Apple Launches Sale on Mac App Store Games

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Valve's games are a lot cheaper. I got CIV VI for 0,25€ from Steam, while in the Mac App Store it's 75€

Yeah.

From my (local, EU) perspective, these discounts only bring the games down to about the MSRP that these games sold for at launch.

I don't care if the devs or Apple have extra costs associated with letting me play one of these purchases on every Apple device I own.

Nearly all of these discounted prices are still just too steep to justify. Only a fraction are a really good deal.

Gamers have too many options on other platforms that both offer a bigger selection of games and lower prices, especially during sales.

 

[jlnr]

I understand the need for multiple game storefronts such as epic and steam and others but the App Store has ZERO community features and makes owning games there feel terribly lonely and pointless

I will never forgive Apple for killing Game Center because some bozo was upset about the felt texture. It was great to just open the app and see what your friends are up to (even if it was just mobile games).

The selection of games in the article is absolutely great. But if Epic Games cannot lure people away from the Steam ecosystem after handing out several years' worth of free games every week, then what's Apple's plan?

 

[Shirasaki]

an actual GAME STOREFRONT

Maybe Apple will try to argue their Apple Arcade subscription service is their storefront response to the likes of Steam etc. Just saying.

 

[jayryco]

I will never forgive Apple for killing Game Center because some bozo was upset about the felt texture. It was great to just open the app and see what your friends are up to (even if it was just mobile games).

Game Center is still a thing but it's been hidden away in a dark corner and even then it's a complete lacklustre attempt at a gaming profile.

Maybe Apple will try to argue their Apple Arcade subscription service is their storefront response to the likes of Steam etc. Just saying.

Apple Arcade is mostly laughable and really only has a very few games worth anything at all and I think if it wasn't for Apple One subscriptions absorbing the costs then it would most likely be a huge financial loss and failure as a service.

Apple and Valve (and even Epic is in this convo) need to get their s**t together and actually do something for the community - they will both benefit by having more gamers and its absurd that they are so stubborn to work with each other when its so clearly an opportunity for them all to win. EA even added full support to EA app and SIMS 4 because they understand how simple it is.

I find it absurd that Apple is so willing to work with Blackmagic and even show DaVinci Resolve all over their keynote when they are clearly direct competitors in the NLE realm with Final Cut - yet Apple and Valve are hardly direct competitors on anything really yet that are both so unwilling to work together on a mutually beneficial pursuit, like wtf??

 

[macduke]

Is Valheim any good? I’ve been thinking about trying it. I like open world rpg style games.

 

[d686546s]

The selection of games in the article is absolutely great. But if Epic Games cannot lure people away from the Steam ecosystem after of handing out several years' worth of free games every week, then what's Apple's plan?

I'd assume Apple's secret weapon is the iPhone, assuming (and that's debatable for sure) that AAA gaming on mobile phones takes off. Outside of the EU Valve, or anyone else for that matter, couldn't put a store on your phone and so they couldn't offer games universally across devices.

Then again the Mac player base isn't that massive to begin with, so maybe that's not really such a big draw.

 

[Shirasaki]

I find it absurd that Apple is so willing to work with Blackmagic and even show DaVinci Resolve all over their keynote when they are clearly direct competitors in the NLE realm with Final Cut - yet Apple and Valve are hardly direct competitors on anything really yet that are both so unwilling to work together on a mutually beneficial pursuit, like wtf??

Maybe, just maybe, they want these token actions to show the world that they care about “healthy competition” than what people actually interpret from other Apple’s anti-competitive behaviours? Aka PR stunt?

Or maybe Apple in its core still hates gaming on their platforms, allowing freemium mobile games to fester only because of the absurd profit potential. Otherwise it is quite difficult to understand their stubbornness and reluctance in working with the likes of Steam.

 

[galad]

What would "working with Steam" imply? Giving Valve money? Bringing back 32-bit to make Valve games run?

 

[Nugat Trailers]

Maybe, just maybe, they want these token actions to show the world that they care about “healthy competition” than what people actually interpret from other Apple’s anti-competitive behaviours? Aka PR stunt?

Or maybe Apple in its core still hates gaming on their platforms, allowing freemium mobile games to fester only because of the absurd profit potential. Otherwise it is quite difficult to understand their stubbornness and reluctance in working with the likes of Steam.

