Zmonk’s Game Cage:
An interview with Peter Tamte

By Zmonk (zmonkey@macedition.com), 21 August 2000

[Ed. Note: This article has been corrected. We previously described Mr. Tamte’s position at Apple as ‘Games Evangelist’ when he was actually ‘Senior Director of Worldwide Consumer Marketing’. We apologize for the error.]

There are plenty of luminaries in the game industry. Certain names immediately spring to mind – Chris Roberts, John Carmack, Sid Meier, and John Romero, to name just a few. Mac gamers know their names, even if they don’t have access to all the games they’ve made. On the Mac side of the fence, the star factor isn’t so much of a big deal. We seem to have more “quiet achievers”.

Still, there are those who have made it their careers to cultivate and promote games on the Mac. Peter Tamte is one of them. He’s worked for Apple as Senior Director of Worldwide Consumer Marketing, helped start MacSoft, and most recently was Vice President of Publishing at Bungie. If there is anyone who has been there in the Mac game industry, Peter Tamte is it.

At Macworld Expo New York 2000 during Steve Job’s keynote presentation, Bungie’s startling revelation that they were going to be bringing Halo to the Mac after all (don’t say you weren’t warned), almost overshadowed the news that Peter Tamte was starting a company to “bring Microsoft’s entire game line to the Mac.” Our ears pricked up at this newsworthy announcement, so we got on the MonkeyLine to find out more about it. After some rooting around, we did manage to contact the elusive Mr. Tamte for this short email interview:

Could you give us a little background on how you got into the game industry in the first place?

My first attempt to get into the games industry was when I was in high school. I began writing a game in assembly language on my Apple II+. However, I was then offered a job to write educational and productivity software for a software company, so I gave up on the game. Many years later, I started MacSoft after I was director of sales and marketing for The WizardWorks Group because we saw a huge opportunity to bring quality games and home productivity to the Mac at lower prices. The strategy worked well.

What was the first computer game you remember playing?

Well, I played Pong and some sports games on the early consoles and OregonTrail on my school’s teletype. But, the games I remember best were the ones I played on my Apple II, such as Sneakers, Falcon, and my favorite – Castle Wolfenstein.

What are your favorite games? Why are they appealing to you?

It would probably be a toss-up between the original Command & Conquer, Myth II, Civilization II, or Doom II. As you can see, I tend to like games with a mixture of action and strategy.

What have you been playing lately?

The ones I’ve been playing the most on my PC lately are Age of Empires II and Rogue Spear. Also, I just picked up Shogun, but haven’t had time to play it yet. On my Mac, I’ve been playing Railroad Tycoon II and Falcon 4. Some of these games are a few months old, but they are the ones I’m still playing. I’ve tossed out quite a few other Windows games I’ve bought recently. They’re not as good as Age of Empires II and Rogue Spear.

What’s the mission of the new company?

The primary mission of the company will be to create and market Internet-focused, culturally-significant games.

Could you give us a little background on how the idea to start this company came about?

Very few games makers right now are really taking advantage of the power of interactivity to deliver truly compelling entertainment that appeals to broad audiences of people. Most games now are only about the adrenaline rush. I want to create games that offer plenty of adrenaline, but also deliver an experience much deeper than this.

Will the new company be publishing the games, or will Microsoft remain the publisher? How will this work?

One very important component of the company’s strategy is to bring Microsoft’s key games to the Mac. Age of Empires II is an excellent example of a game that offers both an adrenaline rush, as well as a deeper experience. Microsoft is now releasing many of the industry’s most important games, and they have an incredible lineup ahead.

My new company will convert Age of Empires II, as well as other Microsoft games, to the Mac and handle all of the publishing and marketing as well. Microsoft’s role is as a licensor of this content.

How closely is Apple involved in the new company?

Many of Apple’s senior management have expressed their strong support for this initiative. I’m hoping there will be a lot of ways that Apple can help in the future.

Do you have a name in mind?

Not yet, but I’m working on it.

Who will be funding the company? Microsoft? Apple? Bungie? All three?

Because of my experiences building a number of businesses, I now have access to more than enough financial resources to fund the company for the foreseeable future.

Microsoft publishes a lot of games. What does “bringing Microsoft’s line of games to the Mac” mean? Currently shipping games, future games, top sellers, or some combination?

We will be bringing the Microsoft games to the Mac that I believe to be most important to Mac users – and shipping these as simultaneously with the Windows platform as possible. Although there are some titles that have already shipped on other platforms, such as Age of Empires II, most of our focus will be on shipping near-simultaneously with the Windows platform. Two of the three games we’ve announced so far will have simultaneous Mac and Windows development.

Will efforts be made to ship Windows and Mac versions at the same time, or will Mac users have to wait the traditional six months for their copies of a title?

As much as possible, we’re going to try to be simultaneous – or near-simultaneous – with Windows.

Are you going to work with developers to implement “platform agnostic” development systems so that Mac versions can be created with a minimum of fuss?

It’s too early to know.

Will you just concentrate on Microsoft games, or will there be any new title development going on under the new company’s label?

We will definitely be doing original content, for multiple platforms, as well.

What about DirectX versus OpenGL? For a lot of Microsoft’s games, this has got to be a consideration. Is the philosophy going to be one of “whatever works best/is easiest” or will Microsoft be pushing some form of DirectX for the Mac?

It will be whatever works best.

Will you be developing for Mac OS X or for the Classic environment?

Both.

What do you see the computer game landscape looking like in five years’ time, and do you see platform choice being as relevant as it is today?

There will be three categories, and each one will be strong:

• Certain game franchises will always be tied to just one platform – for example Mario and Nintendo or Sonic and Sega.
• Certain games will have a single initial-release platform followed up by compatibility with multiple platforms later.
• Other games will be released on multiple platforms concurrently.

As for the 64-million-dollar question of what Apple needs to do more of to encourage game developers to code for the Mac? Improved Game Sprockets? OpenGL? DirectX (shudder)? Peter Tamte thinks along much more pragmatic lines:

Keep selling more and more computers.

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