Looks like another company (this time Square Enix) did not learn from Batman AK PC controversy these last few weeks.
Eurogamer -> FFXIV's Mac Version PC got pulled from sales until it's fixed b/c of technical issues galore."Because of this situation, many of you purchased a product which your Mac hardware could not run at even the minimum system requirements, resulting in insufficient performance, for which many of you have expressed your dissatisfaction. Had we provided accurate information beforehand, I know many of you would not have purchased the Mac version, which is why we decided to offer full refunds. Once again, I apologise."
Yoshida goes on to explain why the Mac version ran into problems, and why the Mac version performs poorly compared to the Windows PC version. In short, it's to do with the difference between the DirectX and OpenGL APIs, and the decisions the development team made while making the game.
Final Fantasy 14 uses middleware to convert Windows' DirectX drawing method into OpenGL on Mac systems, rather than having native OpenGL. Yoshida admitted this decision was about "development cost".
"Very few games are sold for Mac systems," he said, "and the prevailing opinion is that the majority of Mac users aren't interested in games. This results in an extremely high risk for development."
But because of the complexity of the game, even if Square Enix had developed the Mac version in native OpenGL, "it would be exceedingly difficult to provide a level of performance that matched that of a system using DirectX".
Yoshida promised the development team will continue to work on updates for the Mac version in a bid to improve performance.
"With the adoption of DirectX11 for Mac, and the replacement of OpenGL with a new graphics API in Apple's next OS, the fundamental gap in current performance issues may soon be eliminated," Yoshida said.
