In WWDC 2020 they actually had a little thing about how good Apple Silicon is for gaming. The issue isn’t really Apple, it’s just market share.
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Apple hasn’t invested at all into changing things.
It’s a circular problem. Apple doesn’t invest into porting AAA titles, gamers don’t buy MacBooks, there’s marginal market, so game devs don’t bother porting games…
As far as I can see, Apple is just trying to force the Apple Arcade through as it’s thing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Larian Studios is one of my favourite studios and I love that they’re taking the time to port games to M1, so I can play on the iPad, but the reality is that it will always be an outlier
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Isn’t it the developer’s job to port the game?
They only do so if there’s money to be made worth the effort.
In order to get market share, MSFT and Sony sell consoles at loss, buy and invest in studios to promote their platforms, etc,
Just look at the literal billions Epic is spending building market share from nothing, up to and including, giving away AAA and indie titles
You can’t just expect studios to waste money on an endeavor that will make them pennies compared to launching and promoting their titles on major platforms.
edit:
It’s actually part of the reason why Stadia basically died; they lacked the ability to gain market share and the only real hope they had was to basically pay studios to port titles and then roll their own to try and come out with a “console” seller
Have you forgotten that the M1 and recent versions of macOS enable full cross platform development and even software compatibility between iOS and Mac?
Have you forgotten that the iOS game store is absolutely massive? That they’ve put a heap of energy into supplying top tier 3d hardware on all of their own SOCs for years, put a lot of work into ARKit, Metal, Gamekit, etc.
Yeah, they haven’t done anything Mac specific, but you can bet your house that in coming years there will be a heap of young indie developers who cut their teeth on writing shitty little games for iOS getting their teeth into macOS - and making much more substantial games.
Like much of the stuff apple does, the signs are there if you know where to look, but they aren’t as overt as others at announcing stuff until all of the pieces are in place.
I’ve been following this pretty closely; I did literally just mention one of the biggest studios creating actual attention drawing titles on the M1 (Baldur’s Gate 3 anyone???) …
Personally, I think you’re drinking deep of that Kool-Aid and ascribing a lot more hope than warranted based on something you’d like to see happen.
Maybe things will shift in a decades or two, but by then all of this current hardware will long be obsolete and I wouldn’t trust anyone trying to predict industries shifts more than a couple years out (much can happen in that time, even)
Ultimately, I can’t comment on where we’ll be in a decades time, but I can comment on the fact that the lack of worthwhile titles on MacOS will persist for the near foreseeable future
I don’t evaluate tech based on maybe far off features; it’s best to evaluate it on what it will actually give you today ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You literally said this. My point is that claiming they have made no investment to change this is patently false.
I’m making no comment on time-frame or current feature set in that above post.
If you mean this:
To indicate that they’re investing into gaming; I think you’re heavily mistaken and mixing that up with just general performance uplift for productivity workflows.
I also think you’re conflating the fact that just because it’s a happy, nice to have feature, now that M1 is facilitating mobile games onto MacOS from iPadOS and iOS, with actual real investment into what makes a working gaming platform and wins market share.
Trying to say that Apple investing in general hardware/software improvements of the platform year over year, as a whole, is equivalent to real investment into gaming space is like saying “Intel released a faster CPU, they’re really focused on gamers”
edit:
I’m actually not even convinced the cross-compatibility was fully planned since they clearly don’t like the fact that now that pandoras boxed has been opened they need to field questions about why iPadOS is so limiting’
edit:
I also brought up timeframe specifically because the kind of change you’re suggesting to happen would have to happen slowly over the course of many years.
And that’s assuming your idea even took hold in the next few years.
Ergo, I’m denying it on the basis that it’s based on assumptions and guess work way far out of anything we can actually comment on
edit:
Anyway I think we should drop it here; I was only jumping in cause I thought it strange that a MacBook Pro review thread was discussing gaming and I’ve pretty much said my piece why.
So there’s not really much else to be said and that this point we’re just arguing about the fact that you disagree with my assessment of Apple’s current bussiness operations/plans
Playing Apple Arcade on the Mac, one thing I will say is it’s a really cool idea and there are some games that translate well to the big screen. But there are also a lot of games that really are only suited for mobile IMO.
I think Apple should have focused on bringing more serious games to Apple Arcade and not allowed stuff like Cut The Rope and Angry Birds. It kinda makes the Arcade feel cheap IMO, and I love me some Angry Birds. It just doesn’t belong on Mac.
