When Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the company's move to Intel processors, no segment of the Mac publishing industry gritted its teeth harder than Mac games publishers. While the move to the new architecture will bring about better compatibility with the Windows side -- since ever-increasing requirements on the Windows side mean that many current titles require relatively new Macs -- it also raises the issue of getting games to run in Rosetta, the emulator that will enable older Mac software to work on the new machines.

It also presents the specter of booting an Intel-based Mac into Windows, which some worry could kill Mac gaming as consumers turn to that OS rather than wait six months or more for a new Windows game to be ported to the Mac. In addition, WINE (WINE Is Not an Emulator), open source software that allows Linux users to run Windows software without having to reboot their computers, could appear for OS X, which means Mac users could conceivably run Windows games on their Intel Macs without rebooting. In fact, CodeWeavers has already announced that its CrossOver technology, which is based on WINE, will run without a hitch on the Intel Macs once they start shipping in a year.