I’m not particularly fond of macOS but I do think it’s undeniable that it’s very popular, it’s the second most popular desktop OS, and, as a fan of PC gaming, I’m always enthusiastic about PC games being available for multiple OSs. I’ve already spoken about how the push that we’re seeing from Valve and other companies to make Linux more capable for gaming has me excited and I was hoping that recent events would lead to a similar level of excitement for Mac gaming. However, Apple are clearly making mistakes and I thought I’d take a look at several of the problems Apple will face if it continues on its current Mac gaming path.
Mac gaming hasn’t always been in this state. Apple originally had a game included in their, then, new Macintosh computer in 1984 called “Puzzle“, an electronic version of the 15 puzzle. As time went on, more and more games were slowly released for Mac systems with a few particularly notable examples being Dark Castle, Myst, SimCity and the Marathon trilogy. However, the problem Apple has always had is that they have an unfortunate distaste for video games. Apple were apparently afraid of their product being labelled a “home computer” since they disliked the association with gaming. Even as late as the mid-00s, Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of the Valve Corporation, stated with regards to Apple “we have this pattern with Apple, where we meet with them, people there go “wow, gaming is incredibly important, we should do something with gaming”. And then we’ll say, “OK, here are three things you could do to make that better”, and then they say OK, and then we never see them again. And then a year later, a new group of people show up, who apparently have no idea that the last group of people were there, and never follow though on anything.“
It seems that Apple have run into a similar situation as they have made a half-hearted push to make Mac gaming more viable. During their 2022 Worldwide Developers Conference, they announced MetalFX Upscaling to improve game performance and that several games such as Grid Legends, No Man’s Sky and, most notably, Resident Evil Village were coming out for macOS. This seemed like Apple were finally taking PC gaming seriously but it seems that they are still making some major errors.
The first issue cropped up with the release of Resident Evil Village for Mac. Apple has always been very controlling when it comes to the release of apps on their storefronts and, upon its release, it immediately became clear that the Mac version of Resident Evil Village has been exclusively released on the Mac App Store. I get that Apple want to be able to collect a share from the sales of games on their platform but I think this current strategy is damaging to their long-term interests. Their priority at the moment should be to increase the number of people using macOS to play video games and locking a game, particularly one that is meant to show the power of both the hardware and software of the system, behind one store is going to limit its visibility. Various PC gaming storefronts such as Steam, GOG and Epic are compatible with Mac and feature a range of games, though limited compared to their offerings for Windows users, available for Mac users to play. Apple can and should be releasing PC games through their own store but they should not, at the very least at this stage, be preventing Mac ports from appearing on other stores if they hope to convince people that Mac gaming is viable.
Additionally, if Apple want to ever have a chance of convincing gamers to ditch Windows for Mac, they’re going to have to become far more proactive in increasing the number of games compatible with macOS. Looking at Valve’s example, their development of a compatibility layer called “Proton“, which helps to run games developed for Windows on Linux, has been instrumental in allowing people to even consider Linux as a possibility for PC gaming. We have ended up in the odd situation where there are more games that can run on Linux than macOS despite the fact that Linux Steam users are only half as numerous as Mac Steam users! Now I don’t know if it’s even possible for Apple to create a macOS equivalent to Proton but, in the event that they can’t, they should be aggressively encouraging most modern PC developers to port all of their content to Mac. Otherwise, Mac will continue to be ignored as a viable gaming platform by gamers as they will not want their choices of what games to play to be limited.
Even though I don’t use or intend to use macOS, I still want to see Mac gaming grow and succeed as I believe greater competition in the desktop OS market and access to more potential consumers of PC games is only a good thing. However, Apple need to readjust their current strategy in order to convince more people to give macOS a chance and to grow the gaming market on the platform. Let me know your thoughts on my argument that Apple needs to do better for Mac gaming, whether you agree or disagree, what your thoughts are on the current state of Mac gaming, if you have any other ideas on how Apple could encourage more developers and consumers to use macOS for gaming and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.