What if Halo had been a Mac exclusive? - Alternate History Explored
video description
Date: 2023-12-10
Related videos
Comments and reviews: 30
-FrankOConnor
I've thought about this a lot, both before and after starting work on Halo - as a journalist in a past life we were thinking about this possibility in real time. Apple was trying to make the Mac a relevant gaming PC and - perhaps correctly - thought it needed big exclusives - but didn't necessarily want to commit - I think Jobs thought it was a sidebar problem - and that the real promise of gaming was the horsepower and CPU needed to make decent games. Bungie ad already enjoyed being a big fish in a small pond with Mac versions of Marathon and Durandal etc, on a platform that either didn't have, or was late to get games like Doom/Quake etc. So Bungie's more lore driven, story rich worlds found a niche to flourish, but never performed as relatively well on the PC because there was more competition.
If Halo had shipped on Mac - several things would have been so radically different that there's almost no point predicting the scale - Bungie wouldn't have had to solve for analog joypads, might not have created the BSP loading/streaming tech the same way it worked on Xbox - but MIGHT have ended up with a System Link analog via Appletalk - but then wouldn't have created the almost universally standard -Couch experience- of console matchmaking. Would it have been good? No doubt. But I suspect that it was better by being forced into the Xbox format because so many of the solutions they came up with were so fantastic and influential. You could argue that Mac losing Halo changed console gaming more radically than just one game.
reply
I've thought about this a lot, both before and after starting work on Halo - as a journalist in a past life we were thinking about this possibility in real time. Apple was trying to make the Mac a relevant gaming PC and - perhaps correctly - thought it needed big exclusives - but didn't necessarily want to commit - I think Jobs thought it was a sidebar problem - and that the real promise of gaming was the horsepower and CPU needed to make decent games. Bungie ad already enjoyed being a big fish in a small pond with Mac versions of Marathon and Durandal etc, on a platform that either didn't have, or was late to get games like Doom/Quake etc. So Bungie's more lore driven, story rich worlds found a niche to flourish, but never performed as relatively well on the PC because there was more competition.
If Halo had shipped on Mac - several things would have been so radically different that there's almost no point predicting the scale - Bungie wouldn't have had to solve for analog joypads, might not have created the BSP loading/streaming tech the same way it worked on Xbox - but MIGHT have ended up with a System Link analog via Appletalk - but then wouldn't have created the almost universally standard -Couch experience- of console matchmaking. Would it have been good? No doubt. But I suspect that it was better by being forced into the Xbox format because so many of the solutions they came up with were so fantastic and influential. You could argue that Mac losing Halo changed console gaming more radically than just one game.
reply
-ericbazinga
> Microsoft owns Take-Two
> Sony and Nintendo become third party devs
> Gaming-focused phones with full actual games on them
> PC gaming still exists and M-rated games are likely thriving there
I unironically want this universe. I'd be willing to trade Halo for official Nintendo and Sony games on PC. I can emulate Nintendo and Sony's been putting their games on PC lately (huge props for that, but those two companies going third party is a huge win for those who hate anti-consumer exclusivity practices. Sure, the iVerse's gaming landscape isn't the most ideal with the likely small amount of M-rated titles, but neither is our own landscape. And frankly I'd honestly say we'd be better off with this one, where there's only two choices for consoles, less exclusives all round, and computers reign supreme.
reply
> Microsoft owns Take-Two
> Sony and Nintendo become third party devs
> Gaming-focused phones with full actual games on them
> PC gaming still exists and M-rated games are likely thriving there
I unironically want this universe. I'd be willing to trade Halo for official Nintendo and Sony games on PC. I can emulate Nintendo and Sony's been putting their games on PC lately (huge props for that, but those two companies going third party is a huge win for those who hate anti-consumer exclusivity practices. Sure, the iVerse's gaming landscape isn't the most ideal with the likely small amount of M-rated titles, but neither is our own landscape. And frankly I'd honestly say we'd be better off with this one, where there's only two choices for consoles, less exclusives all round, and computers reign supreme.
reply
-anotherwesley7661
i screamed once at the turtleneck reveal and then again at the Asterius cameo, incredible.
