4 ms·

If Valve was serious about Mac as a platform, they would port their Source games, like they ported Portal 1&2 for the Switch. To some extend I understand this,

If Valve was serious about Mac as a platform, they would port their Source games, like they ported Portal 1&2 for the Switch. To some extend I understand this, because Apple isn‘t serious either, no matter how often they show me a Dual Sense loitering near a Mac screen.

mschuster91 1y ago
The problem is, Epic is not going to tie themselves to the arbitrary deprecation whims of another company again, and Apple is truly infamous for that. No matter if there could actually be some serious money to be made from the huuuuge catalog of titles that already have a Nintendo Switch port.
jillesvangurp 1y ago
There were some volunteers working on this topic that kind of backed away from this topic. But they got quite far with this. What I don't get is why Valve isn't backing such efforts financially. There are millions of wealthy mac owners out there with pretty capable hardware. That should translate into quite a bit of steam purchases. I just got a shiny m4 max laptop. I run Steam on a much less capable crappy old Samsung laptop (via manjaro). Would I run that on my mac if I could? Yes. Would I be tempted to spend a bit of cash on some fun games. Probably. Am I doing that currently? No, because that crappy old Samsung is too old and most games don't run on it. And I'm not in a mood to buy a dedicated gaming machine. I might at some point but just not a priority. But I don't mind dropping a few euros on a game to entertain myself once in a while.
- Frederks 1y ago
  >What I don't get is why Valve isn't backing such efforts financially I remember reading something a few years ago about how Valve basically gave up on Mac due to Apple being a complete pain in the ass to work with.
- CaliforniaKarl 1y ago
  You may be interested in purchasing a Steam Deck, or similar product. I am in a similar situation, where home machine is a Mac Mini. I wanted to play various games, but did not want to purchase (and maintain) a Windows machine. A Steam Deck—plus USB-C dock, connected to monitor and speakers—has been a good substitute for me.
- hnlmorg 1y ago
  Steam is already available for macOS and there are numerous games available for the platform. If Valve were getting high numbers of people installing the macOS Steam client, and you can bet they do already have that telemetry, then they would take the platform more seriously. But most macOS users aren’t interesting in gaming on their Mac.
- izacus 1y ago
  There's nothing much to get, Steam Hardware Survey shows that Steam usage currently sits at 1.6% for macOS which is LESS than even Linux: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam?platform=combined https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw... And with Apple's hostility towards gamers with moves like refusal to support OpenGL or Vulkan (adding extra Metal support work to their developers) and refusal to keep stable APIs for a long time for game developers, it makes sense for them to rather focus on a crowd that is easier to support. When it comes to gaming, Apple is its own enemy since forever and has been similarly failing to gain serious traction even on iOS (considering how powerful the iOS hardware is). iPads could be Steam Decks of their time and Apple just never cared enough.
  - xethos 1y ago
    Overall I agree, and I'm not about to refute the statement, but I never thought the phrase "Linux users are easier to support" would be taken seriously - I find that marvelous and hilarious.
    - izacus 1y ago
      The way to support Linux gamers these days is to write a Windows game and test with Proton (to make sure it's not using unsupported APIs). It's kind of hilarious and sad... but it works darn well and it's less work than porting to Metal and 64-bit macOS.
  - jillesvangurp 1y ago
    Unsurprising because unlike Linux, almost no games work on steam for mac. There's barely any point in running it on a mac. It's actually a pretty high percentage if you consider that. My point was that volunteers got quite far getting steam and many games running on macs with decent framerates. The main person driving this recently moved on from working on that. Likewise, Asahi linux is getting quite capable at running steam and lots of games. That too is being driven by a handful of people. Supporting stuff like that doesn't sound like it should break the bank for Steam. Basically sponsor a few people; maybe hire a few more to support them. It's basically all working at this point, it just needs a bit of love and attention. This wouldn't take years of additional development. And once steam runs properly on macs with thousands of games running smoothly, a lot more people might be using steam on their macs. Yes, they'd be picking a fight with Apple. But as Epyc (Unreal engine) is showing, those fights can be won if you have deep pockets. And Apple is under a lot of pressure to moderate their anti competitive behavior. Perfect timing for Valve to make some money of all this with a minimum of investment.
mmcnl 1y ago
Curious to why they (both Apple and Valve) are not serious about it. The MacBook Air could actually be a great gaming device. It has extremely capable hardware at a very low price point. And for Valve it would be an instant expansion of their user base with a large number of new potential customers.
- michaelt 1y ago
  Apple had the opportunity to stay on x86, where the 20+ year back catalog of games is. Apple decided the benefits of moving to ARM outweighed the loss of gamers.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
nialv7 1y ago
Switch has (certified) OpenGL and Vulkan. Mac has none of them.

