Amazon casual game download service lacks Mac support

Amazon.com has quietly launched a new Game Downloads Web site, where users can purchase and download more than 600 casual video games priced at $9.99 or less. For the moment, though, Mac users are excluded from the fun.

It’s the latest effort from Amazon.com to offer more digital content for download. The company has seen success with its MP3 store, where users can download music without any DRM restrictions for Macs and PCs, iPods and other portable media players; Amazon also offers e-books compatible with its Kindle reader and other content.

The Game Downloads site is described as a beta version, specifically. As such, it is “a project or process that is being tested,” according to Amazon, which said that it will be testing different features and gathering input from users about how to develop the new service.

The Game Downloads section sports hundreds of popular casual games available for download from other casual game portals, and in some cases also available for sale in brick and mortar retail stores.

Unlike Amazon.com’s MP3 files, which eschew any sort of digital rights management technology, the games available for download from the Game Downloads service do require activation, through the use of a product key. A Windows-based “Amazon Games & Software Downloader” is also required to download and install the software; it’s compatible with Windows XP and Vista.

In a FAQ posted to the Amazon.com Web site, the company indicates that it is “currently working on adding software titles to the Games & Software Downloads store and developing a version of the Amazon Games & Software Downloader that will be compatible with Mac OS. The exact date for when Mac OS compatible products will be available is unknown at this time”
via macworld