Yep. But is the cool thing today to hate on Apple.
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Apple Event Next Week Likely to Emphasize High-End Gaming on Mac
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I really would love for Apple to invest more heavily into gaming. Windows Laptops have no competition to the overall quality of a Macbook, but I'm forced to get a Windows Laptop because the stuff I use don't work on Mac
I really would love for Apple to invest more heavily into gaming. Windows Laptops have no competition to the overall quality of a Macbook, but I'm forced to get a Windows Laptop because the stuff I use don't work on Mac
- 100$ Yearly Fee kills interest for indie devs. My games were removed from iOS because I couldn't afford the fee a year later.
- XCode is AWFUL. They need to update the UI to mirror Visual Studio 22 / Rider.
- Forced to compile on macOS.
- Powerful Macs to compile are extremely expensive. Studios/indie devs can't reasonably invest thousands in hardware to release games for 0.1% of the market.
- macOS is so different to Windows. Most game devs are used to Windows so the transition is HARD.
- GPU performance on M series, while good, doesn't compare to high-end Windows counterparts.
- Metal API...
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I agree with most of your points but not this one...
I use Mac and Windows on a daily basis. I find it hard to imagine that anyone finds the transition particularly "HARD". Windows has some nice features with window snapping - I installed Spectacle which gives me the same keyboard shortcuts for easily moving windows around on my Mac. Mac has a much better terminal - I installed Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows so that I'd have those same features (and honestly, I use iTerm instead of the stock Terminal on the mac... so on either OS, I need to do some stuff to get the ideal terminal.)
And I don't have any issues with compiling on a Mac vs Windows... I haven't noticed any performance differences in Unity, Java, Kotlin, Javascript between my two devices.
I have noticed both kind of suck at automatic updates. I'm not sure if it's my imagination, but it sure seems like macOS got worse while Windows got better, and now both operating systems are about as stable as most major Linux distros. Generally good enough but occasionally it just utterly fails. Makes you wonder why you paid for something instead of just using Linux.
Still think acquiring Nintendo would be a great move to solidify their position in gaming.
“Freemium” drives the lion’s share of profits made in gaming today, and the lion’s share of that is via Apple platforms. I’d imagine that, like anything, it’s driven by a profit potential. They’re already pulling in more money than Microsoft or Sony pulls in from gaming, but adding another revenue stream wouldn’t hurt.
This is something I noticed with my MacBook recently that I just assumed was a fluke with me. I usually use GarageBand on my iPad, but needed to use it on my Mac for something that was only available on the Mac. Got everything hooked up, well into creating when I realized I never connected the cable to my AirPods Max! I was thinking, “Maybe I wasn’t looking when the screen said ‘You’re using bluetooth, there will be a delay’, but restarted GB and, nope, no warning. Hadn’t read anything else about the impressively low latency when combining the AirPods Max with MacBooks until just now.
It is indeed uncannily low and I don’t know why.
I actually think this is part of the plan… there are some that want Mac gaming and some that want macOS gaming.
Those that want Mac gaming (non-native macOS gaming on a Mac), this is great. Grab whatever Windows assets needed (including purchasing Windows executables), do some work and “presto”, good enough. An easy one to resolve as, if it doesn’t perform as well or the UI is non-conforming, no big deal, the user expects that.
There’s a larger group that want macOS gaming… buy from some store, install and enjoy. That’s where Apple STARTS with the Game Porting Tool Kit and shows developers that they don’t necessarily need a large Mac-only focused team. If all the coding’s already done, get it into Game Porting Tool Kit, find the discrepancies (and UI changes needed), and just code that. MUCH less effort than having to code every unique shader, geometry, lighting from scratch.
With the added bonus that, by using GPTK, you have a possibility to get that game in front of a gaming audience that spends more dollars per year than any other (iOS/iPadOS)! So, there’s a confluence of things going on that makes it more interesting to developers than before.
I get this one. If I didn’t make enough money to pay my car payment, and pay for gas to and from work, I wouldn’t be able to afford to work there. Then again, if I didn’t make more than $99 in a year developing an app for an App Store with millions of accounts in the US alone WITH credit cards/payment details attached so that purchasing becomes a low effort activity? I’d probably avoid developing on iOS, too.
Money. Video game industry is generating hundreds of billons of dollars per year.
It actually would be confusing for Apple NOT to try and make money in an industry that is growing like crazy when they control their entire ecosystem of software and hardware.
Given the slowdown of Mac sales and how long it takes to refresh the whole lineup, I’d expect them to opt for a slower pace. The differences with the M2 weren’t nearly large enough to justify the kind of annual upgrade cycle the iPhone gets. Better to bank up more dramatic improvements between Mac refreshes.
Why? Money is money and money talks. Both Microsoft and Apple have it in spades. Or do you think Nintendo likes Apple's blue eyes more than Microsoft's blue eyes?
I mean Nintendo has shown no interest in being owned by a Foreign company in the past. It is 100% likely that Apple won't let them have the level of autonomy they would want to keep making the style of games (and hardware) they currently do.
Are you developing games? The post you responded to was talking about game devs specifically.
Developing and compiling web applications likely doesn’t differ all that much.
I care to disagree. Unfortunately I have to use Visual Studio at work at times - wouldn't touch it with a pole. Its not that good
XCode is ... different ... but actually pretty good once one figured it out. As usual though, Apple tends to break things every other year.
I do t face any audio delay when using AirPods Max with Logic Pro. To be clear, I never physically connect my AirPods Max.
Agree. UI wise it’s a lot nicer than Visual Studio and Rider is a mess with its UI. However, Visual Studio has nicer features. And paired with ReSharper or using Rider, the experience is miles ahead of Xcode.
Apple being interested in gaming revenue makes sense. The road to get them there makes less sense.Money. Video game industry is generating hundreds of billons of dollars per year.
It actually would be confusing for Apple NOT to try and make money in an industry that is growing like crazy when they control their entire ecosystem of software and hardware.
The cost of gaming on a PC isn’t cheap right now so there is room in the market for Apple pricing to actually fit.
The problem is Apple doesn’t have anything in their lineup that really caters to AAA gamers.
For instance, games are starting to push 100GB on AAA games now. I have 4TB of NVMe SSDs in my gaming rig that cost $100 each (2x 2TB 980 Pro). Getting 4TB on a Mac would be ungodly expensive. But more importantly, I can’t swap to larger SSDs easily.
The same is true for components like my CPU and GPU.
On a Mac I need to swap the whole device to capture CPU and GPU improvements. Further increasing the cost to maintain.
My existing computer has PCIe 5 support so when the GTX 5090 arrives I can take advantage of its benefits just swapping that one part and replacing my GTX 3090.
The list goes on.
Apple could try to compete with consoles since they are delivering that kind of experience. But that will require heavy spending on their part as Sony and MS pay serious money for exclusivity on AAA games.
It just defies logic to me.
Unless the logic is to market AAA games with a few they can put on a poster every so often to showcase their “powerful hardware”. Then the goal is borderline deceptive marketing. So I hope it isn’t that.
You're making the assumption that because MS can't acquire Nintendo, it means Apple can't. Wrong assumption.