∞ Apple's Games page a Mac App Store casualty

On Thursday Apple launched its Mac App Store. The company simultaneously took down a page from its Web site that’s been a destination to Mac gamers for more than a decade: its Games page.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]The Games page served up editorial content focused on gaming – reviews and first looks at major new games, a collection of links to Mac game news sources, links to new releases and information on Apple-related game technologies, such as iOS Game Center and game-capable new Macs.

Now, in its place, the URL for the Apple games page returns a search query that links to the iOS and Mac App Stores and Game Center, recent game releases available for purchase through the online Apple Store and other relevant results on Apple’s support pages and elsewhere.

The removal of Apple’s Games page shouldn’t be a huge surprise – Apple’s vice president of worldwide developer relations, Ron Okamoto, previously told Mac developers that Apple plans to stop offering downloads on its Mac OS X Downloads page from circulation once the Mac App Store was up and running.