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Apple Event Next Week Likely to Emphasize High-End Gaming on Mac

swiftapplefan said:
I apologize for my limited knowledge in this area, but I have a genuine question: Could Apple create a tool or something like Wine, but native, to run most, if not all, Windows games? Can they develop software or make programming adjustments to support the languages of those games? Or is it dependent on the hardware architecture?
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this is quite literally what Game Porting Toolkit is: https://www.pcmag.com/news/apples-game-porting-toolkit-can-run-cyberpunk-2077-diablo-iv-over-a-mac

problem is, due to translation required, this is extremely slow. so its quite good to jumpstart porting game, but is nowhere near being good enough to run games with zero work from game developers.
 
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The iPad mini is perhaps Apple’s best portable gaming device. They should definitely include the iPad mini 7 update too at this event. 😉
 
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Dont expect too much cause macOS itself is the worst part of Mac gaming.

lol, some people hate to accept the fact. Even on Steam, it's only 1.57% of market share and imagine if most of them are gone after Rosetta 2 is gone.
 
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They really seem to court Japanese game devs a lot. Kojima again would make sense.



I'd even like to see them fund some exclusive games that take full advantage of Apple Silicon, imagine if they paid like Kojima Productions or someone for a game like that.
 
Would like to see eGPU support on their Thunderbolt ports. I would love to run Linux on bare metal using an AMD graphics card which'll have hardware acceleration (AMD's video driver is open-source so there should be little problem with this).
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
Here's the needed announcements to actually bring AAA gaming to Mac:
  • Apple is allocating an AppleTV+ like budget to a new unit focused on Gaming, like the AppleTV+ unit is focused on original programming... exactly like Microsoft and Sony does.
  • Apple has purchased 1+ Game Studios for Exclusive Games only for Mac. Or Apple has purchased Nintendo... or Sony.
  • Apple is actively hiring substantial gaming staff for the gaming division to code games, just like Microsoft and Sony.
In other words, MONEY is the key to AAA gaming on Mac. The competitors put up big money to subsidize AAA game creation, buy major gaming studios, etc. That money buys them AAA games and major exclusives. AAA game developers go where the money is abundant.

If it's a lot of talk about chip POWER but no money, we've seen this same movie many times before. And we know how it ends... over and over again. Apple certainly has the money to do it... IF they will put that money to work on AAA gaming... much like they decided to put substantial money and resources to be Netflix Junior.

Very simply: talk is cheap. Put your money where your mouth is.

Cue the classic line from Jerry Maguire (you know the one).
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Money and effort/longevity is definitely needed, but also does have install base on it's side. Assuming that anything with an M1 and up(or A17Pro and up) can get support (with varying levels of resolution/settings) then that will be a huge install-base ready to go (obviously, A17Pro/M3 will likely be needed for hardware RT). The cross-compatibility (iPhone, iPad, Mac and potentially Apple TV) is a huge, Nintendo Switch-like advantage.

Another aspect is how Sony and Microsoft will treat iOS/Mac gaming. At the moment many Sony or Microsoft console "exclusive" games make the transition to PC but not the competing consoles (Spider-man, God of War, TLOU etc from Sony studios and Forza, Starfield etc from Microsoft studios).

One thing I did wonder about was Apple buying/partnering with Nintendo to make the next Switch Apple-compatible as Nintendo gets by just fine on it's 1st & 2nd party games, but I think Nintendo is too close to nVida for this to happen.

I'm very interested to see what will happen.
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
Here's the needed announcements to actually bring AAA gaming to Mac:
  • Apple is allocating an AppleTV+ like budget to a new unit focused on Gaming, like the AppleTV+ unit is focused on original programming... exactly like Microsoft and Sony does.
  • Apple has purchased 1+ Game Studios for Exclusive Games only for Mac. Or Apple has purchased Nintendo... or Sony.
  • Apple is actively hiring substantial gaming staff for the gaming division to code games, just like Microsoft and Sony.
In other words, MONEY is the key to AAA gaming on Mac. The competitors put up big money to subsidize AAA game creation, buy major gaming studios, etc. That money buys them AAA games and major exclusives. AAA game developers go where the money is abundant.

If it's a lot of talk about chip POWER but no money, we've seen this same movie many times before. And we know how it ends... over and over again. Apple certainly has the money to do it... IF they will put that money to work on AAA gaming... much like they decided to put substantial money and resources to be Netflix Junior.

Very simply: talk is cheap. Put your money where your mouth is.

Cue the classic line from Jerry Maguire (you know the one).
Click to expand...


We've still never seen that BoTW scale game that was rumored for arcade years ago...But I do agree, even 1 billion a year compared to the 90 billion in buybacks they make going towards a fund to bring AAA games to mac and fund exclusives would go a long way. It's pocket change for Apple to make a serious entry here.
 
