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Why doesn't Apple put this much effort into bring MacOS into the same realm as Windows in terms of gaming? You would think they would invest more money and tim

Why doesn't Apple put this much effort into bring MacOS into the same realm as Windows in terms of gaming? You would think they would invest more money and time taking away one of the last major advantages of Windows vs. MacOS. Microsoft obviously sees gaming as one of the big advantages to Windows, hence why they have been buying up gaming studios and combining Xbox and Windows into the one gaming platform.

IshKebab 4y ago
They probably would prefer to parlay iPhone games to Mac, then they have tight control over them and can offer things Microsoft can't.
musicale 4y ago
>Why doesn't Apple put this much effort into bring MacOS into the same realm as Windows in terms of gaming? I don't speak for Apple, but their bread and butter is the zillions of App Store games, so the business incentive is clearly to move those developers and games onto macOS so that Apple gets a cut of every game sale and in-app purchase. Moreover, those games are already optimized for Metal and Apple silicon. They already work well on modest hardware running on batteries. In a sense it's a very clever strategy: Apple completely sidesteps the "PC game" market, which has largely left Apple behind, and creates its own "App Store game" market - a huge collection of games, all of which are optimized for Apple APIs and silicon, and which make billions of dollars for Apple through App Store commissions. Moreover, those games run across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. Apple also avoids potentially unflattering GPU and game performance comparisons (especially with compatibility layers like WINE) - the hardware fades into the background, which is something Apple likes. From the user perspective though? Many Mac users would still like to be able to run PC games (especially ones that aren't in the iOS or macOS App Stores) out of the box, and this would be served by developing a high-quality version of Proton (or equivalent) for macOS. And they'd also like Steam to work well out of the box. Making this happen would be a drop in Apple's bucket, and probably wouldn't reduce App Store sales. And it might help with hardware sales for students and others who might be on the fence due to certain Windows games not running on macOS.
stetrain 4y ago
I know why Apple doesn't care to do so, but I really wish they would at least just work with Valve enough to make Proton on Mac a reality. There was a brief moment where Steam for Mac was announced on stage at an Apple event and Macs got the Half-Life series, Portal, Team Fortress 2, and many others. Now these games won't even launch on a modern Mac because they are still 32-bit binaries that were never updated. If Apple doesn't care to be a marketplace for "PC Gamer" type games then fine but at least partner with someone who does care.
- account42 4y ago
  > Now these games won't even launch on a modern Mac because they are still 32-bit binaries that were never updated. The cost of updating all games ever released and of maintaining a 32-bit compat layer is so incomparable that dropping that layer only makes sense because they expect other companies to bear that cost. Same for Ubuntu or other Linux distros wanting to drop x86 - makes things slightly easier for them but an absolute insane move for the overall ecosystem.

IshKebab 4y ago

They probably would prefer to parlay iPhone games to Mac, then they have tight control over them and can offer things Microsoft can't.

musicale 4y ago

>Why doesn't Apple put this much effort into bring MacOS into the same realm as Windows in terms of gaming? I don't speak for Apple, but their bread and butter is the zillions of App Store games, so the business incentive is clearly to move those developers and games onto macOS so that Apple gets a cut of every game sale and in-app purchase. Moreover, those games are already optimized for Metal and Apple silicon. They already work well on modest hardware running on batteries. In a sense it's a very clever strategy: Apple completely sidesteps the "PC game" market, which has largely left Apple behind, and creates its own "App Store game" market - a huge collection of games, all of which are optimized for Apple APIs and silicon, and which make billions of dollars for Apple through App Store commissions. Moreover, those games run across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. Apple also avoids potentially unflattering GPU and game performance comparisons (especially with compatibility layers like WINE) - the hardware fades into the background, which is something Apple likes. From the user perspective though? Many Mac users would still like to be able to run PC games (especially ones that aren't in the iOS or macOS App Stores) out of the box, and this would be served by developing a high-quality version of Proton (or equivalent) for macOS. And they'd also like Steam to work well out of the box. Making this happen would be a drop in Apple's bucket, and probably wouldn't reduce App Store sales. And it might help with hardware sales for students and others who might be on the fence due to certain Windows games not running on macOS.

stetrain 4y ago

I know why Apple doesn't care to do so, but I really wish they would at least just work with Valve enough to make Proton on Mac a reality. There was a brief moment where Steam for Mac was announced on stage at an Apple event and Macs got the Half-Life series, Portal, Team Fortress 2, and many others. Now these games won't even launch on a modern Mac because they are still 32-bit binaries that were never updated. If Apple doesn't care to be a marketplace for "PC Gamer" type games then fine but at least partner with someone who does care.

account42 4y ago
> Now these games won't even launch on a modern Mac because they are still 32-bit binaries that were never updated. The cost of updating all games ever released and of maintaining a 32-bit compat layer is so incomparable that dropping that layer only makes sense because they expect other companies to bear that cost. Same for Ubuntu or other Linux distros wanting to drop x86 - makes things slightly easier for them but an absolute insane move for the overall ecosystem.