If you've owned a Mac for as long as I have (20 years to be exact), you know that being a Mac gamer can be challenging at times. We've had our ups and downs over the years but recently, especially in the last few years, things have been looking pretty good for Mac gaming. Apple is selling a ton of iPods and Macs and game publishers are cranking out as many games as possible.

But as good as things have gotten, major bumps along the road have appeared. One that has crept up recently has been the discussion of many Mac gamers and developers alike. How bad is this bump? Well, let me put it this way. Today's second biggest threat to a healthy Mac gaming market is Havok (piracy, in case you were wondering, is the first), the physics game engine used by popular games such as Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, Halo 2, and oh yes, Half-Life 2. In at least a few cases, a few Mac ports have been shelved because of a lack of a Mac version of Havok. Ever wonder why Deus Ex 2 never made it to the Mac? Havok. To make matters worse, upcoming games such as Age of Empires III and HellGate and possibly dozens of other games will be using Havok.

It takes no genius to see that the Havok problem is now dire. So, what exactly is said problem? Why isn't Havok available for the Mac? As you might expect, it comes down to money. According to industry sources, the folks at Havok want a six figure dollar amount for Havok Mac. The issue, of course, is that there's no way any Mac game publisher could afford this, especially when you consider that the Mac publisher has to pay a PC publisher the rights for a game. Imagine having to pay $50,000 for the Mac rights to a title, then having to turn around and pay $150,000 just to have Havok on the Mac (my dollar figures are just examples, folks, I don't know the actual numbers).

Ok, now here's the worst part of it. According to my sources, the Havok code is already available on the Mac. That's right. It's pretty much ready to go. Havok just needs to get paid. The issue at hand, it seems, is the amount of money Havok wants for their precious physics code.

With the Mac gaining popularity, it seems to me that companies such as Havok and GameSpy are trying to take advantage of the situation by raising their prices to such astronomical levels that just don't make sense. Would you charge $100 to feed one dog or $5 each to feed 100?

But as we all know, man is not always rational, especially when it comes to money. Sure, we could just say, "man, those Havok guys are f'ing greedy", but I'm sure in their own little world, and in their own business sense, in order to have Havok on the Mac, they need...no...demand to hear that magical term: "return on investment."

But hey, the Mac is cool! You have to let us have Havok! Pfft, no way. Sympathy isn't going to work either. Havok is run by super smart mathematicians and PhD's who are in the business of calculating how much money they can make with their spiffy physics code. Can you blame them for trying?

Let us for argument's sake say that Havok won't budge on the price unless someone ponies up the big dough and pays Havok what they want. In today's Mac gaming market where piracy is rampant (well, on all platforms), a publisher like Aspyr can't afford to pay that kind of money for a physics engine. Hmm, ok, who else has gobs of money and billions of dollars in cash? How about Apple? Apple is interested in seeing more Mac gaming titles appear on the Mac, so why not have Apple pick up the bill? Certainly if Apple had thoughts of buying Bungie at one point for a few million dollars a few years back, then they can sure afford a paltry hundred grand to pay for Havok on the Mac.

Apple has been deeply involved in getting Havok on the Mac. How deep is something I'll leave up to your imagination. But Apple simply has no business paying for physics engines. This is not a purchase the Board of Directors is going to approve. "You want us to buy a physics engine so that someone like Aspyr can benefit from it?" As much as it might makes sense to you and I, Apple is not in the business of paying every 3rd party developer that comes along just for the sake of having them bring their tools to the Mac.

Some have argued that Havok is a flash in the pan and that it will eventually die and be replaced by some other physics engine. While that may eventually come true, Havok has certainly caught the eye of many big developers such as Valve and Bungie. The danger that Havok might be around for quite a while is there, and they don't look like the type that will just go away just because we wish them to go away.

Unfortunately, the burden falls on Mac game publishers such as Aspyr and MacSoft. They need to keep reminding the developers they work with that if they use Havok for the PC product, there's no way to do a Mac version. The burden also falls on PC developers. Take Ensemble Studios. Here's a company who has had every one of their games ported to the Mac. With Age of Empires III, that could change if Ensemble ends up using Havok in the final version of the game. You better believe that the PC developers know that there is no Mac version and we can only hope they find alternatives to Havok.

Of all the problems that face Mac gaming these days, it's incredible that middle-ware such as GameSpy and Havok are the ones causing the most problems. But in an industry where cutting-edge technology and eye candy can make such an amazing difference in a game, middle-ware is here to stay.

Is Mac gaming going to die because of Havok? Nah, no way. Sure, we will miss some of those games, but there will be others. And over time, things do tend to fix themselves, as evidenced by the recent release of America's Army 2.3 for the Mac. With a little pressure from the Mac and PC publishers, the Havok folks might just bend...they just might.

(Havok declined to provide comment for this article).

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