According to a recent post on the official North America League of Legends Forum, the on-going Mac beta testing for LoL on the North American Server will be shutdown on exactly 12:00 AM Pacific Standard Time. This would mean that LoL Mac users now only have less than 12 hours (at the time of writing) to play the game. Forum Community Manager Andrew “Tamat” Beegle was the one to spill the news to the public stating that terms between Riot Games and a third party to provide the service for Mac did not work out well. Tamat addressed that the development with LoL for Mac with the third party they were dealing with did not meet what he called “Riot Standards. Although Riot has not officially dismissed the possibility of a Mac version in the future, but it won’t be anytime soon.
His post reads, “We currently develop on the PC, but since the plan was for the Mac to share servers, we believed that a Mac version that was frequently unavailable was not up to Riot standards.” To help alleviate the foreseeable grief that Mac users might unleash, Riot is offering a full refund on all purchases made by Mac client testers and giving out freebies to those who wish to continue playing the game on PC. Riot will be giving the Mac Testers a code that will unlock the Champions Pack for the PC, which can only be redeemed if majority of a player’s log-ins were from the Mac client.
The original thread posted by Tamac can be found here http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=1185192
You will need an official Mac Beta Tester Account to Log-in and view the forums, so here is how his post reads.
Originally Posted by Tamat
Over the past 13 months we have been working with another company on a Mac version of LoL. We have been silent because both companies have been exploring every possible avenue to ensure the Mac version is up to Riot standards. So far we have been unable to ensure a consistent quality bar across platforms. At the heart of the issue is our rapid update cycle, where we make regular balance changes and content updates. We currently develop on the PC, but since the plan was for the Mac to share servers, we believed that a Mac version that was frequently unavailable was not up to Riot standards. For that reason we have severely limited the number of participants in Mac testing.
We are regretfully going to shut down the Mac Beta client indefinitely starting 12:00 AM PT on September 6, 2011. We realize our current approach regarding the Mac platform won’t guarantee the quality and frequent updates we deliver today on the PC and are expected by our player community. We will continue to investigate the opportunity to provide player access on the Mac Platform in the future that aligns with our service and content update standards. We are committed to building a solution that will work on the Mac in the long run, but it will take some time. Additionally, testers that have utilized the League of Legends store during the Beta can either continue playing the PC version of the game, or receive a full refund on RP purchases made (which would close out the account). Details of the refund program will be communicated to these players via email. As a result of this situation, Riot would like to give all active participants in the Mac beta a code that unlocks the Champions Pack, as a token of appreciation for the time they have dedicated to helping us evaluate the Mac client and our sincere apology for not being able to have the testing work out as originally planned. To qualify for the reward, you must have a majority of your logins come from the Mac client, and you must login to the Mac client and click on the Store button between Friday, September 2 and Tuesday, September 6. Rewards will be added to the accounts of verified testers by the end of September.
Rian Quenlin
It’s funny how they had the time to work on this but they still haven’t fixed issues for the colorblind and they turn around and dump the whole thing. Stay classy Riot.
Andreas
If you want to play games don’t buy a Mac.
Developers shouldn’t adjust their games to work on platforms that aren’t meant for this purpose.
Sure if it was a huge company like Valve, EA or Blizzard they would have the money and time to make everything but Riot really isn’t that big.
Lunedesang
I think this is totally stupid, to be honest I did the beta of that game on PC and then I changed for Mac. The thing is now that I have to buy a new PC if I want to play LoL. I never had any bugs or whatsoever on my Mac…
Thanks for sharing all theses informations anyway.