So did Apple give up on gaming?

[Adarna]

Not really, it’s how Apple operates. One of the examples I always point to is FCP7. It was the thing that folks bought Macs for, but what they wanted was “the same thing but add features and faster” and Steve Jobs wanted to go in an entirely new direction. There was a meeting where he essentially told the gathered FCP7 users effectively “we don’t want you” and went on to create FCPX for future customers. A lot of those folks dropped Apple and never looked back. Today? FCPX has more active seats than FCP7 at the height of it’s popularity.

By saying “I don’t care of FCP7 folks never buy another Mac, I’m making FCPX the way I want to,” Apple shows how and a little of why they gun for what they think will be profitable niche’s. As a result, at any given time, they “don’t need” wide swaths of the computing population. They don’t need folks that want 1U servers with Apple logos, they don’t need folks that want eGPU’s, they don’t need folks that want wireless access points with Apple logos. And, they don’t need AAA gaming (which, I guess, can also be described as 3D rendered, lootbox delivery platforms).

In a nutshell: Any for profit company like Apple will go to where they can leverage their supply chain, tech, skill set, culture and marketing to get the best return of investment.

Apple long ago decided not to serve the less than $999 PC market, less than $399 smartphone market or less than $279 watch market.

Why? Because its a waste of their time and a challenge to serve. It does not help their branding either.

The average selling price of personal computers in 2019 was $632 or $733 in constant currency. Overall, the average PC selling price in recent years has been relatively constant at around $630 actual U.S. dollars. The increase in the average price from 2015 to 2017 can be attributed in part to higher costs for components such as memory and hard drives.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

As opposed to mobile gaming micro-transactions. Pot, meet kettle?

Ah, you see, SOME of the mobile gaming micro-transactions aren’t 3D rendered!

 

[diamond.g]

Why would that be the next logical step? The market for the Mac is so small compared to some of their other lines, it’s not even worth the effort. The Mac will be dead long before Mac App Store only sales happen.

It’s far easier and more effective to put a gatekeeper on reality so that you can’t buy and legally, effectively AND easily FCP or Logic Pro without a Mac.

Apple shows how and a little of why they gun for what they think will be profitable niche’s. As a result, at any given time, they “don’t need” wide swaths of the computing population.

Based on what you said it seems like the next step to maximize profits since they get a slice of every transaction that occurs on MAS.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Based on what you said it seems like the next step to maximize profits since they get a slice of every transaction that occurs on MAS.

There’s diminishing returns for the Mac where the profits are already heavily on the hardware side. If they sell, say 200 million Macs this year to where the App Store profits become worth the effort to go after? Maybe. I actually kinda doubt Apple will sell 200 million Macs this year, though.

And all that assumes that Apple cares about the long term future of the Mac, which I doubt.

 

[playtech1]

I think Apple is deeply passionate about gaming, but solely as a means to make money and not because of any great love of the hobby.

Apple Arcade - why? Recurring revenue

Fighting Epic and sticking with a 30% cut - why? Because gaming IAPs are so lucrative

Bringing iOS apps to MacOS - why? So they can sell iOS IAPs on Macs

If Apple becomes convinced that AAA games on Mac will materially increase Mac sales it might get interested, but not otherwise. It has sadly ever been thus.

 

[thenewperson]

Bringing iOS apps to MacOS - why? So they can sell iOS IAPs on Macs

I agree with the other two but I think this one is a lot weaker. iOS apps on the Mac are simply there because of the efforts to bring UIKit to the Mac to simplify development for themselves and most of their developer community, which is on iOS.

 

[Krevnik]

I agree with the other two but I think this one is a lot weaker. iOS apps on the Mac are simply there because of the efforts to bring UIKit to the Mac to simplify development for themselves and most of their developer community, which is on iOS.

This. iOS is where the developer expertise is for Apple platforms, and Apple seems hell bent on trying to figure out how to leverage that into a healthier Mac ecosystem. Unifying the base frameworks (minus UIKit vs AppKit)? Not enough. Catalyst as a code name even plays into the goals: Be a catalyst for Mac development. SwiftUI is another prong in that by effectively trying to provide a single shared framework for UI across all their platforms, completing a very long road towards a UWP-like developer ecosystem (one that I think has been more smartly played by Apple than Microsoft, through iterative steps rather than expecting devs to port whole apps to .NET).

