Click to enlarge

Cyan's full-3D return to the islands of MYST has been missing in action since December, and has been rumored to have been complete for some time. IMG's own investigations recently revealed that Mac realMYST indeed complete, and merely awaits publication by Ubi Soft. Now this situation has been officially confirmed, and a Cyan employee is encouraging those who are genuinely interested in seeing this title released for the Mac OS to e-mail Ubi Soft with your concerns.

Our own discussions with Cyan revealed that the reason Mac realMYST has yet to appear on store shelves has to do with Ubi Soft's concern over stealing any thunder from the release of Myst III: Exile for Mac and PC in the second week of May. Mac users are a strong fan base for the series, and it is easy to see that Ubi Soft would not want to confront Mac MYST fans with a dilemma when Myst III arrives by forcing them to choose between the retro-realMYST or the next installment in the series.

However, Ubi Soft is already catching a great deal of heat from MYST fans in Europe, who are understandably piqued at the fact that their localized versions of Myst III will not ship until September (see related article). Cyan employees, Mac fans to the end, are concerned that Mac realMYST may once again be put on the back burner while Ubi Soft deals with the Myst III release and the ire of European customers.

Alert IMG reader Martin Kuhn pointed us towards a discussion on the official realMYST forums in which Cyan employee Richard Watson expressed his concerns about the fate of Mac realMYST. Here is an excerpt from his post:

To the Mac users it may concern:

"What's the hold up with the Mac version of realMYST?"

The question hits my email box at least once or twice a day. I've tried to answer as honestly and completely as
possible without pointing any fingers. As time goes on, it's getting harder to do.

We've tried to keep an optimistic attitude, hoping that good news would be available "any time now." But it seems
that this view is no longer realistic. So I guess it's time to let y'all in on a little secret.

Cyan had not been the Mac version of realMYST's roadblock for several months. Some of you probably saw it
running on Rand's PowerBook back in December
.

We hoped to have it finished, polished, tested, and out the door by now. Unfortunately, Cyan is the developer not the
publisher, and the last two items in that list are not up to us. Having the publisher change hands twice in the last
six months hasn't helped. And frankly, each time the publisher has changed hands, the Mac version of realMYST
has been knocked down a few notches on their list of priorities as the release of Exile has become closer.

1) Be polite. As a Mac enthusiast, I'm pretty empathetic when a frustrated Mac user complains about a game they
want not being available for the Mac. The publisher is not likely to be as empathetic, and the tone of letters that I
get from some of you will do much more harm than good. :)

2) Be encouraging. Related to #1. Encourage them by pointing out that you intend to buy the product, not
demanding that realMYST for Mac is your Divine Right.

3) Only write if you will actually buy the product. Flooding them with requests when you don't intend to buy the
product only gives them ammo against publishing Macintosh versions of their products in the future.

Myst III Delayed Until Fall For Europe

Update On Mac realMYST

Past IMG Articles on realMYST

e-mail Myst3europe@ubisoft.fr

Richard Watson's Post on the realMYST Forums

Ubisoft

realMYST

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.