Mass piracy is threatening the Mac games industry, meaning some titles may never make it to the platform, industry insiders have warned. This shocking news emerged after MacSoft"s introduction of a v.1.3 update for Halo in January. Along with bug-fixes and gameplay improvements this means Halo will check a Mac"s CD drive to ensure that a legitimate copy of the game is present before it lets you play. MacSoft didn"t want to do this, the company said, but had to as more copies of the title were being stolen than sold.
MacSoft president Peter Tamte said: "Our wake-up call was when we physically tracked more people stealing Mac Halo online than buying it, even though we can physically track fewer than ten per cent of downloads. This dragged us kicking and screaming into copy protection. Unfortunately, all the methods we can employ need the CD in the drive. We were dragged into this," he said.