Today at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference leading publisher Electronic Arts and renowned developer id Software announced improved support for the Mac platform. Much to the dismay of Mac fans, the platform has always taken a backseat to the traditional PC when it comes to gaming. Today, however, the Mac got a nice boost from coding genius and id co-founder John Carmack.

Carmack unveiled the developer's brand new game engine technology for Mac called Tech 5. "Since many developers at id have made the switch to the Mac for their personal use, we decided it was now time to bring our core game technology to OS X. After a rapid bring up of the codebase, we were delighted to find that the latest Macs are the fastest systems in our offices for some of the time consuming processing jobs and will be contributing to our development process in many useful ways," Carmack said.

id pointed out that its technology in the past has powered games with worldwide retail sales totaling more than $1 billion. The company claims that this new rendering technology, which comes with a new suite of tools, "practically eliminates the texture memory constraints typically placed on artists and designers and allows for the unique customization of the entire game world at the pixel level, delivering virtually unlimited visual fidelity." id said that Tech 5 will "power games that contain vast outdoor landscapes that are completely unique to the horizon, yet have indoor environments with unprecedented artistic detail."

Although this new technology was shown for the first time running on a Mac, id said that it will also be used for the PC and consoles like Xbox 360 and PS3—and developers and publishers will have the opportunity to license it from id.

As for EA, the publisher announced plans to bring a number of its hit titles to the Mac OS X platform for the first time, starting next month. This summer gamers can look forward to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Need for Speed Carbon, Battlefield 2142 and Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars. EA said that the games "are being ported to take advantage of the Mac's performance to run with stunning visuals and signature gameplay at blistering speeds."

"These four games are just the beginning," said Frank Gibeau, EA's Executive Vice President of Publishing. "We're excited to deliver key EA franchises such as Harry Potter, Madden Football and Need for Speed to Mac gamers." Later in the year, EA will also ship Madden NFL 08 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for Mac simultaneously with their respective releases on the other platforms.

"We're thrilled that the world's number one games company is making this major commitment to the Mac," added Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Game fans are going to love playing these new EA titles on a Mac."