It’s one of the reasons why I’ve stopped playing Path of Exile. Early on in 2013, I dual booted just to play it for several months after it went live officially out of open beta. I had previously played it using a Wine wrapper but the performance was terrible. And I stopped supporting a dual hardware approach just for PC gaming since I’m not a hardcore gamer to begin with.
The internal reason for this being Windows only is probably how understaffed Blizzard is when it comes to their OS X programmers who have to code the clients (including both Battle.net and franchise specific updates) for all of their existing games. The addition of both Hearthstone and specifically Heroes of the Storm more than likely taxed the limits of the Mac programmers.
At face value, it would seem like a no brainer for the company to just hire more Mac software engineers. The question of course becomes how much is Blizzard willing to pay these folks (coders who are rockstars and don’t need extensive training to hit the ground running) who are in high demand.
Glassdoor provides just a small amount of visibility and one of the main cons that comes up consistently is the lower than average wages for the non-senior/lead game designer type of positions. Many folks eagar to get their foot in the door at Blizzard take on the entry level positions in customer service, online support including the forums and game masters, community management, and quality assurance where they are normally paid an hourly wage that isn’t that competitive for the Southern California area (where the cost of living is on the higher side).
Their software engineers more than likely are salaried but most of the reviews in this category state the con as being the lack of competitive wages. And that is why the company has trouble attracting (and likely also trouble retaining) seasoned Mac software engineers as most of those folks can make more at most other technology related companies.
The company attempts to use its community-oriented and “embrace your inner geek” culture to offset the wage disparity (basically implying that it’s a huge privilege to be able to work for the company in some capacity). For folks who are absolutely passionate about gaming (and more so with Blizzard’s games), it can seem that way until one finds their upward mobility limited unless they play the kiss-ass game). One common theme in many reviews is “the management” as well as “unchecked incompetence”. To be fair, that sounds par for the course as that is pretty common in many corporations at the mid-level (and yes, also in the senior management ranks).
Furthermore, Blizzard themselves aren’t sure how successful this new franchise will actually be beyond its initial reception (the first person shooter genre is already highly saturated). They haven’t yet decided on a business model for it (though they are probably going to take cues from what is and isn’t working with Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm).
Basically, there is the “facade” and the “reality”. Like everything else, Blizzard’s leadership is looking to get away as cheap as possible. This however (especially with a new franchise) is really actually a step backwards for the company whichever way you actually look at it because it does highlight just how cheap the company is when it comes to those equally important folks doing the front line grunt work. That includes the folks writing the bulk of the code for the game clients; without these people, Blizzard would not have actual playable games.
In this case, they are withdrawing from a growing market demographic (relative to the rest of the PC market which is also consistently skewed with corporate/enterprise upgrades) and thus losing out on over a decade of established goodwill.
Update: this was posted over on the WoW Mac Technical Support section by one of the key Mac developers at the company.
I can’t comment on Overwatch other than this:
From our Closed Beta FAQ:Q. Will Mac users be able to participate in the beta?A. We’re developing Overwatch for Windows-based PCs only, so a Mac-specific beta will not be provided.
Source: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/14059366060?page=2#27
Basically, it looks like the employees are under a gag order regarding the lack of Mac support for Overwatch.
I do realize that some of this is due to Apple’s forced yearly OS X upgrade cycle where things can keep shifting where it makes development for this already small (and shrinking) Mac team a challenge. Furthermore, with Apple releasing their Metal graphics API for OS X El Capitan, it’s pretty much now an early indication that OpenGL support will eventually end up being depreciated in some future OS X upgrade (it’s just how Apple operates). And it’s not like Apple’s OpenGL drivers are any good (poor performance and buggy) or kept up to date with the latest specs (full OpenGL 4.1 support with some 4.2 extensions; the latest OpenGL spec is 4.5 released in 2014 whereas 4.1 was released in 2010).
Again, this increases the challenge for what is already a small team as they will have to support both API’s in their current games since there is a sizable installed base of Mac’s that were made before 2012 (the hardware requirements for the API stipulate any Mac introduced from 2012 onwards). As it currently stands, the Mac team has had to force minimum OS X versions for their game clients.
Both StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm are now putting up a dialog at launch for Mavericks (10.9) users that there is now a new version of OS X (referring to El Capitan) where the game will run better. Mavericks itself is only 2 years old which shows how quickly Apple is obsoleting it’s prior operating systems.
And development teams need to keep up with this. With Blizzard bleeding Mac talent (due to the lack of competitive wages), it doesn’t help any given they are expanding the number of franchises. I personally do not see any of this changing though since this isn’t the Blizzard Entertainment of old where too many of that old guard have left the building. To put it even more bluntly, there could be a time where Blizzard may end up depreciating Mac support for some of their already existing franchises; where the amount of time that team has to deal with Apple created obsolescence is just no longer worth the ROI.
