Destineer Secures USD$12 Million, Promises More Mac Games

In a time when many game publishers and studios are taking a wait and see approach to Mac games since Apple's Boot Camp software was released, Destineer has announced that it has secured USD$12 Million in private-equity investment, which will help enable the gamemaker and publisher to continue development of Macintosh-native games.

In an interview with Macworld's Peter Cohen, Destineer's president Peter Tamte explains how they are in a unique position to make profit since they are both game developer and publisher.

In a traditional game industry setup, the developer creates the game and gives away a huge chunk of revenue to the publisher in order to get their game on store shelves publishers often keep 80 percent of the revenue...

Destineer also re-affirmed that the Mac remains a pillar of their business, and gamers can expect them to continue to not only bring the latest hits from the PC world to Mac, but also bring more original releases to market.

"The MacSoft business has been a pillar of our organization since we incorporated in 2001, said Tamte. It has provided us with stable and growing profits. And weve turned that cash into product development for our core technologies thats being used now to create games for a whole bunch of platforms, including simultaneous Mac releases.

This doesnt mean that MacSoft will stop porting high-profile Mac games, said Tamte, but he said that gamers will see a shift in Destineers portfolio from licensed titles to original titles.

Destineer is the parent company of MacSoft and Bold, which have brought hit titles such as Halo: Combat Evolved and Zoo Tycoon 2 to Mac. Destineer has also recently developed an original title, Close Combat: First to Fight, which saw a simultaneous release for PC and Mac.