But gaming aside, I prefer the Mac in just about every way. Zero fan noise, best keyboard, best battery life, and best trackpad. Just makes for the best user experience.
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i mean i buy a switch to play 2016 doom and now i can get total war games that are remastered or games i make maps div original sin on m1
the m1 is basically a switch to the pc laptop tablet market
the switch is a sit down console and a portable one
that changed how we think’d around the system while it was tried before the right spices and flavor pallet was needed to get the bite wanted
apple doesnt care about games because it really doesnt make them the money subs do that stable income and they have a history of being screwed by the game devs (steve announcing halo just for ms to buy bungie and prevent the mac release for a while… steve showed off vgs for the imac and sony bought it to prevent the software from being sold in mass cause ps1 emuing )
these products and more would have made the market share people talk about but its a eb and flow
they saw they could make money on the sale of others games the app store and put near zero effort in but tell what can be done there
this is a push to open their market to mac to make more purchases
and subs this is a way for schools to have alot of control of their devices and the ability to use software across a big product stack that feels small
fedex says my m1pro is delayed and im getting upset
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The issue is XCode is a royal bitch to deal with, and Metal is finicky as fuck. Devs don’t feel the desire to remap their brains to make games run native on macOS, so we end up with ‘good enough’ wrappers and forcing Rosetta to handle the rest.
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No one mentions much about Metal on mac’s. It’s been updated a few times, though yet as others say pretty gimmicky at best. It’s an API after all and therefore should be considered somewhat useful and i doubt that’s actually the case with the Metal API. At least it’s there so that’s something, to build upon 
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Interesting question given recent keynote on iPhone sideloading and topic of software available on MacOS:
Would the MacBook still be worth the price if it was as restrictive as iOS and iPadOS and forced you to only use the App Store?
No. And that’s been Apple’s stance for a while, they’re just having to bring it back up again because of new laws that might endanger that. I don’t think they would do that to the Mac (at least not any time soon) just because it would be way too limiting and piss off a whole lotta developers.
Like just looking through my list of apps that I have installed, a pretty large majority of them are form the App Store, but only because they’re the apps that come with the computer. But most of what I’ve installed after the initial setup (the stuff I actually use for work/school) isn’t from the App Store. I’m sure I could find alternatives, but I know I’m not changing up my entire workflow if Apple decides to crack down on macOS. And even if all the apps I need were available in the App Store, I would quit Mac just out of principal.
I agree, i don’t see them doing it any time soon, but given that they’ve even gone on record saying that they think it should be does make one wonder. This isn’t even the first time lol
Feels like we’re nearing a tipping point where Apple needs to either commit to being an open platform or completely closed off. The M1 has blurred the lines to the point that people are taking a harder look at just why iPadOS needs to be that different from MacOS in functionality, for instance.
The Epic lawsuit and other stuff currently happening has really tossed it all under a microscope. Especially with the EU trying to force tech companies to actually play ball with better consumer pro stuff.
Makes me feel weird cause I already view Apple devices as specific tools to meet specific needs, so while I wouldn’t like it, I’d probably still buy a MacBook and buy into the ecosystem. I also would actually like if things like Rider and other dev tools went through official channels like the App Store.
Tighter controls mean better vertical integration, which means better consistency in quality and behavior of applications.
Could, ironically, be a good move as long as they were cool riding out the waves of fanatic hate and accepting losing a bunch of users out of either principal or due to lack of support for some of the software they need.
Would basically kill lots of “freeware” and open source stuff on MacOS, but that may be a stance they’re willing to take.
Edit:
Would certainly very interesting; I even think that the blowback may end up being like the headphone jack thing.
I could see them following up with killer features and promises thanks to finally having a fully closed ecosystem with only blurred lines between device hardware.
A lot of people and professionals could get buy without “sideloading” on MacOS and the big name software that isn’t the App Store could be made to play ball, I bet
Well im mad but at least i get my money back fedex damaged it shipping i didnt even get the fucking thing
Apple tells me to go instore to get one now
Great gotta deal with the brainless
Ah that sucks 
At least the package was insured, that way there is a money-back policy. Otherwise the machine wouldn’t even be refunded. So there’s that 
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They’re available locally in-store here in Perth WA, so likely most places now.
I’m super tempted to pick one up, but really have house-related expenses to deal with.
They’re available locally in-store here in Perth WA, so likely most places now.
I’m super tempted to pick one up (14" pre-specced model with the 1TB SSD), but really have house-related expenses to deal with. Well, that and a car and two bikes need major services :-\