Update: Mac users with questions/concerns can contact support directly. Laughing Trendy has been on the Reddit forums to help mitigate some of the concerns.
Comment from discussion LaughingTrendy’s comment from discussion "STO Mac Client discontinued".
After years of lack-luster support and frequent update issues, Perfect World Entertainment announced this morning that they will be discontinuing support for the native Mac client for Star Trek Online. As of February 5th, all support for Mac users will effectively end.
In accordance with First Rule of Acquisition, Perfect World Entertainment has announced they will be refunding purchases and subscriptions purchased after October 1st 2015 – as Zen applied to your Arc account.
Mac users can still play the game through Windows emulators , unsupported by Cryptic Studios, assuming that the community will self-support the product moving forward.
Why?
At this point we can only speculate, but I’m fairly certain the reasoning behind the decision can be boiled down to cost.
Developing and maintaining software for multiple platforms can be ridiculously expensive. Given that the primary PC client is at best ‘functional for the majority of users’, with each new release the system has new bugs introduced while many years-old issues remain unaddressed. Tune in weekly to The SHOW and you’ll get an idea how frustrating the current bug issues can be for hard-core players.
It’s not hard to assume that since Delta Rising and the myriad list of issues plaguing Mac users, that the Mac community has been shrinking in size justifying this decision.
The Writing was on the Wall
This decision was neither sudden nor unexpected. Support for the Mac client was abysmal at best during the past 3 years, and very little was done to deal with testing – let alone supporting – the Mac with each new release. Subsequently users were left hanging unable to login or access the game through the Mac client for extended periods, with little to no follow-up by the team.
Ending Mac support isn’t limited to Perfect World.
Batman: Arkham Knight canceled for Mac/Linux. https://t.co/3UHpY7U1iD pic.twitter.com/r4XuedzzzI
— GameSpot (@gamespot) February 4, 2016
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Refunds in the form of Zen is an easy decision for the company, but it doesn’t really help the majority of users. Mac users can’t transition necessarily to another ‘Star Trek’ game, let alone suddenly develop an interest for another of Perfect Worlds titles that also isn’t supported on a Mac.
“Here’s a refund in Store Credit. So sorry / not sorry.”
The reality for Mac users is : Get a PC – or run an emulator – if you want to continue to play the game.
More Resources for the PC team?
Don’t hold your breath. There wasn’t much of a ‘Mac Team’ in the first place, so it’s unlikely that those resources (budget) will suddenly make life easier and less buggy for users on the PC.
Truly a disappointing day for the Star Trek Online community.
My Two Bits,
The Lootcritter
Original message:
http://www.arcgames.com/en/for…211294/mac-closure-notice
Hi Captains,
We wanted to come back to follow up on where we currently are with the Mac version of Star Trek Online. As some of you are aware, we had issues in the recent past that affected our players from launching the client and playing Star Trek Online. We were able to work with our partners to bring the game back up and deliver all the previously available promotions that were unattainable by those players.
Following these issues, we looked at our Mac support overall and determined that we cannot promise to deliver an experience on Mac that meets our expectations of quality. After heavy consideration, we have decided to end support for the Mac version of Star Trek Online on February 5th. No other version of Star Trek Online is impacted.
Here are some important notes as we shut down Mac support:
- The Mac client will be unavailable for download starting on February 5th.
- Anyone with an existing Mac client will be able to play, but the game will become permanently unavailable via our mac client by Spring of this year.
- We will be shutting off C-Store for all Mac users to prevent players from continuing to make purchases before it permanently shuts down.
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We will be processing reimbursements and refunds over the next few weeks.
- We will be canceling and refunding any active recurring subscriptions purchased between October 1, 2015 and today, including Lifetime Subscriptions. If a payment was made other than a credit card or Paypal, the value of the subscription will be reimbursed to your Arc Account Balance.
- We will be reimbursing any Zen that was purchased through Arc or Steam between October 1, 2015 and today to your Arc Account Balance.
- We will be reimbursing the value of any Packs purchased through Arc or Steam between October 1, 2015 and today to your Arc Account Balance.
For those looking to (edit) continue to play our game after we shut down the Mac client, we would recommend using any of the popular programs to simulate a windows environment on your Mac, including the free software Wine.
We appreciate all the Mac Captains who have flown through the galaxy with us since 2014.
Perfect World Entertainment