(More seriously its really interesting to retroactively learn about apple's long history of puritanical censorship, which for some naive reason I'd assumed was a recent development? It's genuinely sort of chilling to think about them having -more- sway over developers. Also, hearing SJ say the word -Bungie- out loud sparked a deeply buried, primal memory from my childhood, of a time when for a brief instant I thought I might finally be exposed to one of these -computer games- that I'd heard so much about, before those dreams were brutally crushed for another two decades)
reply
i screamed once at the turtleneck reveal and then again at the Asterius cameo, incredible.
(More seriously its really interesting to retroactively learn about apple's long history of puritanical censorship, which for some naive reason I'd assumed was a recent development? It's genuinely sort of chilling to think about them having -more- sway over developers. Also, hearing SJ say the word -Bungie- out loud sparked a deeply buried, primal memory from my childhood, of a time when for a brief instant I thought I might finally be exposed to one of these -computer games- that I'd heard so much about, before those dreams were brutally crushed for another two decades)
reply
-romxxii
I love these what-if stories. One thing you didn't touch on: Apple delaying the iPhone would've caused a tremendous change in the current mobile phone market. We probably would've been stuck with flip phones instead of transitioning to chocolate bar-shaped handsets that are mostly screen, Blackberry and Nokia would've continued their respective dominances over the American and global market, Android would've become the -ecosystem- of choice as it would have no real competitors in 2008, we could've seen MS, Nokia, and BB all transition to Android instead of trying to develop their own mobile OS and fail.
Even a one year delay from 2007 to 2008 would've been monumental.
reply
I love these what-if stories. One thing you didn't touch on: Apple delaying the iPhone would've caused a tremendous change in the current mobile phone market. We probably would've been stuck with flip phones instead of transitioning to chocolate bar-shaped handsets that are mostly screen, Blackberry and Nokia would've continued their respective dominances over the American and global market, Android would've become the -ecosystem- of choice as it would have no real competitors in 2008, we could've seen MS, Nokia, and BB all transition to Android instead of trying to develop their own mobile OS and fail.
Even a one year delay from 2007 to 2008 would've been monumental.
reply
-stevenedwardyoung
Your whole theory hinges on a -Day one patch? - In 1998? Come on. At least try. The physical recall was the day one patch. There was no other way to effectively reach your customers. Software in the 20th century wasn-t internet linked and constantly changing. Even if you put a patch on your website, 90% of your customers would likely never download it. And those that did would likely be stuck with a download deep into the megabytes on 56k or slower modems, tying up their phone lines and jacking up phone bills.
Edit: also watched more of this trash. Yikes. I get that it-s a joke but yikes.
reply
Your whole theory hinges on a -Day one patch? - In 1998? Come on. At least try. The physical recall was the day one patch. There was no other way to effectively reach your customers. Software in the 20th century wasn-t internet linked and constantly changing. Even if you put a patch on your website, 90% of your customers would likely never download it. And those that did would likely be stuck with a download deep into the megabytes on 56k or slower modems, tying up their phone lines and jacking up phone bills.
Edit: also watched more of this trash. Yikes. I get that it-s a joke but yikes.
reply
-Dr. Quarex
It is extremely weird to hear that Steve Jobs got mad about losing games when he quite openly and disdainfully destroyed Apple as a gaming platform in the course of his tenure. Seriously, the Apple II was -THE- computer gaming platform alongside the Commodore 64 (this said as someone who had an Atari 800XL and wished he had both of the others too, and still had a lot of good things going for it, and then Steve decided to focus entirely on an elegant business mindset with the Macintosh and they never recovered even a fraction of the gaming space
reply
It is extremely weird to hear that Steve Jobs got mad about losing games when he quite openly and disdainfully destroyed Apple as a gaming platform in the course of his tenure. Seriously, the Apple II was -THE- computer gaming platform alongside the Commodore 64 (this said as someone who had an Atari 800XL and wished he had both of the others too, and still had a lot of good things going for it, and then Steve decided to focus entirely on an elegant business mindset with the Macintosh and they never recovered even a fraction of the gaming space
reply
-timothyclark58
I think the main thing this video doesn-t quite consider is the Japanese market, which Apple would have a much harder time in and Sony and Nintendo have a home team advantage with (although Sony actually suffered just as hard if not worse in the Japanese market during the ps3 launch. Plus, exclusives aren-t the only things that sell games, so I imagine the ps2 would have slightly more market share. So the Wii U and PS3 launches wouldn-t have been able to kill their respective companies so quickly, I think.
