Despite some early advocacy on the official HOMM•V discussion boards, including a lengthy account of HOMM’s proud Mac heritage by Richard Hallas (an InsideMacGames writer), the clearest statement we ever got out of Fabrice (the HOMM producer, not to be confused with a fabric softener) on the possibility of the Mac port was some B.S. about economic feasibility. However, it is what Fabrice didn’t say that was more interesting. Conspicuously absent from his response were the even worse B.S. arguments Mac gamers are used to hearing, including the engine being impossible to port to the Mac, ongoing support issues, or the death, burial, and decomposition of the Mac platform in general. Basically, all our hopes were pinned on Ubisoft’s relatively decent Mac support traditionally (including A-list franchises Rayman, Tom Clancy, and Shadowbane), the lack of pejorative and nasty anti-Mac rhetoric from Fabrice, and the apparent economic success of past HOMM ports.

Just when it seemed that our only hope was the unsatisfactory arrangement of dual-booting a new IntelMac into Windows Vista, Freeverse came through with The Miracle:

New York — January 12, 2006 — Freeverse announced today that it will be publishing Heroes of Might and Magic® V for the Macintosh, under exclusive worldwide license from Ubisoft. Currently in development for the PC by Nival Interactive, Heroes of Might and Magic V brings the popular and long running strategy franchise into a new era with cutting-edge technology and a breathtaking, fully 3D animated world. Heroes of Might and Magic V for the Macintosh will be available after the release of the PC game.

Yup, that actually happened.

Now, the inevitable question: when will the port be finished? The closest thing we have is a post by Hippieman from Freeverse HQ on the InsideMacGames forums:

I’ll be more than happy to keep everyone posted on the status of the game. Right now we are waiting on the final PC code so we can get to work on the Mac port.

At this point, the PC version has just entered an open-beta test after a few months closed. This is usually a good sign that gold master status is immanent, and word on the official HOMM•V boards is that product could be shipping by March.

Hopefully we can get a bit more information in the near future out of Freeverse and Hippieman. I’d love to hear how the deal with Ubisoft came about, and a little bit about what we can expect from the Mac port featurewise.

A Word to the Wise(TM) to close this post: if you value your dignity, don’t venture into the official HOMM•V boards. Hearing a Slovakian use broken english to complain about the wing flapping animation on an imaginary angel feels just lame, and there is plenty more mundane, nitpicking and wuss-ified than even that.