Counter-Strike 2 Lacks Mac Support, Update Breaks CS:GO for macOS

[MacRumors]

Valve this week released Counter-Strike 2, the highly anticipated free upgrade for owners of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but Mac owners were left in the lurch on launch day, with the upgrade breaking the game and seemingly no macOS version forthcoming.

The title's release on Wednesday forced a 26GB update for everyone with CS:GO, including Mac users, but after installation those on macOS soon discovered that the update essentially makes the game unplayable because Steam subsequently attempts to launch an executable file for Windows. Some users have had to employ a workaround to reverse the change and access CS:GO, but it's less than ideal.

Valve quietly removed the macOS symbol on Steam's Counter-Strike product page, while the only reference to this omission for Counter-Strike 2 appears in Valve's official FAQ. A question about Mac support is met with the response: "No. CS2 is not available for Mac at this time," but provides no additional information.

Regardless, Valve apparently failed to adequately warn Mac users, many of whom have racked up thousands of hours on CS:GO and spent hundreds of dollars on inventory purchases. One Mac gamer on Reddit wrote:

I have around 6,000 hours in CS:GO, about 500$ worth of inventory. Am I supposed to leave all that behind now? Just cherish them as memories of the past never to be experienced again? I really believed Valve would have released a macOS version CS2 too. They have publicly denounced Windows' gaming monopoly in the past. With MacOS Sonoma, powerful Apple silicon chips, and Apple making strides to make gaming possible on Mac (and Valve's commitment to making their games available to everyone) I guess we didn't see this coming. Or maybe we did, but we were stubborn. I guess with Valve's darling Steam Deck, macOS became redundant to them as a way to challenge windows gaming monopoly. I am sorry you guys had to hear this, but I feel so disappointed right now, in myself and in Valve. I'm sure most of you CS:GO players were as excited and hopeful as I was for the game's launch.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most popular and long-running games on macOS, with a large community following, so the lack of support and transparancy from Valve for Mac users upgrading to Counter-Strike 2 is all the more bewildering.

Based on recent updates to the CS2 macOS depot, some users believe a Mac version is in development, but it would likely relate to Rosetta 2 rather than a version that natively supports Apple silicon. With no word on the subject from Valve, this remains purely speculation.

The long-rumored game, officially announced in March, updates many much-loved maps, and uses Valve's in-house Source 2 engine, featuring sharper textures, more realistic lighting, and new geometry. We've reached out to Valve for comment on this story and will update readers if we hear back.

(Thanks, Scott!)

Article Link: Counter-Strike 2 Lacks Mac Support, Update Breaks CS:GO for macOS

 

[Bustycat]

Will we see "Steam lacks Mac Support" someday?

 

[iZac]

Retaliation for Apple's shenanigans with Valve in the Epic case? We're never going to get Half Life: Alyx on the VisionPro

 

[sack_peak]

> I have around 6000 hours in the csgo about 500$ worth inventory and I am supposed to leave all that behind now.

He would be better served moving to a gaming PC Steam Deck than wait for an update to fix that problem.

 

[MR_ENJOYER]

“AAA gaming platform”

 

[iBluetooth]

Did they forget to change the availability platform settings, allowing the download only for Windows users. This is a cluster**** for people downloading 26GB to find out that it only doesn't work, but messes up their previous game install.

 

[Jeeg]

The game is also a mess on Windows. I run 7950X3D and RTX4090 but I barely get 300fps, this game looks significantly worse than Overwatch 2 and I get 600fps on that. Not to mention when I look at the performance metrics CS2 only uses 10% of my CPU and 30% of my GPU. It is just unoptimized trash.

 

[OwlBundy]

You don’t buy windows for Apple / App Store support and catalog you don’t buy Mac for gaming. If you do you’re foolish everyone knows this it’s not new. CS isn’t an intensive game (Steam Deck can run it well) so you can get a playable experience on a cheap windows machine.

 

[Nugat Trailers]

A disappointing, but not surprising move by Valve.

This is the company that has yet to give any comment about Steam being updated for M series Macs, despite their making up approximately 65% of Macs on Steam.