reply
I think the main thing this video doesn-t quite consider is the Japanese market, which Apple would have a much harder time in and Sony and Nintendo have a home team advantage with (although Sony actually suffered just as hard if not worse in the Japanese market during the ps3 launch. Plus, exclusives aren-t the only things that sell games, so I imagine the ps2 would have slightly more market share. So the Wii U and PS3 launches wouldn-t have been able to kill their respective companies so quickly, I think.
reply
polygon
I used to be a Mac fanboy in the 90-s before wholeheartedly switching to Windows. I remember we put our hopes on Bungie to break up the Windows and DOS gaming monopoly after Steve Jobs introduced Halo during the 1999 MacWorld and make MacOS as viable as a PC gaming platform instead of getting the occasional port. After Halo was announced to be an exclusive to Microsoft-s new game console, we called it _-The Great Halo Betrayal. -_
reply
I used to be a Mac fanboy in the 90-s before wholeheartedly switching to Windows. I remember we put our hopes on Bungie to break up the Windows and DOS gaming monopoly after Steve Jobs introduced Halo during the 1999 MacWorld and make MacOS as viable as a PC gaming platform instead of getting the occasional port. After Halo was announced to be an exclusive to Microsoft-s new game console, we called it _-The Great Halo Betrayal. -_
reply
-StephenYuan
If Halo had been a Mac exclusive it would have been another fps among a crowd of them. What made Halo what it was was how it brought the fps genre and multiplayer to consoles. It made a whole new set of experiences that were the domain of the few accessible to tens of millions of more people.
None of that would have happened on the Mac, which is kind of a dead-end as a gaming platform.
reply
If Halo had been a Mac exclusive it would have been another fps among a crowd of them. What made Halo what it was was how it brought the fps genre and multiplayer to consoles. It made a whole new set of experiences that were the domain of the few accessible to tens of millions of more people.
None of that would have happened on the Mac, which is kind of a dead-end as a gaming platform.
reply
-cinnamon_shakes
This was a great video, very engaging and informative, but I want to know why monkeys are the only animals listed that aren't allowed to publicly urinate. Does polygon have something against monkeys and piss? I've supported polygon for many years now, but I don't know if I can look past such a gross violation of piss rights.
reply
This was a great video, very engaging and informative, but I want to know why monkeys are the only animals listed that aren't allowed to publicly urinate. Does polygon have something against monkeys and piss? I've supported polygon for many years now, but I don't know if I can look past such a gross violation of piss rights.
reply
-redsilversnake
Do y'all just-not know that Chad is an incel meme? Literally the only reason it's so widespread right now is because of that meme format referencing a Chad as the apex of masculinity in incel ideology.
Please don't use memes if you don't know where they came from.
reply
Do y'all just-not know that Chad is an incel meme? Literally the only reason it's so widespread right now is because of that meme format referencing a Chad as the apex of masculinity in incel ideology.
Please don't use memes if you don't know where they came from.
reply
-TheWOLF1201
This is so clearly an apple fanboy pov. Without the Iphone, Apple would have most likely died off. To say any different timeline would result in Sony leaving the console market or Microsofts Rockstar Aqusition, just is unrealistic. Jeez
reply
This is so clearly an apple fanboy pov. Without the Iphone, Apple would have most likely died off. To say any different timeline would result in Sony leaving the console market or Microsofts Rockstar Aqusition, just is unrealistic. Jeez
reply
-DirkCjelli42
I must have lived in the iVerse because I remember seeing a desktop icon for Halo on the iMacs in my computer class in the year 2000. I never clicked on it because whenever we had free time everyone played Nanosaur. Nanosaur ruled.
reply
I must have lived in the iVerse because I remember seeing a desktop icon for Halo on the iMacs in my computer class in the year 2000. I never clicked on it because whenever we had free time everyone played Nanosaur. Nanosaur ruled.
reply
-Sicara91
I have a really hard time believing that Nintendo would die that easily. Sure you can play M rated on Nintendo consoles but it just means that it has something for everyone and there are parental controls if you want to block stuff.
reply
I have a really hard time believing that Nintendo would die that easily. Sure you can play M rated on Nintendo consoles but it just means that it has something for everyone and there are parental controls if you want to block stuff.