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I think Apple should first make a ‘Games’ app (same design as Music & TV) where games automatically go when purchased via the App Store. This would incorporate ‘Game Center’ and other Steam-esque features, to make a more familiar gaming experience that PC people are used to.

I may be the minority but games as their own apps is kinda strange to me. Plus in this new ‘Games’ app, you can have better sorting, such as series, genres, etc.

Apple has all the cards to become a real player in the gaming market, but they don’t know it yet!
 
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Nik said:
With Counter Strike 2, Valve showed us the way.

Unless Apple pays developers to port games to the Mac, it won't happen in a big way, just read Valve's statement.
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Apple is always flexing their muscles on games but agreed, gaming on the Mac has in fact become worse as far as titles go. Diablo 3 worked on the Mac but Diablo 4 didn’t …on top of that Microsoft now owns activision so I don’t seem them improving Mac gaming anytime soon.

I kind of wish Apple bought activision , I think that would have gone a long way.
 
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I prefer having a console to play games… I play games on it and I do t care for specs and upgrades for 5 years… Apple turning Mac into a serious platform for gaming… I just can’t see it being as big as on PC or consoles

1) PCs are so customizable that it’s easy and relatively cheap to make something for gaming (you can go low end (including retro gaming) or high end) and all the developers focus on PC and console. It would take a huge effort for Apple to attract serious developers and keep them developing for Mac. The customer base will be relatively small.

2) consoles have lifespans of 5 years plus now… you buy it and forget about the hardware… this isn’t possible on Mac (it’l be discontinued in a year, to a year and half)

3) Apple has always had bad thermal design… some of the worst I’ve seen. I’m sure your laptops are gonna be running as hot as iPhone Pro 15 when gaming… those batteries contained in that cramped metal enclosure are going to take some heat for sure.
 
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TrenttonY said:
I think Apple should first make a ‘Games’ app (same design as Music & TV) where games automatically go when purchased via the App Store. This would incorporate ‘Game Center’ and other Steam-esque features, to make a more familiar gaming experience that PC people are used to.

I may be the minority but games as their own apps is kinda strange to me. Plus in this new ‘Games’ app, you can have better sorting, such as series, genres, etc.
Click to expand...

I think this might be where Apple eventually wants to go. They know they'll never be in a situation where people buy their hardware for gaming, but they might be able to convince existing MacOS/iOS users to use their Apple hardware instead of a console or PC. They know Steam is terrible on the Mac - they'll make their money by providing an alternative that integrates well into the ecosystem, and get their cut from the App Store or whatever.
 
dmr727 said:
I think this might be where Apple eventually wants to go. They know they'll never be in a situation where people buy their hardware for gaming, but they might be able to convince existing MacOS/iOS users to use their Apple hardware instead of a console or PC. They know Steam is terrible on the Mac - they'll make their money by providing an alternative that integrates well into the ecosystem, and get their cut from the App Store or whatever.
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Imagine if they do some cloud gaming magic. Have an Apple TV with an M3, with some extra processing power in the cloud, and bam you got a console competitor. They just need to either buy or partner with a major gaming studio. My bet would be Nintendo — that’s a brand that would go hand-in-hand with Apple.
 
"Like the A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple's upcoming M3 series of chips for Macs..."
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If the M1 is based on the A14, and the M2 is based on the A15, wouldn't the M3 be based on the A16?
 
TrenttonY said:
Imagine if they do some cloud gaming magic. Have an Apple TV with an M3, with some extra processing power in the cloud, and bam you got a console competitor. They just need to either buy or partner with a major gaming studio. My bet would be Nintendo — that’s a brand that would go hand-in-hand with Apple.
Click to expand...

Spend so much less on a good gaming PC with Nvidia graphics card. You can load it up with RAM and SSD because there is competition for BOTH in the PC world, driving pricing way down. I purchased a pretty good gaming PC with 10TB of SSD and 32GB of fast RAM for less than Apple charges to upgrade a Mac to 8TB.

Put the Moonlight app on AppleTV, do the heavy lifting back on that PC and stream the screen to the AppleTV you already have, playing the game on the big TV and best speakers in the home.

Admittedly, I was pessimistic that this would work myself, but it is AMAZING. PC quality gaming NOW on AppleTV-connected televisions anywhere in the home. The AppleTV just treats the game video like you are watching any movie. Game controllers work, etc.

Bonus: there's no better Bootcamp than actual & full Windows running on actual PC hardware. You know for certain that anything you need to run in Windows will work, unlike ARM Windows in emulation which works well for some apps but not so well with others.
 
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