mschuster91 1y ago

The problem is, Epic is not going to tie themselves to the arbitrary deprecation whims of another company again, and Apple is truly infamous for that. No matter if there could actually be some serious money to be made from the huuuuge catalog of titles that already have a Nintendo Switch port.

jillesvangurp 1y ago

There were some volunteers working on this topic that kind of backed away from this topic. But they got quite far with this. What I don't get is why Valve isn't backing such efforts financially. There are millions of wealthy mac owners out there with pretty capable hardware. That should translate into quite a bit of steam purchases. I just got a shiny m4 max laptop. I run Steam on a much less capable crappy old Samsung laptop (via manjaro). Would I run that on my mac if I could? Yes. Would I be tempted to spend a bit of cash on some fun games. Probably. Am I doing that currently? No, because that crappy old Samsung is too old and most games don't run on it. And I'm not in a mood to buy a dedicated gaming machine. I might at some point but just not a priority. But I don't mind dropping a few euros on a game to entertain myself once in a while.

Frederks 1y ago
>What I don't get is why Valve isn't backing such efforts financially I remember reading something a few years ago about how Valve basically gave up on Mac due to Apple being a complete pain in the ass to work with.
CaliforniaKarl 1y ago
You may be interested in purchasing a Steam Deck, or similar product. I am in a similar situation, where home machine is a Mac Mini. I wanted to play various games, but did not want to purchase (and maintain) a Windows machine. A Steam Deck—plus USB-C dock, connected to monitor and speakers—has been a good substitute for me.
hnlmorg 1y ago
Steam is already available for macOS and there are numerous games available for the platform. If Valve were getting high numbers of people installing the macOS Steam client, and you can bet they do already have that telemetry, then they would take the platform more seriously. But most macOS users aren’t interesting in gaming on their Mac.
izacus 1y ago
There's nothing much to get, Steam Hardware Survey shows that Steam usage currently sits at 1.6% for macOS which is LESS than even Linux: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam?platform=combined https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw... And with Apple's hostility towards gamers with moves like refusal to support OpenGL or Vulkan (adding extra Metal support work to their developers) and refusal to keep stable APIs for a long time for game developers, it makes sense for them to rather focus on a crowd that is easier to support. When it comes to gaming, Apple is its own enemy since forever and has been similarly failing to gain serious traction even on iOS (considering how powerful the iOS hardware is). iPads could be Steam Decks of their time and Apple just never cared enough.
- xethos 1y ago
  Overall I agree, and I'm not about to refute the statement, but I never thought the phrase "Linux users are easier to support" would be taken seriously - I find that marvelous and hilarious.
  - izacus 1y ago
    The way to support Linux gamers these days is to write a Windows game and test with Proton (to make sure it's not using unsupported APIs). It's kind of hilarious and sad... but it works darn well and it's less work than porting to Metal and 64-bit macOS.
- jillesvangurp 1y ago
  Unsurprising because unlike Linux, almost no games work on steam for mac. There's barely any point in running it on a mac. It's actually a pretty high percentage if you consider that. My point was that volunteers got quite far getting steam and many games running on macs with decent framerates. The main person driving this recently moved on from working on that. Likewise, Asahi linux is getting quite capable at running steam and lots of games. That too is being driven by a handful of people. Supporting stuff like that doesn't sound like it should break the bank for Steam. Basically sponsor a few people; maybe hire a few more to support them. It's basically all working at this point, it just needs a bit of love and attention. This wouldn't take years of additional development. And once steam runs properly on macs with thousands of games running smoothly, a lot more people might be using steam on their macs. Yes, they'd be picking a fight with Apple. But as Epyc (Unreal engine) is showing, those fights can be won if you have deep pockets. And Apple is under a lot of pressure to moderate their anti competitive behavior. Perfect timing for Valve to make some money of all this with a minimum of investment.

mmcnl 1y ago

Curious to why they (both Apple and Valve) are not serious about it. The MacBook Air could actually be a great gaming device. It has extremely capable hardware at a very low price point. And for Valve it would be an instant expansion of their user base with a large number of new potential customers.

michaelt 1y ago
Apple had the opportunity to stay on x86, where the 20+ year back catalog of games is. Apple decided the benefits of moving to ARM outweighed the loss of gamers.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]

nialv7 1y ago

Switch has (certified) OpenGL and Vulkan. Mac has none of them.