@maflynn Exactly! incentives drive everything. For Apple or devs to take Mac AAA seriously, the return has to compete with Switch, Steam Deck, Windows handhelds or even cloud subscriptions. Right now those categories have far larger gaming-focused audiences. I agree cloud hasn’t grown as fast as expected either partly because the experience is still uneven depending on ISP and geography.
@Plutonius True that Apple is profitable in gaming but it’s almost entirely via iPhone/iPad and the App Store ecosystem. That’s the heart of the business & not Macs or Apple TV. For Apple to lean into AAA they’d be shifting attention away from where they already print money.
@dmccloud Your setup illustrates the practical reality well. Local network streaming (Steam Play / Remote Play) sidesteps the latency issues that GeForce Now can’t always solve and it leverages hardware you already own instead of adding another subscription. It also underscores the core limitation: Apple Silicon Macs are powerful in many ways but without Nvidia-class GPUs and without a huge gaming user base they’ll always trail dedicated PCs when it comes to native or even local-streamed AAA performance.
So whether it’s cloud, wrappers or ports the theme stays the same: Apple can support gaming but it won’t ever be their primary focus because the opportunity cost vs mobile/services is just too high.
You don't need an "Nvidia-class" GPU - both AMD and Intel have some GPUs more than capable of running most games smoothly, and without the increased cost, power draw, or melting power connector issues as Nvidia cards.