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PC gaming is characterized by the extremely heterogenous computing environment, which is also the main reason why games are buggy and the PC gaming hardware is over dimensioned. Gaming APIs need to cater to the least common denominator, which is inefficient. Macs do not have this problem, they only differ in the level of performance offered, which can be easily accommodated.
So I think if Apple wants to be successful in the gaming segment, they need to treat their devices as consoles — both from the developer perspective and the marketing perspective. There is a lot of work to be done still. The development environment is not stable enough (devs frequently complain about subtle bugs and unpredictable behavior of Metal), the tooling is not there yet, and most importantly, there is not enough incentive to target Macs as gaming devices.
You make an excellent point— Apple should, because of its integration, be able to provide an ideal, console-like development environment. But, as you also say, they currently don't.
When the M1 was initially accounted I was among the optimists who believed that Mac gaming will "naturally" enjoy a new era of revival. That didn't really happen. So now I am inclined to agree with those who have argued that in order to change the tides Apple needs to launch a console-like device....
By "console" do you mean a computing box (like a PlayStation) or an integrated device (like a Switch Lite)?
And correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you're saying that, because of Apple's failure to create a proper game development environment in MacOS, Apple should instead create a new 'ConsoleOS' that is gaming-optimized, and stick it into a console-like device.
But if developers aren't willing to port their top games to an existing user base (AS Macs), why would they be willing to do that for an entirely new device (a Mac console) with no pre-existing user base, even if the development environment is nicer?
Yes, MS was able to enter the market with XBox in 2001, but that was a very different time, when the market was less saturated. Even with that, they took a huge financial loss to start, some of which I'm guessing was for subsidizing game development for the XBox—and I'm further guessing that was at a time when development of AAA games was much less expensive, even after accounting for inflation.
Also, isn't the sucessful business model for consoles the razor blade model? [I.e., sell the hardware at about cost, and make the money on games sales.] I don't know if Apple would be willing to do that.
I think if Apple wanted to pursue this, they shouldn't make an entirely separate console, with its own OS. The Mini is close to a computing-box-style console already. I believe it would make more sense, and take less resources, to instead fix MacOS's development environment and create a modified Mini that's more gaming-optimized, while keeping the price palatable. Then any games created for it could also be played on the remainder of the AS Mac user base.