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The simple answer is that Apple wants a 30% cut of all games that can run on a Mac. Since that's harder to do without a huge backlash if they restrict non-Mac S

The simple answer is that Apple wants a 30% cut of all games that can run on a Mac. Since that's harder to do without a huge backlash if they restrict non-Mac Store apps and games from running on Macs, they just neglect it and do the bare minimum to cut costs on anything graphics related, i.e have the same APIs, software and drivers(Metal) that they already have on iOS and running on very similar Apple Silicon on mobile. Pushing game devs to use Metal provides Apple valuable lock-in. They don't think about providing extra value to the Mac users since they already got their money from the high margin hardware. It's their way or the highway. It's sad because Jobs used to have game devs launch games that ran on the Mac during WWDC presentations. Maybe when Apple was doing badly financially it became a smaller priority. I'd like to think that if Jobs was around after Apple hit $1T market cap he'd have prioritized proving more value for Mac users with supporting gaming, but with a COO like Tim Cook at the helm(just like MS under Ballmer) it feels like it won't happen. It's nice to have technology/engineer CEOs that like to build technology for its sake instead of only looking for more money like MBA CEOs do. Especially technology companies sitting on 200 billion dollars in cash.

alwillis 4y ago
It's sad because Jobs used to have game devs launch games that ran on the Mac during WWDC presentations. Um, they just gave a chunk of last week's WWDC keynote about Mac gaming: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31719776 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31719776
- heywoodlh 4y ago
  > they just gave a chunk of last week's WWDC keynote about Mac gaming Was it just me or did all the gameplay demos except for Resident Evil look terrible? As a happy multi-Apple-product user I can't help but feel disappointed every year when they promise console quality gaming but then each year the limited amount of games makes the power of the chips completely useless in the gaming realm. I mean, it feels like every year for the past three to four years at WWDC we see gameplay snippets of The Witcher 3, Divinity Original Sin 2 and Baldur's Gate 3. RE Village is a big one for sure, but there aren't many others. It's especially infuriating that even back in 2018 (pre-M1) Apple was claiming the iPad Pro had console-quality specs[1] but there still aren't many games that you can buy that leverage those specs. I would love to see more ports of old or current Triple A games to the iPad. [1] https://www.gamespot.com/articles/apple-says-its-new-ipad-is-as-powerful-as-xbox-one/1100-6462892/ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/apple-says-its-new-ipad-is...

alwillis 4y ago

It's sad because Jobs used to have game devs launch games that ran on the Mac during WWDC presentations. Um, they just gave a chunk of last week's WWDC keynote about Mac gaming: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31719776 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31719776

heywoodlh 4y ago
> they just gave a chunk of last week's WWDC keynote about Mac gaming Was it just me or did all the gameplay demos except for Resident Evil look terrible? As a happy multi-Apple-product user I can't help but feel disappointed every year when they promise console quality gaming but then each year the limited amount of games makes the power of the chips completely useless in the gaming realm. I mean, it feels like every year for the past three to four years at WWDC we see gameplay snippets of The Witcher 3, Divinity Original Sin 2 and Baldur's Gate 3. RE Village is a big one for sure, but there aren't many others. It's especially infuriating that even back in 2018 (pre-M1) Apple was claiming the iPad Pro had console-quality specs[1] but there still aren't many games that you can buy that leverage those specs. I would love to see more ports of old or current Triple A games to the iPad. [1] https://www.gamespot.com/articles/apple-says-its-new-ipad-is-as-powerful-as-xbox-one/1100-6462892/ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/apple-says-its-new-ipad-is...