David Hanak Apple computers can do a lot, but what they've always been a bit (more) weak as a platform in recent years has been games. In recent months, Apple has been sending conflicting signals, when sometimes it looks like games might get at least a little in the foreground, other times there is not even a mention of them and everything is the same as before. How will it continue?
Steve Jobs very often made it clear that he was not interested in games at all. He was almost contemptuous of them, always seeing Apple computers as primarily a creative tool, rather than something to "waste time" playing games on. So the macOS platform has never been very promising to gamers. Yes, the Steam library worked here to a very limited extent, as well as a few stand-alone titles that appeared on macOS either late or with various problems (although there were exceptions to the rule).
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Jaromir Miko About the state of games on macOS, or The situation with the popular multiplayer Rocket League, whose authors announced the end of support for macOS/Linux last week, speaks volumes for macOS as a gaming platform. The declining and even generally small numbers of players who use these platforms for gaming simply do not pay for further development. Something similar can be traced to other popular online titles. For example, the MOBA League Of Legends, or its macOS version was insanely bugged for years, from the client to the game as such. The debugging of World of Warcraft was also quite far from the PC version at one time. The player base playing on macOS is simply too small to make it worthwhile for studios to develop alternative versions of games outside of the Windows operating system.
Recently, however, several indications have begun to emerge that suggest at least a partial change of course. As a big step forward, we can take the launch of Apple Arcade, and even if it is simple mobile games, at least it sends a signal that Apple is aware of this trend. In some official Apple stores, there are even entire sections dedicated to Apple Arcade. However, gaming is not only about simple mobile games, but also about the bigger ones, for PCs and Macs.
In recent years, several so-called AAA titles have appeared on macOS, which are usually supported by a developer studio that takes the trouble to port the game from Windows to Mac (for example, Feral Interactive). Namely, it is, for example, the popular Formula 1 or the Tomb Raider series. In this context, it is worth mentioning a very interesting speculation that surfaced a few weeks ago, which claims that Apple is preparing a completely new Mac for this year (or next) that will be focused on games, more specifically on "esports" titles.
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Gallery: Design elements of the MacBook are also popular with manufacturers of gaming computers
As strange as it may sound, it makes sense in the end. Apple executives must see how huge the gaming market is. Starting with the sale of computers and consoles, through the sale of games, peripherals and other things. Gamers are willing to spend huge sums of money these days, and the gaming industry has been outpacing the movie industry for years. In addition, it would not be difficult for Apple to make a kind of "gaming Mac", since most of the components that are sold today in regular iMacs could be used. By tweaking the internal design a bit and using a slightly different type of monitor, Apple could easily sell its gaming Mac at the same, if not higher, margins than regular Macs. The only thing left would be to convince players and developers to start investing in the platform.
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Dan Pražák And this is where Apple Arcade could once again come into play. Given Apple's huge financial capabilities, it should not be a problem for the company to finance several development studios that would develop some exclusivity directly tailored to Apple's hardware and macOS. Today, Apple is no longer as ideologically rigid as it was under Steve Jobs, and moving the macOS platform towards the gaming audience could bring the desired financial results. If something like this actually happened, would you be willing to spend your money on a "gaming Mac"? If so, what do you think it would have to have to make sense?
