[washington mac user]

Well here is something to read about for all the people waiting on Starcraft 2.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/727/727892p1.html

August 24, 2006 - While our meeting with Blizzard Chief Operating Officer Paul Sams today at the German Games Convention mainly focused on The Burning Crusade, the upcoming expansion for World of Warcraft, we did ask him about what the future holds in store for Blizzard, and specifically about StarCraft 2. "StarCraft is my absolutely favorite game of all time," Sams told us. "As you probably already know, there is no doubt that we will continue the StarCraft and Diablo franchise, and trust me, I will be the happiest person in the world when we announce StarCraft 2." While Sams wasn't ready to spill the beans just yet, he did say Blizzard "will have a major product announcement in 2007," and that Blizzard was currently working on at least three other unannounced titles at the moment. In terms of what these games could be, we asked if they would fall in line with the major success Blizzard has had with World of Warcraft. "I want to be clear that we're not just content to be an MMO company," Sams explained. "Some other companies get into the role of making just MMOs, but Blizzard lets the developers pick what they want to work on, and it's not all MMOs." When asked about StarCraft: Ghost, Sams said that it was on indefinite hold, but that Blizzard wasn't averse to exploring further console development in the future. "We've been up to MS and they've been at our office talking about Vista and 360," Sams said, "and we're certainly excited about some of the tools they have to offer in the console world as well as with Vista and DirectX 10. However, with our own online gaming service, we're going to pick and choose what we want to use; we're going to protect Battle.net and make sure Battle.net ranks supreme."

I love reading that quote with Blizzard COO Paul Sams. Computer games are going to pwn on DirectX 10!!!!!

Oh yea here is more good news for Mac gaming.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/appl...2006/9/14/5295

Blizzard brings Havok physics engine to the Mac Havok, the big-name physics engine that is used in many popular PC and console games, has been licensed for the Mac by Blizzard Entertainment (maker of World of Warcraft and Diablo), making this the first time that Havok has ever been licensed for the Mac platform. Havok is already cross-platform, but rumors of the high-cost of licensing it for the Mac have supposedly barred it from being licensed up until now and is cited as the reason for the demise of many potentially-awesome Mac games. Havok is cross-platform and has been used on major PC and console games such as Halo 2, Half Life 2, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and many other top-selling titles. Its absence on the Mac up until now — rumored to be due mainly to the high cost of licensing the technology — has led to the outright cancellation of Mac game projects such as Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, and has contributed to the demise of other, unannounced projects from major Mac game publishers. Havok 4.0 was released earlier this year with various updates to the physics engine and two new additions to the suite: Released in July this year, Havok 4.0 is a modular suite of artist tools and run-time technology that enhances Havok’s industry-leading game-play physics and animation products (Havok Physics™ and Havok Animation™). It also introduced two new products - Havok Behavior™ and Havok FX™. So what could this mean for the future of Mac gaming? Lots and lots of possibilities, for sure. Blizzard says that they "looking forward to utilizing this technology with our upcoming games" with no real tips as to what those upcoming games might be, although we are sure that Mac gamers are already frothing at the mouth over the announcement. Will Infinite Loop be forced into an arranged marriage with Opposable Thumbs because of this? Only time will tell...