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I backed a game a while ago on Kickstarter with native support for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Several weeks ago they sent us a message saying they were ditching

I backed a game a while ago on Kickstarter with native support for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Several weeks ago they sent us a message saying they were ditching the MacOS version due the architecture change. I wonder how it'll affect the whole ecosystem. I think it'll end being like an iOS on steroids.

mattgreenrocks 6y ago
I think their hope is that the Mac's anemic game ecosystem will be filled in by iOS games which run natively. I hope they're right, and I say that as someone who has a gaming PC and still hasn't found many quality core games on iOS.
- acomjean 6y ago
  The fact that they say it will run the iOS version of "among us" and HBO max, means I think your right.
aaomidi 6y ago
How hard would it be to release an ARM version? Also out of curiosity, what game was it?
- Macha 6y ago
  For a traditional PC/console game, it's likely porting to Metal is the bigger issue.
- Darmody 6y ago
  Last Epoch. It's made by an indie studio which doesn't have the resources to port a game like this to a ARM. They also use a lot of third party software so it's not even up to them.
- qayxc 6y ago
  > How hard would it be to release an ARM version? Depends on the engine the game uses. Games built on top of frameworks like Unity, Unreal Engine and the like get platform support basically "for free" as long as the framework in question supports the target platform. Any in-house developed engine might either depend on 3rd party support (e.g. libraries like SFML[1]) or need to be recompiled for the new platform. Depending on architectural differences, optimisation and asset loading (in case endianness[2] differs) needs to be altered accordingly. The main reason for a decision to cancel a release would be time and effort vs expected sales. The Mac market will be fragmented into Intel and Apple Silicon from now on and every "Mac version" would really be two separate ports (complete with separate QA and optimisation). An independent studio might just not have the resources and experience to tackle this and a port that doesn't sell can effectively be worse than not releasing on a platform. edit: [1] https://www.sfml-dev.org https://www.sfml-dev.org [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness
ogre_codes 6y ago
Considering most developers who have ported from x86 to MacOS have had few issues, it seems like the ecosystem will be just fine. Also, all the big pro software developers—Adobe, Microsoft, Apple—are onboard. Hard to say what this will do to gaming on MacOS, but gaming has never been the big strength of MacOS.
- fastball 6y ago
  Gaming isn't strong on MacOS but it is fairly strong on Mac if you're dual-booting windows.
deleted 6y ago
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mattgreenrocks 6y ago

I think their hope is that the Mac's anemic game ecosystem will be filled in by iOS games which run natively. I hope they're right, and I say that as someone who has a gaming PC and still hasn't found many quality core games on iOS.

acomjean 6y ago
The fact that they say it will run the iOS version of "among us" and HBO max, means I think your right.

aaomidi 6y ago

How hard would it be to release an ARM version? Also out of curiosity, what game was it?

Macha 6y ago
For a traditional PC/console game, it's likely porting to Metal is the bigger issue.
Darmody 6y ago
Last Epoch. It's made by an indie studio which doesn't have the resources to port a game like this to a ARM. They also use a lot of third party software so it's not even up to them.
qayxc 6y ago
> How hard would it be to release an ARM version? Depends on the engine the game uses. Games built on top of frameworks like Unity, Unreal Engine and the like get platform support basically "for free" as long as the framework in question supports the target platform. Any in-house developed engine might either depend on 3rd party support (e.g. libraries like SFML[1]) or need to be recompiled for the new platform. Depending on architectural differences, optimisation and asset loading (in case endianness[2] differs) needs to be altered accordingly. The main reason for a decision to cancel a release would be time and effort vs expected sales. The Mac market will be fragmented into Intel and Apple Silicon from now on and every "Mac version" would really be two separate ports (complete with separate QA and optimisation). An independent studio might just not have the resources and experience to tackle this and a port that doesn't sell can effectively be worse than not releasing on a platform. edit: [1] https://www.sfml-dev.org https://www.sfml-dev.org [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness

ogre_codes 6y ago

Considering most developers who have ported from x86 to MacOS have had few issues, it seems like the ecosystem will be just fine. Also, all the big pro software developers—Adobe, Microsoft, Apple—are onboard. Hard to say what this will do to gaming on MacOS, but gaming has never been the big strength of MacOS.

fastball 6y ago
Gaming isn't strong on MacOS but it is fairly strong on Mac if you're dual-booting windows.

deleted 6y ago

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