You've obviously never tried getting in contact with Valve.

Huge protest going on atm, #fixTF2, trying to get bots fixed. Been going on for nearly 3 weeks.

No response from Valve.

 

[foobarbaz]

With developer permission, I hope. Though Apple should forego their 30% cut for such sales anyway.

Developers always set the prices. The only thing Apple probably did here was to offer to feature them.

Apple selectively dropping their commission would be unfair to all other devs, IMO (even more than featuring already is). Not that they shouldn't reduce their commission in general …

 

[MilaM]

Wow. 34,1 GB space required for the Resident Evil game.

Do these games also run decently when launched from external SSDs? I don't think I have enough space on my precious internal drive.

 

[EntropyQ3]

Wow. 34,1 GB space required for the Resident Evil game.

Do these games also run decently when launched from external SSDs? I don't think I have enough space on my precious internal drive.

Yes.
They can run from spinning rust, 3GB/s external TB drives are (wonderful) overkill.

The observation that Apples SSD pricing is incompatible with gaming is valid though.

 

[MilaM]

They can run from spinning rust, 3GB/s external TB drives are (wonderful) overkill.

Good to know. By spinning rust you mean mechanical drive?

I'm looking for an external SSD right now. Unfortunately most Thunderbolt drives are quite expensive. I was hoping a bit that maybe USB4/Thunderbolt would drive prices down for higher end external SSDs. So far that hasn't materialized though.

 

[nottorp]

Well if you must buy your games from Apple's store, there are some good titles there. But you should get them from Steam where you get multiple platforms for the price of one, and they're probably much cheaper.

At the least Disco Elysium is the same price on Steam today.

Do these games also run decently when launched from external SSDs? I don't think I have enough space on my precious internal drive.

My games are all on an usb 3 connected sata ssd and they run fine. I'm sure they would load faster if they were on the internal drive but yes, space the final frontier.

 

[EntropyQ3]

Good to know. By spinning rust you mean mechanical drive?

I'm looking for an external SSD right now. Unfortunately most Thunderbolt drives are quite expensive. I was hoping a bit that maybe USB4/Thunderbolt would drive prices down for higher end external SSDs. So far that hasn't materialized though.

My solution was an external cabinet, and slotting in an m.2 drive of my choice. There is a thread here on the forum about such cabinets. They are dropping in price too, since AsMedias USB4 chipset has become available.

 

[MOFS]

Game Center is still a thing but it's been hidden away in a dark corner and even then it's a complete lacklustre attempt at a gaming profile.


Apple Arcade is mostly laughable and really only has a very few games worth anything at all and I think if it wasn't for Apple One subscriptions absorbing the costs then it would most likely be a huge financial loss and failure as a service.

Apple and Valve (and even Epic is in this convo) need to get their s**t together and actually do something for the community - they will both benefit by having more gamers and its absurd that they are so stubborn to work with each other when its so clearly an opportunity for them all to win. EA even added full support to EA app and SIMS 4 because they understand how simple it is.

I find it absurd that Apple is so willing to work with Blackmagic and even show DaVinci Resolve all over their keynote when they are clearly direct competitors in the NLE realm with Final Cut - yet Apple and Valve are hardly direct competitors on anything really yet that are both so unwilling to work together on a mutually beneficial pursuit, like wtf??

Apple Arcade has universally excellent reviews. It is focused on indie iPhone/ iPad games but there’s also been some massive games on it recently - Stardew Valley and Football Manager Touch which is a great version of the game.

There seems to be more confidence in Mac gaming at the moment - the new Assassin's Creed game coming out Day 1 is really interesting, plus Konami support as well. Interesting times.

 

[orbital~debris]

Disco Elysium.

If you like your games with exquisite writing, complex characters, a unique sense of world building, and have never played it, you owe it to yourself to check it out. The game literally has the depth of a well-written novel.

I only heard about this game for the first time around a month ago (satisfyingly tracked it down from a piece of artwork I'd seen).

I'd put it on my list of games to play, but I see it is also on sale on Steam. Does anyone know if, in general, the Mac App Store version is a better or worse option than the Steam Mac version – from the perspective of regular maintenance, performance & bug-fixes etc. And does anyone have any advice regarding this game specifically?

