What if Halo had been a Mac exclusive? Versus: ALTERNATE HISTORY

It’s a little odd to think about now, but there was a time when “Mac gamer” was a legitimate label a person might apply to themselves. Bungie is the developer most revered among Apple enthusiasts. With titles such as Marathon And Myth, It eventually would release its games both on Windows PC and Mac, however.

Despite its multiplatform predilections, Bungie was still known as the premier Mac game developer well into the late 1990s, which is why Steve Jobs, of all people, got to reveal the first footage of Bungie’s HaloMacworld 1999: To the Public

It’s a surreal clip: The “iCEO,” complete with iconic black turtleneck, proudly introduces Jason Jones, Bungie’s co-founder, but not before hyping Halo as “one of the coolest I’ve ever seen!” Of course, HaloIt would not launch on Mac as a third person shooter like the one shown in this video clip. Instead, the game revolutionized first-person shooters on consoles and became the crown jewel of Microsoft’s Xbox. As they say, the rest is history.

However, what if it wasn’t?

What if, instead of Microsoft’s then-CEO, Steve Ballmer, buying Bungie … a Diverse Steve purchased the studio. The studio was purchased by Steve? Halo, Combat EvolvedMac gaming received the help it so desperately needed in 2001 thanks to, an iconic first-person shooter for consoles. Is there a better app for Xbox? How would an Apple-dominated industry in games look today?

In the video above, we’ve attempted to answer this “what if” in the latest episode of our alternate history series, Versus. The strange, new world in which we live is one where Waluigi is not censored. Teabagging is prohibited. And everyone loves the fishman that lives in their phones. It’s not hard to imagine this “iVerse.” All you have to do is … Think Different.