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Cross platform license?

laithlaith Member Posts: 4
in Archive (General Discussion)
Hi, I have a Mac and a Windows machine and I'd like to be able to play BG on both, do you offer a cross platform license so I can play on both?

Comments

  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    @laith Currently there is no cross platform license available.
  • laithlaith Member Posts: 4
    mlnevese said:

    @laith Currently there is no cross platform license available.

    That's unfortunate :( Do you know if it's developed for windows and bottled for OSX, or is it compiled per platform? If it's bottled I'd rather just buy the original platform version and bottle it myself/run it on a VM.

  • moody_magemoody_mage Member Posts: 2,054
    I *think* it is compiled per platform.
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    @laith It's a native OSX executable. It's not a Wine bottled application.
  • ambrennanambrennan Member Posts: 173
    Running a VM on multiple platforms is kinda against the spirit of the license though so I wouldn't go around announcing that on the developer forums.
  • laithlaith Member Posts: 4
    ambrennan said:

    Running a VM on multiple platforms is kinda against the spirit of the license though so I wouldn't go around announcing that on the developer forums.

    Not sure what to make of your comment! The license is an authorisation to use the software, if the logic of the software is the same, why should anybody be expected to pay twice so that they can play on either platform? It used to make sense to charge separately when games were built specifically for Windows and had to be revised and re-released for other platforms (I mean it took a lot of developer hours, right?), but we're long past those days.

    I'm assuming (perhaps optimistically) that these remakes were built to be cross platform- or at least with that purpose in mind. Distribution systems like Steam and Humble bundle license your software across all platform after you've paid just once. From my point of view (as a developer), I would encourage consumers to port/virtualise my software to their hearts content, provided they don't redistribute it under the same license. Of course I'm discussing the OSX/Windows issue- I'm not factoring in mobile platforms since that really is a different issue. I'm interested to hear your case for the warning you issued, I'm quite happy to be wrong if I've misrepresented the developers, it would be nice to hear from them if they're about.

    (PS Thanks so much for doing this, BG is my favourite game, I only stumbled upon this project by googling BG for my friend. Looking forward to playing it.)
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    There's no problem buying the game and running it in a VM. Before the OSX native version was released most Mac users in this forum did that.
  • laithlaith Member Posts: 4
    Sorry for prolonging this thread, but does anybody know if there will ever be a cross platform license (i.e. should I wait or just buy the windows one)?
  • ambrennanambrennan Member Posts: 173
    Not sure what to make of your comment! The license is an authorisation to use the software, if the logic of the software is the same, why should anybody be expected to pay twice so that they can play on either platform?
    You have a very naive view of software licenses - yes, it is true that some publishers allow you to play their games on multiple platforms but that is not universal and you are in no position to demand it; the most obvious example is of course Windows itself - you need one license per computer (or a site licence).

    Whether you think that that's fair deal is immaterial.
    There's no problem buying the game and running it in a VM. Before the OSX native version was released most Mac users in this forum did that.
    That's a different case because you are only using the game on one platform; unless it is explicitly stated otherwise I would assume that the license is for one platform only (PC or OSX or iPad of Android).
  • DeeDee Member Posts: 10,447
    We don't have a problem with people running the game on a virtual machine. If you want to exchange the game from one platform to the other we can do that for you; I will say that there are some minor differences between the Mac and Windows versions, particularly if you use a touchpad or trackpad, and so if you want to play the game on the mac without the use of Parallels or something similar (and Parallels is designed to do exactly what's being described here), then you can either buy a second copy or exchange your existing one.

    We aren't ruling out the possibility of a joint license, but at least for now our contract requires them to be listed as separate products.
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