Mac and PC logistics

[Dingo Games]

I don't think this has been discussed before. I am trying to sell my game for both Windows and Mac. There are a few issues that I have run into and I’m not sure what the best way is to resolve them.

What is the best way to set up your own website? Some websites have a completely separate Mac and Windows section to their site. Other sites have four buttons: “Download Mac”, “Download PC”, “Buy Mac”, and “Buy PC”. I think it would be best to have a separate Mac and Windows section because it provides a less cluttered interface. I like the way that phelios.com does it. When you go to www.phelios.com you automatically get redirected to either www.phelios.com/pc or www.phelios.com/mac. This way the users don’t even have to think about it (unless for some reason they are using a mac to download pc products or vise versa, in which case they will get sent to the wrong site).

The other issue I have come across is setting up my product on download sites and registration services. These sites usually have a list of checkboxes – e.g. Windows 95, Windows XP, Mac. My product is available for Windows and Mac so I check both boxes. But this doesn’t really work because you need a separate download for Mac and Windows. So I think the best way to do it is to set up two different products entirely and append something to there names, call them “Product Name – PC” and “Product Name – Mac”.

One other small thing I was thinking about (which probably doesn’t matter). Which words should I append to the name. For Mac it seems clear to do “Product Name – Mac” because everyone knows what this means. But for Windows version what is most clear “Product Name – Windows”, “Product Name – Win”, “Product Name – PC”, or just “Product Name”. Keeping in mind these are going to be the names that people see on download sites.

Does anyone have any thoughts on these issues? This stuff probably doesn’t matter very much but it still needs to get done. I’m just wondering if I have overlooked anything obvious.

[ggambett]

Try these links and see what they do :

http://www.mysterystudio.com

http://www.mysterystudio.com/download.php?id=bbb

http://www.mysterystudio.com/download.php?id=bbb&plat=win32

[arcadetown]

We've made it as seemless as possible for users by auto detecting user-agent and displaying pc or mac version of site and providing appropriate downloads and product.

Home page on PC (http://www.arcadetown.com)
Home page on mac (mac users see this) (http://www.arcadetown.com?ostype=mac)

Example PC/Mac combo title (http://www.arcadetown.com/bloxforever/index.asp) Note if using a mac the download and order screens auto deliver mac version.

We're pretty happy with it plus mac sales picking up steam. If you guys have some good pc/mac combo titles or even mac only titles would love to see them.

[Hamumu]

It just occurred to me right now... why can't the customer download either/both PC or Mac versions? Why do you all sell them as separate entities? I'm having my games ported to mac and one good reason to keep them separate is that I will have to pay a large chunk of any Mac sales to porting people, but I wonder what will happen when a customer says "Hey, I bought the PC version, can I get a Mac download too?" It's hard to come up with a legitimate reason why they should have to pay twice.

[arcadetown]

Good question and something that happens so rarely that can be handled via simple support message. We like to force the customer into the correct choice for simplicity's sake. Surprising how many (old ladies typically) that don't have a clue what pc versus mac version means.

[Evak]

I'd look at garage games. Their biggest strength is their marketing and commercial games industry experience and they sell games cross platform.

[Diodor Bitan]

It's hard to come up with a legitimate reason why they should have to pay twice.

They have to pay twice when they install the same product on two different Windows boxes.

[Dan MacDonald]

Actually there are a number of things the GarageGames people don't like about their own site. That said it's a pretty good one. I've herd that mac users don't l ike having to sift through PC titles to find mac ones. They'd just prefer to only see the mac stuff.

[arcadetown]

I've herd that mac users don't l ike having to sift through PC titles to find mac ones. They'd just prefer to only see the mac stuff.
Yup. All of our pages are mac friendly which means when browsing the categories mac users only see mac playable titles. Only trick left is figuring out the manually selected games shown on our home page.

btw - at one time we had a drop down selection where users could override our user-agent auto detection and purchase game for a different platform. Some users didn't get it and purchased the wrong version. One reason why why we auto forced it.

[Ryan Clark]

I actually had a big problem with a website assuming I wanted a Mac download, simply because I was browsing from a Mac.

I was at home for Christmas, so I was using my iBook... I wanted to buy a game for my dad for his Christmas present, but he uses Windows. When I went to the website to buy the game, it persisted in giving me the Mac version, and I couldn't find any way to get around it! Eventually I had to borrow someone else's Windows machine, and their burner, to download and burn the game so that I could give it to my dad on Christmas.

Anyway, the moral of the story is: If you have your website auto-detect the user's platform, make sure there's still a way for them to specify that they wish to download versions for other platforms! Most customers will not be as determined as I was, and will likely just give up if they can't find a way to get the version they want.

[Sillysoft]

I have my product available for mac and pc. When a user buys it they get a registration code that will work on both macs and pc. This allows me to only need one Buy page that everyone goes through. Then I do have separate links to download for each platform. I display them as little OS icons that lead directly to the download, along with a big Download button that leads to a separate page where all the downloads can be gotten. Basically I am treating it like the cross-platform product it is (logical coder view?). This does have benefits, like it ensures that users know it's cross-platform so they can tell their friends about it regardless of the OS they use. I think this is important to help the spread of a multiplayer game. Check out the Lux page (http://sillysoft.net/lux/) to see how I arrange things as another datapoint of possibility.

[Hamumu]

What I was just thinking was to put both on the same page, then use the OS-checking techniques the other guys use LATER - so if they click on the Mac download button, but the OS check says they're on Windows, I can pop up a javascript warning. They can still download it, but they can't say I didn't warn them. I think that sounds like the best solution (although for the moment, with only one product working on the Mac, I'm just gonna keep it as a totally separate product). Provides the ability to get what you want, and lets you know if you're grabbing the wrong thing.

[Red Marble Games]

I also wonder whether you aren't better off using one set of pages to improve your ranking in search engines. One of my frustrations, as a Mac-only site, is that people who also sell Windows games get better traffic, more external links, etc., so that it's tougher to place well in the rankings. Maybe the auto-detect approach doesn't affect things, I don't know, but it might be a consideration.