From time to time, Apple will come out and tell people how deeply it is committed to the world of Mac gaming. And just as regularly, many of us Mac gamers roll our eyes. It’s not that I don’t trust Apple or that I don’t think the company tries. It’s just that I’ve heard it so many times before, but macOS still lags far behind Windows games. Why would this time be any different?
Well, if a new TechCrunch interview with a few Apple executives is to be believed, the company is putting in place measures to convince developers to bring their games to the Mac instead of letting the platform languish in the solitude. This matters because the dearth of quality Mac games is a massive and ongoing frustration.
To be clear, I’m not saying that all Mac games are bad, or that the developers who have gone to the considerable effort to port their games to Apple computers are unremarkable. No, the problem is that while there are plenty of great Mac games out there, there are far fewer than our friends on Windows. And if you love games, the Mac just isn’t the place to go, no matter what Apple says.
It doesn’t have to be that way – after all, modern Macs have great hardware. Apple’s silicon chips are among the fastest processors on the market. The screens built into Apple laptops are of unparalleled quality. And the audio output of even the cheapest Apple MacBook blasts anything from rival PC laptops. In other words, Apple Macs should be fantastic little gaming machines.
Destination Mac
So why aren’t big-name developers flocking to the Mac? Unfortunately, they suffer from a negative spiral game loop, if you will. The developers look at the number of Mac gamers versus PC gamers and decide that the former is too small to justify the cost and effort of porting their games. Gamers look at the paltry number of AAA games on Mac and decide to stick with Windows. Each factor helps to reinforce the other.
There are also technical hurdles to overcome. Macs rely on Metal, Apple’s own graphics API, instead of DirectX, which the vast majority of PC games run on. This means that developers must modify their games specifically to work with Metal if they want to bring their games to the Mac. And if Apple doesn’t provide the right support, it can be an unnecessarily complex process.
Luckily, it looks like Apple is trying to make working with Metal as painless as possible. In the TechCrunch interview, Tim Millet, Apple’s vice president of platform architecture and hardware technologies, said his team works closely with the company’s Metal engineers to ensure that their APIs are as fast as possible for developers.
“My team is spending a lot of time thinking about how to make sure we stay on that API curve to make sure we’re giving Metal what it needs to be a modern gaming API,” Millet said. “We know it will take time. But we’re not at all confused about the advisability; We see it. And we’ll make sure to show up.
It’s reassuring to hear, but without top-tier games on the Mac, it won’t convince gamers to leave Windows or developers to transfer their games. Looks like Apple is at least trying, but there’s no point in trying here. We need to see results if the fortunes of Mac gaming are to change.
Disappointing past efforts
Granted, there have been past efforts to increase the number of games on the Mac, mostly in the form of Apple Arcade. Games on Apple Arcade work on Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, allowing you to play ad-free and keep your save progress on any of these devices. It’s a rather tempting proposition.
At least, that’s how it looks on paper. In reality, however, the Mac loses out. Because developers have to make sure their games run well on the most powerful Mac Pro and the smallest iPhone, they inevitably have to meet the lowest common denominator. That means on the Mac you get fuzzy textures and gigantic menus designed for touch input. This makes the Mac feel like an afterthought when it comes to Apple Arcade.
No, if Apple wants to prove that it actually cares about Mac gamers, we don’t need any more hyped event presentations or Apple Arcade letdowns. We need high-end franchises that choose to launch their games on the Mac. We need action, not more talk.
Judging by this latest interview, Apple seems to be trying, and I tend to believe Millet when he says his team will “show up.” Let’s just hope we see the fruits of this labor sooner rather than later.
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