It’s a good point, but even with abstraction, don’t you think there’s a certain amount of effort to hit “generic performance parameter” on any given OS? The Mac native version of Battle.net is a .app package, and I’m assuming they did that for speed/stability considerations for Hearthstone/WoW/HotS.
Like with PS5 in your example, clearly their product manager was able to argue that allocating $X IR&D to supporting PS5 would result in a solid NPV/ROI, and were unable to create a similar substantiating argument for MacOS. My gut tells me there’s like 3+ man-months of “official” effort and Activision/Blizzard said nah.
But also, software “discipline” has improved over the years, surprised the hell out of me actually, but writing abstracted code means they should have a near path to bringing it up on different platforms, maybe not at launch, but a quarter or so later I don’t see a real issue.
I’m saying it should be a stretch goal for some sprint somewhere and once the game is launched they should go back and revisit.
It isn’t an industry run by stereotypical unbathed neckbeards anymore, now there’s professional managers and armies of tweens to do their bidding.
It’s a good point, but even with abstraction, don’t you think there’s a certain amount of effort to hit “generic performance parameter” on any given OS? The Mac native version of Battle.net is a .app package, and I’m assuming they did that for speed/stability considerations for Hearthstone/WoW/HotS.
Like with PS5 in your example, clearly their product manager was able to argue that allocating $X IR&D to supporting PS5 would result in a solid NPV/ROI, and were unable to create a similar substantiating argument for MacOS. My gut tells me there’s like 3+ man-months of “official” effort and Activision/Blizzard said nah.
Yes, you’re absolutely right.
But also, software “discipline” has improved over the years, surprised the hell out of me actually, but writing abstracted code means they should have a near path to bringing it up on different platforms, maybe not at launch, but a quarter or so later I don’t see a real issue.
I’m saying it should be a stretch goal for some sprint somewhere and once the game is launched they should go back and revisit.
It isn’t an industry run by stereotypical unbathed neckbeards anymore, now there’s professional managers and armies of tweens to do their bidding.
I miss the old days.