CodblopsCall of Duty: Black Ops, the bestselling first-person shooter, is coming to the Mac this fall from Aspyr.

Pricing and system requirements have not been announced, but the game will include the full single-player campaign, multiplayer, and both co-op and single-player Zombie mode.

Aspyr Media, Inc., the leader in Mac game publishing, announced today that Activision Publishing, Inc.’s record-setting Call of Duty®: Black Ops will be coming to the Mac. Developed originally by award-winning studio Treyarch and brought to the Mac by Aspyr Media, the Mac version of the epic Call of Duty® blockbuster will be available on Macs worldwide in digital and boxed formats this fall.

Call of Duty: Black Ops takes players to conflicts across the globe as elite black operations forces fight in the deniable operations and secret wars that occurred under the veil of the Cold War. Featuring an adrenaline-pumping single-player campaign, out-of-this-world Zombies co-operative game mode, and an incredibly deep multiplayer experience, Call of Duty: Black Ops delivers the complete Call of Duty experience with amazing enhanced graphics, streaming texture technology, and superior lighting effects for the most immersive and cinematic action.

NewImage
Along with the Black Ops announcement, Aspyr has put Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, and Call of Duty 4 on sale for 50% off on the Mac App Store [Direct Link] and the GameAgent digital download store.

Top Rated Comments

Battlefield Fan Avatar
170 months ago
A year late...
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Nermal Avatar
170 months ago
I wonder if the latest games are true ports or Cider wrappers?

As far as I'm aware, Aspyr always does true ports.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vastoholic Avatar
170 months ago
I'm afraid the mac will always be late for big name games, but I rarely play on my mac anyway. I'm a console gamer.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Torrijos Avatar
170 months ago
The entire series is overpriced for their age and qualities.

I enjoyed the first two YEARS ago, but seeing them at those prices now is a bit ridiculous.

Then again I just checked on Steam and the windows versions are as expensive if not more, even if they have been there since late 2006 (6+ years old games should see a declining price). At least Steam offers packs (that are still overpriced).

I wonder if the latest games are true ports or Cider wrappers?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
smoketetsu Avatar
170 months ago
Cider is a type of executable "wrapper" that allows minimal code rewriting to be done on a Windows game so it can be played on the Mac.

Essentially it acts as an emulation/interpretation layer between OS X and the game. The game might make Direct X calls, for example, which is an API that is not present on the Mac, and the wrapper translates these in real time into the appropriate OpenGL calls.

In the past this sort of on the fly translation has led to poor performance of the games in question, and instability in some cases (the EvE Online cider-wrapped client was a nightmare).

A native port (a true port) is rewritten to act as a native app on the platform it is running on. Depending on how it was written in the first place this might be a lot of work - for example, if the game engine doesn't have a Mac native version, or the game relies extensively on Windows-exclusive APIs.

Native ports are faster, better, less resource intensive, tend to be less buggy and give an all-around better experience. They are harder work for the developers than simply wrapping up the windows executable and clicking "ship game and charge $60" though.
Two things here are not true. First, when someone wraps a game they do literally no code changes to the game itself. They just install it into a wrapper and whatever support files and change some settings. I know, I've wrapped many games myself.

Secondly it's not always true that a port is faster, better, less resource intensive, etc. it highly depends on the job the person doing the port. The quality of native ports varies drastically and some are actually worse in performance without delivering much if any benefits in terms of features compared to a wrapped port. Take a look at this article: http://portingteam.com/frontpage/_/community-articles/reviews/mac-gaming-is-native-always-better-r19

By the way it's true that Aspyr never does cider ports but that's no guarantee that this game will run well. First of all this game had performance problems even on windows so much that people in interviews asked if the sequel is going to be optimized for PC. Secondly... I've actually played this in a wrapper and it doesn't play as well as say.. Crysis does in the same kind of wrapper believe it or not. Unless Aspyr pulls some miracles out of their hat their port wont fare much better.

----------

"Aspyr Media, Inc., the leader in Mac game publishing"

Bah. Like to blow thier own trumpet much?! Even says on thier home page "The greatest mac publisher on earth, ever"

I've yet to buy any of thier games that make me think those are anywhere near true. Never quite seem to pull it off.

Still, good to see this game coming to the Mac... I enjoyed it and think those mac users who've not played it yet will too! (As longs it works and doesn't miss out multiplayer like they did with Company of Heroes :mad:)
It's true. They have delusions of grandeur over there. They've hardly brought any new games to the Mac these past two years .. Feral has been beating them in both number of titles and also the features that those titles have.

Feral games tend to have better controller support and they've even been shipping games with true multichannel surround sound support if one has the capability of setting that up in audio MIDI setup. Neither DNF or RAGE shipped with that kind of support.

Aspyr games have even been only supporting one type of gamepad ONLY (wired 360) with a built in driver that demands you don't have any third party driver installed but Feral games support over 30 different kinds and the number is slowly growing. They even support the wireless 360 pad with third party driver and the Sony PS3 pad with no driver installed.

If anything Feral deserves that title more than they do.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
flottenheimer Avatar
170 months ago
Fantastic news!
I've enjoyed playing Aspyr's excellent Mac conversion of Call of Duty 4 a whole lot (100+ hours).
Will buy.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
iphone 16 pro models 1

Here's How the iPhone 17 Pro Max Will Compare to the iPhone 17 Pro

Saturday July 5, 2025 1:00 pm PDT by
Apple should unveil the iPhone 17 series in September, and there might be one bigger difference between the Pro and Pro Max models this year. As always, the Pro Max model will be larger than the Pro model:iPhone 17 Pro: 6.3-inch display iPhone 17 Pro Max: 6.9-inch displayGiven the Pro Max is physically larger than the Pro, it has more internal space, allowing for a larger battery and...
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
apple silicon mac lineup 2024 feature purple m5

Apple's Upcoming Macs Listed in New Report

Thursday July 3, 2025 9:09 am PDT by
AppleInsider's Marko Zivkovic today shared a list of alleged identifiers for future Mac models, which should roll out over the next year or so. The report does not reveal anything too surprising, but it does serve as further evidence that Apple is seemingly working on new models of every Mac, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. Apple is...
Future M5 Chip Devices

M5 Chip Rumored to Debut in These Five Apple Products Later This Year

Friday July 4, 2025 9:14 am PDT by
Apple's next-generation M5 chip is expected to debut in five new products later this year, including the iPad Pro, Vision Pro, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac. M5 chips will reportedly be manufactured with TSMC's latest third-generation 3nm process, which should result in slight performance and power efficiency improvements over M4 chips fabricated with its second-generation 3nm process. ...