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> Apple's hardware is unquestionably very good now. Honestly it doesn't matter. The whole "Macs can't game" has no basis in facts. The goalposts are continuall

> Apple's hardware is unquestionably very good now. Honestly it doesn't matter. The whole "Macs can't game" has no basis in facts. The goalposts are continually moved. To give some examples of arguments. - Not enough games for it. There is actually more games in the Apple store than most other gaming stores. You can also play a lot of iOS games now. - The majority of games are terrible. The majority of games in other stores are terrible too (sadly). - It can't play [insert PC game]. Neither can a Nintendo switch but that doesn't mean it can't play games. - I can play [insert PC game] but doesn't count because it's too old. You can't win on this one. - It's not a real game unless it uses a GPU. There are countless games out there that don't meet this requirement. Really the only argument for Macs not being gaming machines is that the majority of buyers do so not to play games on it, but to get stuff done. Anyone who can afford a Mac is likely to have at least a console and/or PC Gaming rig.

willis936 4y ago
The goalposts haven't moved. Where are the games? Macs will game when macs can game. The gaming industry has chosen the APIs they are willing to support. When Apple meets them there then macs will be able to game.
- GeekyBear 4y ago
  > The gaming industry has chosen the APIs they are willing to support. The gaming industry will go where the money is. The majority of the industry revenue is now on mobile and the lions share of mobile revenue is on iOS and Metal. I think Apple Silicon Macs will end up benefiting from studios having experience with Metal on iOS in the same way that XBox benefited from studios having experience with Direct3D on Windows.
- EagnaIonat 4y ago
  > Where are the games? You have… - App Store (OSX and many IOS) - Steam - Epic Store - Blizzard Store - Crossover and Parallels to do some windows games. - Mame and it’s like exist. - You even have free games on GitHub. If you can’t find the games the issue isn’t with the Mac.
goosedragons 4y ago
Gaming on a Mac is like gaming on a PC just worse. There's less games, every game on Steam that supports Mac supports Windows. Performance is usually worse too. For gaming it's just a worse PC. And it's usually more expensive. And there hasn't been an exclusive worth playing since like 1997. With consoles there is at least stuff you can only play there and an extra ease of use layer plus they are cheaper. Mac is just all downside for gaming.
- fishcrackers 4y ago
  not to mention basic things like mouse behaviour, resultion support and general development tooling are a pain in the ass on the platform
curiousmindz 4y ago
The most important "goalpost" is: Every major cross-platform AAA game gets released simultaneously on Windows, Xbox and PlayStation. When macOS gets added to the list in a consistant manner, people will consider it a "major" gaming platform. Having access to a lot of mobile games doesn't matter for hardcore gamers.
- EagnaIonat 4y ago
  This is a good example of changing the goal posts. Your claim means that the Nintendo switch is not a gaming platform. A AAA game is not denoted by how many platforms it releases on the first day. Your other comment about mobile games is just another form of gatekeeping. Again the Switch is mobile gaming and would not meet your criteria.
MisterSandman 4y ago
Disagree on the last point, I'm a university student who spent 1k on a MacBook Air, and I don't have a console or gaming PC because I can't afford it. I study Computer Engineering, so having a good laptop was important. Prior to this I owned refurbished ThinkPad running Linux which cost me around $500 but had multiple issues with performance and speed, to the point where buying an M1-class machine was almost necessary for me.

willis936 4y ago

The goalposts haven't moved. Where are the games? Macs will game when macs can game. The gaming industry has chosen the APIs they are willing to support. When Apple meets them there then macs will be able to game.

GeekyBear 4y ago
> The gaming industry has chosen the APIs they are willing to support. The gaming industry will go where the money is. The majority of the industry revenue is now on mobile and the lions share of mobile revenue is on iOS and Metal. I think Apple Silicon Macs will end up benefiting from studios having experience with Metal on iOS in the same way that XBox benefited from studios having experience with Direct3D on Windows.
EagnaIonat 4y ago
> Where are the games? You have… - App Store (OSX and many IOS) - Steam - Epic Store - Blizzard Store - Crossover and Parallels to do some windows games. - Mame and it’s like exist. - You even have free games on GitHub. If you can’t find the games the issue isn’t with the Mac.

goosedragons 4y ago

Gaming on a Mac is like gaming on a PC just worse. There's less games, every game on Steam that supports Mac supports Windows. Performance is usually worse too. For gaming it's just a worse PC. And it's usually more expensive. And there hasn't been an exclusive worth playing since like 1997. With consoles there is at least stuff you can only play there and an extra ease of use layer plus they are cheaper. Mac is just all downside for gaming.

fishcrackers 4y ago
not to mention basic things like mouse behaviour, resultion support and general development tooling are a pain in the ass on the platform

curiousmindz 4y ago

The most important "goalpost" is: Every major cross-platform AAA game gets released simultaneously on Windows, Xbox and PlayStation. When macOS gets added to the list in a consistant manner, people will consider it a "major" gaming platform. Having access to a lot of mobile games doesn't matter for hardcore gamers.

EagnaIonat 4y ago
This is a good example of changing the goal posts. Your claim means that the Nintendo switch is not a gaming platform. A AAA game is not denoted by how many platforms it releases on the first day. Your other comment about mobile games is just another form of gatekeeping. Again the Switch is mobile gaming and would not meet your criteria.

MisterSandman 4y ago

Disagree on the last point, I'm a university student who spent 1k on a MacBook Air, and I don't have a console or gaming PC because I can't afford it. I study Computer Engineering, so having a good laptop was important. Prior to this I owned refurbished ThinkPad running Linux which cost me around $500 but had multiple issues with performance and speed, to the point where buying an M1-class machine was almost necessary for me.