 

[neuropsychguy]

Is Valheim any good? I’ve been thinking about trying it. I like open world rpg style games.

I like it and I don’t generally like survival games. Valheim is done right, in my opinion. I’m not sure if you will like it, but it’s very popular and highly rated.

It's sometimes described as Minecraft for adults.

 

[MilaM]

My solution was an external cabinet, and slotting in an m.2 drive of my choice. There is a thread here on the forum about such cabinets. They are dropping in price too, since AsMedias USB4 chipset has become available.

I have also looked into NVMe drive cases with USB4. They have some advantages like working TRIM and SMART reporting, but I think I would prefer a more compact external drive like Samsung is selling with the T-series. There is also often the question of Mac compatibility. If you want something with proven good Mac support, like what OWC is selling, then you have to spend even more money. It's really not fun shopping for external SSD drives when you have a limited budget and care about performance.

 

[galad]

I only heard about this game for the first time around a month ago (satisfyingly tracked it down from a piece of artwork I'd seen).

I'd put it on my list of games to play, but I see it is also on sale on Steam. Does anyone know if, in general, the Mac App Store version is a better or worse option than the Steam Mac version – from the perspective of regular maintenance, performance & bug-fixes etc. And does anyone have any advice regarding this game specifically?

It's the same, but if you want to play it on something that's not a Mac, it would be better to get it on Steam or something else.

 

[Shirasaki]

You've obviously never tried getting in contact with Valve.

Huge protest going on atm, #fixTF2, trying to get bots fixed. Been going on for nearly 3 weeks.

No response from Valve.

Ok, I acknowledge that valve has its own problems. But what’s this having anything to do with Apple refusing to work with them? Toxicity?

 

[jayryco]

There seems to be more confidence in Mac gaming at the moment - the new Assassin's Creed game coming out Day 1 is really interesting, plus Konami support as well. Interesting times.

The problem is that the new assassins creed is only available on the App Store, same as the Kojima games, and the RE games that have been on steam for YEARS don't have their Mac versions available because they are exclusive to App Store.

Fragmenting gamers libraries is not exactly a good way to win them over. I would very quickly buy the RE games, Death Stranding, AC Shadows, Stray, the new prince of Persia if they were available for Mac on Steam. I feel like a lot of Mac gamers would feel similarly if it was even an option, and potentially it would open the platform to more gamers switching from windows.
Alas we must buy our games through a subpar game storefront that is the App Store and be grateful they doing anything at all - no forums, no friends list, no chat features, no game time or dedicated game library, no mod support.

And additionally sales of games are so low on App Store that most devs just stop patching and updating their games altogether leaving Mac gaming in more of a sad place because Mac games notoriously are far more buggy than windows counterparts - this is even evident in the excellent selling BG3 which is not nearly as polished on Mac as Windows, and in that case Larian did everything right.

It's so bad for Apple that they even have time their sales to try and match steam like the joke it is. Someone even said earlier that Epic have been giving games away for years to try pull gamers away from steam and yet it remains the defacto game marketplace.
Sure Apple can milk mobile gaming and its huge cashflow, but AAA gaming is also big money and they shooting themselves in the foot by approaching it in the same way as mobile.

The solution is simple: All Mac ports on Steam (and App Store too). Full native steam support for apple silicon. EASY.

Then they can keep up the gaming 'push' that they have been doing since apple silicon launched. Eventually Epic can add support again, get Fortnite on Mac again. It would also be nice if we got native ports of big games like CS2 and Dota because of sheer popularity.

 

[Arcus]

Valheim runs fantastic but if you go fullscreen on an external you might find that your system locks up. If so you have to run it with your laptop closed.

 

[Surrylic]

Did anyone else find Death Stranding too dark?

Not at all. Just… weird.

 

[Nekronos]

Yes.
They can run from spinning rust, 3GB/s external TB drives are (wonderful) overkill.

The observation that Apples SSD pricing is incompatible with gaming is valid though.

Apple's SSD and RAM pricing is incompatible with pretty much anything. It's just pure greed and they can get away with it because they have a monopoly on the hardware market, they will never change their pricing strategy unless their sales suffer enough.