I feel you, man.
Sometimes it seems like AAA games are every game we don’t have.
Real convenient for those who just want to whine and complain.
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A gamer's lament: Apple please let us game on the Mac!
- Thread starter groove-agent
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I feel you, man.
Sometimes it seems like AAA games are every game we don’t have.
Real convenient for those who just want to whine and complain.
i actually think nintendo is a good comparison. as you say their technology isnt as good, but they make good games.
if apple could put the money/effort into bringing apple only games, then more people would play games on mac, and at some stage if the chickens and eggs both produced faster, that you could have alot more people playing a lot more games on macs.
and at that stage you would still not get people thinking 'lets buy a mac just to game' but you would get people thinking 'i already have an xbox or a ps5, so as well as being a better computer, a mac would let me play games a pc wouldnt'.
its a shame apple don't allow you to buy the games they have on apple arcade individually. id probably spend the same money that i refuse to spend on apple arcade. really want clap hanz golf, but realistically id play that so much id be paying €6 a month for that game alone.
Yeah. The early years of the App Store, when you could buy mobile-optimized versions of AAA titles and acclaimed iOS exclusive games for $4.99 - $19.99, were taken for granted. I wonder if developers had pushed more free download trial mode then pay a one-time fee to unlock the full game it would have flourished. Although, if we look at it now, subscriptions, including games, are being well-received. So, why wouldn’t companies do it?
That is a good point – the Nintendo Switch isn't that powerful compared to some of Apple's mobile devices, yet there are several good titles on the Switch that are absent on Apple's devices.
Didn’t they port Crysis to the Switch? Surely a modern Mac can run that game these days right?
As I think about this, I don't think there's one single answer.
Here's my current opinion as it evolves.
- M1 macs, only now have a decent gpu, but most macs out in the wild, i.e., pre-M1 do not.
- Also consider the actual Mac marketshare. Only about 10 to 15% of PCs - it is rather small.
- Apple/Mac's reputation for not being a good gaming machine (deservedly so)
- Apple's marketing, they continually promote the mac for professional users.
So put yourself in the shoes of a game publisher, you only have X dollars to spend to publish a game and of that x dollars you can dedicate y dollars to exploring new markets.
Do you put those dollars towards the Nintendo switch which means you have a pool of about 100 million potential customers or the mac which sold 7 million units last quarter. And of those 7 million sales, how many were for professional users vs. consumers willing to buy games?
Publishers won't really consider the mac as a gaming platform because Apple itself doesn't.
I think you have good points, but there must be some reason Feral Interactive is in the business.
And there are some gaming focus in Monterey such as variable frame rate on displays that support that and the ability to share game highlights.
Nothing much compared to Windows, but at least I think it’s a bit harsh to say that Apple doesn’t care about gaming on the Mac at all.
No question, there is room for small niche type companies to cater to the small market of mac gaming. It appears that Feral interactive does about 36 million in sales which is down right miniscule compared to what Sony, and Tencent pulls in. I'm not down on Feral Interactive, nor am I knocking the, but rather just trying to point out that there will be companies make a profit even in small markets.
I wonder whether they approach publishers/developers for macOS/iOS ports or if they get approached.
Here are some interesting polls from GDC. The number of games in development for Mac is almost as large as for Nintendo Switch and 2.5 times larger than for Linux.
forums.macrumors.com
Interesting graph in GDC game developer poll.
The Game Developer Conference is upon us, and I saw this graph of this years poll results (there were a bunch). It is a reality check the discussions regarding the prospects of gaming on the mac that regularly take place on these forums.
forums.macrumors.com
No idea why anyone expects a laptop to be a powerful gaming device and at the same time be quiet.
I guess not. At the same time the M1 MacBook Pro 13" inch I've been using a bit for gaming stays relatively cool and quiet.
So does my M1 Mac Mini with the very limited range of games available. But most games still need to be toned down settings wise to play well. AAA gaming on a Mac Mx whatever if it was possible will be just as noisy as a Windows laptop.