reply
-Schnyger
Can we do one of these where WoW either never came out or failed? This is mostly so I can imagine a world where StarCraft: Ghost was actually prioritized, finished, and released.
reply
Can we do one of these where WoW either never came out or failed? This is mostly so I can imagine a world where StarCraft: Ghost was actually prioritized, finished, and released.
reply
-caseysailor9301
Thought they were tryna kill Jenna by making her do two videos bacnk to back. This is such a wild change. What's next? Pat talking about architecture? hmmmmmm actually.
reply
Thought they were tryna kill Jenna by making her do two videos bacnk to back. This is such a wild change. What's next? Pat talking about architecture? hmmmmmm actually.
reply
-henrahmagix
I kept forgetting which parts were fiction and which were real, it was very hard to discern history that I missed out on, or history that never happened -
reply
I kept forgetting which parts were fiction and which were real, it was very hard to discern history that I missed out on, or history that never happened -
reply
-maxzakian6342
I like to think Clayton has always had the power to travel between alternate universes, but chooses to use his powers for Streaming content instead of war.
reply
I like to think Clayton has always had the power to travel between alternate universes, but chooses to use his powers for Streaming content instead of war.
reply
-Becktastic01
You look good in that black turtleneck, actually. I can-t wear black, it doesn-t suit me. the thought of apple getting halo is actually kinda scary.
reply
You look good in that black turtleneck, actually. I can-t wear black, it doesn-t suit me. the thought of apple getting halo is actually kinda scary.
reply
-maverickREAL
How did you even THINK of this? This probably needed a good long time, right? It's so thorough, and the Seaman revival is amazingly unpredictable.
reply
How did you even THINK of this? This probably needed a good long time, right? It's so thorough, and the Seaman revival is amazingly unpredictable.
reply
-Bimon1234567
This is a fun story but unfortunately a lot of the plot points only work if you assume that the USA is the only market for video games on Earth.
reply
This is a fun story but unfortunately a lot of the plot points only work if you assume that the USA is the only market for video games on Earth.
reply
-TheCommandoSnail
I don-t know if this is something this series would cover, but I-d love to learn about the world where Will Smith played Neo in The Matrix
reply
I don-t know if this is something this series would cover, but I-d love to learn about the world where Will Smith played Neo in The Matrix
reply
-TheWOLF1201
Everything was going great until you said Microsoft bought Rockstar lmao. To say GTA alone would push the PS2 out is kinda crazy too. -
reply
Everything was going great until you said Microsoft bought Rockstar lmao. To say GTA alone would push the PS2 out is kinda crazy too. -
reply
-Sompursone
7: 35 Continuity Error: the game-s name should be listed as -Halo: Fight Different-, since the name changed between universes.
reply
7: 35 Continuity Error: the game-s name should be listed as -Halo: Fight Different-, since the name changed between universes.
reply
-davicossamuel1911
Could you review the overcooked! Levels as a health inspector? It would a awesome to see all the heath violations
reply
Could you review the overcooked! Levels as a health inspector? It would a awesome to see all the heath violations
reply
-oneclumsysnep
Sure, Chief doesn't have a libido. However, Steve Jobs STILL hasn't confirmed whether or not the suit jacks him off.
reply
Sure, Chief doesn't have a libido. However, Steve Jobs STILL hasn't confirmed whether or not the suit jacks him off.
reply
polygon
I'm almost certain I saw a copy of -Halo: Fight Different- in the used game bin at that shady DVD store down the block.
reply
I'm almost certain I saw a copy of -Halo: Fight Different- in the used game bin at that shady DVD store down the block.
reply
-Danrarbc
Halo would have been just another Mac game - like the others Bungie made before. It wouldn't have moved the needle(r.
reply
Halo would have been just another Mac game - like the others Bungie made before. It wouldn't have moved the needle(r.
reply
-joshandersn
I was anticipating Epic Games to jump in and do something crazy but, this timeline is interesting nonetheless
reply
I was anticipating Epic Games to jump in and do something crazy but, this timeline is interesting nonetheless
reply
-novakian
This was literally 20minutes of just some dudes weird dream and im just listening with open ears. Why -
reply
This was literally 20minutes of just some dudes weird dream and im just listening with open ears. Why -
reply
Add a review, comment
Other channel videos