 

[Nugat Trailers]

You don’t buy windows for Apple / App Store support and catalog you don’t buy Mac for gaming. If you do you’re foolish everyone knows this it’s not new. CS isn’t an intensive game (Steam Deck can run it well) so you can get a playable experience on a cheap windows machine.

I'll doublepost.

Counter Strike 2 is surprisingly awful on Steam Deck right now

Frame rate and optimization issues currently leave CS2 anything but playable on Steam Deck, but it appears that Valve is working quickly to fix things.

www.pcgamesn.com

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/16tws1m

And please note, there's a difference between buying a Mac for gaming, and playing games on a Mac.

 

[timber]

Retaliation for Apple's shenanigans with Valve in the Epic case? We're never going to get Half Life: Alyx on the VisionPro

More likely it's just apathy and indifference.
They will come around supporting the Mac once the launch and all relevant tasks are taken care of.

 

[Kraszim]

The question is can people who still have CS:GO installed, without this update, play the game normally, or is CS2 an required update?

 

[Nugat Trailers]

The question is can people who still have CS:GO installed, without this update, play the game normally, or is CS2 an required update?

CSGO's dead, entirely replaced by CS2.

 

[Phaseangle]

I would complain to Steam support,
but ....

 

[k1121j]

Yay for game mode. /s.

The only game I play on any Apple platform now is COD mobile, we all know it’s days are numbered once Microsoft gets it hands on Activision. Serious gaming on Apple is dead. ☠️

 

[com.B]

The most striking thing is that they called it “Counter-Strike 2”. As if they want you to forget there were Counter-Strike games with no in-app purchases in them.

 

[J.A.K.]

Wait, there are people who can get Steam to work on Mac at all?

 

[Yujenisis]

Serious gaming on Apple is dead. ☠️

Maybe for the expensive AAA games. I play mostly Paradox strategy games and Indie titles and rarely find games (*ahem* Valheim), that don’t offer Mac support. It can be argued, a game like Hearts of Iron IV that takes roughly 60 hours just to get a grip on the mechanics is a far more “serious” game than a pick-up-and-play loot box shooter.

Let’s be fair, there’s plenty of great games on Mac, just not the most-marketed ones. But I’ll absolutely admit that is a big problem, especially since the days of Apple building machines with mediocre 3D cards is over with Apple Silicon.

I fear what would happen if Valve dropped Mac support for Steam. The App Store simply will never have that draw amongst game developers.

 

[baryon]

I'm sorry but why would anyone expect any game to work on Macs? Macs have never supported gaming in any real way and never will. If you want to game, you need Windows, there is no way around that, there never was. Apple not only does not help developers in this, they also make extra efforts to impede game development for some reason. They don't want games on their platform.

 

[Richard Tillard]

I tried all the options starting and ending with Whisky, Crossover and Parallels, and finally decided to just play through GeForce Now. A little disappointed that macOS support was never brought in, considering how well Dota 2 works on macOS.

 

[madebybela]

I barely get 300fps

lmao I bet most people wish they had that problem

 

[ksgant]

You don’t buy windows for Apple / App Store support and catalog you don’t buy Mac for gaming. If you do you’re foolish everyone knows this it’s not new. CS isn’t an intensive game (Steam Deck can run it well) so you can get a playable experience on a cheap windows machine.

This is kind of a **** response. If you've played this for YEARS on Mac, and have it play well (it's not a taxing game), then suddenly it's like "oopsie, you can't play anymore...should have bought a Windows machine 5 years ago instead...it's your fault".

If you start playing a game and it's on your platform, then suddenly it's taken off your platform, how is that "foolish"?

 

[Torty]

This is kind of a **** response. If you've played this for YEARS on Mac, and have it play well (it's not a taxing game), then suddenly it's like "oopsie, you can't play anymore...should have bought a Windows machine 5 years ago instead...it's your fault".

If you start playing a game and it's on your platform, then suddenly it's taken off your platform, how is that "foolish"?

As I understand it’s a new game. Apple too likes cutting support for older devices/software if they release something new.

 

[litmag01]

Was there no pre-release compatibility notification?

 

[PsykX]

Wait, there are people who can get Steam to work on Mac at all?

Haha. Glad I'm not the only one to realize how much Steam has always sucked on the Mac.