I guess I was just reacting to:
The Lenovo gaming laptop I've been trying is a super heavy and thick beast of a machine – I was thinking they would be able to handle fan noise better on such a computer. But maybe not.it's been a long time since i enjoyed a game on a Mac with nice fx settings without having a huge configuration and noisy fan blowing
Apple's laptops has always been slim and of course noisy when gaming because of that. But I can definitely notice a difference when it comes to both noise and heat being generated on the M1 compared to how it was pre-Apple silicon.
I have a Thinkpad Extreme, and the fans are annoying, I also own a razer and with the right settings, its a gaming beast whose fans are not annoying. Don't get me wrong, playing intensive games such as Cyberpunk, the fans are audible, but not as bad as the thinkpad.
I love my Razer, its relatively thin, extremely fast processor and a great gpu. My opinion is that's its one of the best gaming laptops out there.
Of that there is no doubt, I have commented many times since M1 arrived at just how quiet and cool my Mac Mini is when gaming. I don't play much but with World of Warcraft I can play at near max settings whilst the MM is cool and quiet.
Every Mac Mini prior to the M1 did run WoW but always the lowest settings and even then they are turned into noisy fan heaters.
Apple may care about gaming in a wistful way on the MacOS, but imo if any focus it would be on iOS where they have a sizable market share.
Last time I purchased my MBP they were just not competitive hardware vs price as a gaming computer. I do all of my routine important tasks on it, love the MacOS, except for recently when I started working with graphic programs (Blended, Unreal Engine) and ironically my gaming setup (better monitor, and graphic card) on my PC was better suited for it. If I owned a multi-million dollar graphic company, I might have them stocked with Macs, but alas.
Yes, I tolerate Windows and have learned to keep it under control, but I still prefer the Apple ecosystem, it’s better, but not to play my games on.One of the best things Apple did to increase market share was to go Intel and make bootcamp which expanded Windows and Windows gaming, hence some irony? And of course iOS pulled millions into the fold. I had a top of the line MBP in 2012 and virtually played all games under Bootcamp, top dollar, average to poor performance. Many things would have to improve for Macs to ever approach competitiveness in the gaming market. Apple knows it and…
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It makes a lot of sense, with little investment, Apple is making a lot of money with gaming on iOS, if they wanted to grow gaming on the Mac, it would require money and how much would that directly benefit them? Would such a move actually increase sales? Would this benefit their bottom line? I'd say the answers those questions are no.
For instance - take Blizzard, Bethesda, or whomever and they produced a game that's also on the Mac. Odds are like 99.99% imo, that the game would be on steam, or epic (and not the MAS), that means apple would not see any money from the sales.
Also if Apple were to make a serious push into gaming, it would require money in R&D, manufacturing and marketing. At the end of the day, would spending (presumably) millions sway gamers to buy a more expensive Mac then buying a PS5/Xbox or building/buying a gaming pc?
Does Apple make more money selling hardware or software these days?
If Apple is willing to spend (rumored) millions of dollars to stream sportsball via AppleTV (what kind of ROI do they get there) spending the same for macOS games shouldn’t be a problem.
Apple makes 2x the money on services then they do on Mac hardware. https://www.macrumors.com/2021/07/27/apple-3q-2021-earnings/
Perhaps, but again, how much of a potential profit will they make? As I said, if they spent millions of dollars on getting AAA games on the mac, will that increase the sales of Macs? I would venture a guess that it would not offset the investment, i.e., expenses exceed income.
Would providing money, incentives, or partnerships to publishers to include the Mac platform appreciably impact Apple's bottom line when those games are being sold on Steam/Epic, i.e., not MAS? Again money out the door with no direct benefit to Apple.
Edit: Let me just say Apple can spend billions if they wanted too, but that doesn't mean they should. In my opinion it all boils down to how best can apple spend money to maximize value and profits. Spending millions to get AAA games will benefit a few people, but spending millions on apple tv+ will benefit many more. Apple doesn't have an endless pit of money (while we like to think so), so they have to choose how best to invest using their budgeted funds
So if they want to bolster service revenue then tie the games to Apple Arcade. Maybe split tiers like Microsoft does (4.99 for mobile games 9.99 for mobile plus AAA macOS exclusives?)
What games? That's the issue. I'm of the mind that if apple spent millions and millions to get AAA games, they'll never make that back