If Apple really just cared about IAP revenue, they would be pushing folks to the Mac App Store rather than going through hoops to support code signing outside of the App Store.

 

[Sophisticatednut]

Just buy a gaming PC. Your time is better served not waiting.

well i already have. i still would like to have a mac tho

 

[Adarna]

well i already have. i still would like to have a mac tho

Then buy one.

 

[Sophisticatednut]

Then buy one.

why? i quite literally can do less on it than on a PC today. i Had a macbook pro until it was no longer able to play games without dying and opted to buy a stationary Pc instead, and now it's a M1 mac and boot camp and any possibility to run play games are put on ice for years to come.

 

[Adarna]

why? i quite literally can do less on it than on a PC today. i Had a macbook pro until it was no longer able to play games without dying and opted to buy a stationary Pc instead, and now it's a M1 mac and boot camp and any possibility to run play games are put on ice for years to come.

So you have a Mac M1 and gaming PC. So why are you arguing?

 

[eltoslightfoot]

So you have a Mac M1 and gaming PC. So why are you arguing?

Would it shock you to understand that he is talking about HAVING to do so? Not all of us want two devices.

 

[Slartibart]

Besides content creation, what else can Apple pro devices do that is exclusive to them?

Well, heck, how come that “Pro”fessionals use the “Pro”devices for their ”pro”fessional work, and use e.g. iPads for leisure&entertainment… how can a company ever become to be profitable doing so…

oh. ????

nota bene: seriously “ besides” ?!!!!?!??!!!

 

[Slartibart]

The problem right now is that devs have to support both the Intel Macs and the Apple Silicon Macs,

Actually they do not. The reality is that they didn’t care about Intel Macs before, so why should they do now?

 

[vir]

Just buy twelve devices.

 

[Slartibart]

I think Apple is deeply passionate about gaming, but solely as a means to make money and not because of any great love of the hobby.

In contrast to whom exactly? Sony, Microsoft, heck EA support gaming just because of their good heartedness?

 

[vir]

Their CEOs probably game.

 

[Newfiejudd]

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Wow, that's not exactly a ringing endorsement of a video. Yikes. That mac is $2500.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Well, heck, how come that “Pro”fessionals use the “Pro”devices for their ”pro”fessional work, and use e.g. iPads for leisure&entertainment… how can a company ever become to be profitable doing so…

oh. ????

nota bene: seriously “ besides” ?!!!!?!??!!!

All kidding aside, It's equally silly to think that creatives HAVE to use a mac. I am an artist and author and use Windows just fine. Wife is a photographer and uses, you guessed it, Windows.

 

[diamond.g]

CPU limits for the win?

 

[Joe Dohn]

Wow, that's not exactly a ringing endorsement of a video. Yikes. That mac is $2500.

It looks pretty, but I want data. I want to have a more objective understanding of how Pro and Pro Max perform on Parallels, which he didn't do (he just launched Steam + Proton and 2 games).

 

[JMacHack]

It looks pretty, but I want data. I want to have a more objective understanding of how Pro and Pro Max perform on Parallels, which he didn't do (he just launched Steam + Proton and 2 games).

Patience, people have had these for less than a week.

 

[Slartibart]

All kidding aside, It's equally silly to think that creatives HAVE to use a mac. I am an artist and author and use Windows just fine. Wife is a photographer and uses, you guessed it, Windows.

Absolutely. Actually that’s a professionals thing, I wager, right? ? you use what’s right for your profession… for reasons. ?

Written that, independent of which OS and/or platform one chooses: if whoever comes along saying ”Besides content creation” why did you choose as a professional the platform/OS/programs/apps you use… well, we can agree that’s at least silly, isnt it?
Without even sticking one’s head to far out of the window: whoever - besides in this thread @John Doe - writes something like this… well, it does seem like an antonym of e.g. “brainy”, doesn’t it? ???

 

[eltoslightfoot]

It looks pretty, but I want data. I want to have a more objective understanding of how Pro and Pro Max perform on Parallels, which he didn't do (he just launched Steam + Proton and 2 games).

It wasn't even that impressive though. That's the sad thing. I run Apex at 1440p at the highest settings possible and all I have is a 3060TI. This thing is supposed to be better than that. Low settings on an old game at 1200p? Yikes.