You need a developer account to notarize your Mac app. That's the key he's talking about. Yes, technically you don't have to do that but then user's get scary warnings. It's not practical to not do that.
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Major gaming news at WWDC: Metal and New games
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Get your facts straight. That is the percentage of Linux usage alone. 42.31% of Linux users use SteamOS Holo, not 42.31% of Steam users.
This is the percentage based on the total Steam usage. 0.1% of Steam users (Win/Mac/Linux) use Arch Linux, meaning 0.1% of Steam users use Steam Deck.
I'm aware...
Steam doesn't bin SteamOS with Arch Linux. That 0.1% comes from the 7.54% of Linux Steam users that use Arch (1.39x0.0754 =0.1). Note the the four shown there aren't anywhere close to adding up to 1.39%?
42.31% of Linux users on Steam use SteamOS Holo (Which is Steam OS 3). 42.31% of 1.39% is 0.588% which lines up with the GPU numbers.
You need your game notarized to publish on Steam. Apple’s force Valve to do this since 2019, which is one of the factors for the Mojave/Catalina mass developer exodus
Platforms (Steamworks Documentation)
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Salamander is right you're looking at the wrong chart.
SteamOS and Steam Deck on top for Linux in the Steam Hardware Survey
The latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey is out now for September 2022, with it showing that clearly the Steam Deck with SteamOS is the most popular way now to game on Linux.
You gotta click the platform dropdown and select Linux Only for SteamOS Holo to appear, most likely due to an error on Valve's part forgetting to add Holo to the main page.
Here just read the privacy policy yourself https://store.steampowered.com/privacy_agreement/
I feel like we’re in the South Park episode Human CentiPad at this point with how few people here actually read the EULAs they agree to.
It's a macOS app made in Xcode. But anyway, how long does it take to have any app notarized, compared to the development of a game? A couple of days? And after solving initial issues, how hard can it be to notarize it again?
I can understand why you wouldn't support macOS, but this Pirate Games dude didn't come with any valid reason. He could have just said that developing for macOS just ins't worth it, it would have been more honest.
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It's not just for initial releases. Updates require notarization as well regardless if it's a big patch that adds new content or a small bugfix, and if your game is a multiplayer game with crossplay across multiple platforms then now everyone is having to wait for the Mac version to be notarized before they can get the update. It's one of the reasons Valve doesn't do console games anymore as any update to their multiplayer games would have to wait for store approval from Microsoft and Sony, and they don't want their players to have to wait on a finished update because of a platform holder making them wait on a review.
Again, how long does it take to have an update notarized? One day?
I think game developers can afford it, especially if they are serious about security. There's a reason behind notarization. Of course, if they don't want to support the Mac, who can force them?
As Pirate Software shows if something was found to be broken after notarizing you gotta go through notarization again. It may not seem long but that time adds up.
Uhh...the GTA 3D Trilogy was already on iPhone and iPad since 2011. This is the "remasters" coming over, you know, this mistake:
Still think low poly looks bad like you said about Half Life 1?
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On the topic of Steam Surveys:
I would wager (though by how much I’m not sure) that Linux is over represented given the success of the Steam Deck, and MacOS is underrepresented given that Mac users that play games probably have a dedicated PC for that.
And we should keep in mind that the results also may be skewed by internet cafes and the fact that many people have more than one device.
I really don’t see anything wrong with not supporting Mac for whatever reason, though I would be disappointed for games that I enjoy.
I would wager (though by how much I’m not sure) that Linux is over represented given the success of the Steam Deck, and MacOS is underrepresented given that Mac users that play games probably have a dedicated PC for that.
And we should keep in mind that the results also may be skewed by internet cafes and the fact that many people have more than one device.
Which is what has been said by 90% of developers when questioned why there isn’t a Mac port.
I really don’t see anything wrong with not supporting Mac for whatever reason, though I would be disappointed for games that I enjoy.
Proton's success is due to Valve's full support with the sole purpose of selling Steam Decks. As long as Apple doesn't do a similar thing by replacing Metal with a Proton-like solution native Mac ports will not disappear.
Proton was good even before the Steam Deck, as Proton was a collaborative effort between Valve, Codeweavers, and the Linux community at large with contributors like GloriousEggroll. Plus, Valve is selling Steam Decks at a loss as their goal with the Deck is to get people to try Linux and reduce the industry's dependency on Windows, a goal they've had ever since Windows 8 prompted them to make Steam for Linux.
Do you even know anything about Linux?
Here are some results from the latest State of the Game survey from the annual Games Developer Conference back in March where more than 2300 developers participated.
26% were developing games for iOS and 18% for Mac. 24% were going to make a new game for iOS and 16% for Mac. Compare that to 1.19% Mac gamers on Steam. It also shows that Nintendo Switch and Mac are pretty close when it comes to current and future games under development.
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14% interested for Mac, versus 64% for PC...on a multiple choice selection
You are really not helping your case to why macOS shouldn't have compatibility layers.
Well … I’d think Valve’s goal is to get folks to buy more stuffs from Steam. Linux is just a convenient platform for them since there’re generally no licensing restrictions.
I will find it hard to believe that any for profit company cares to promote the use of Linux as its goal or mission without any returns. I don’t think they will last.
Just drop the compatibility layer idea.... Get it out of your head.
It's never going to work as well on MacOS as it does on Linux because of the huge hardware differences.
Linux PCs use the same hardware as Windows PCs... Translation is a lot less painful there.
Apples GPUs are TDBR, and their CPUs are ARM.... The performance hit is huge when it comes to translation... Especially with the differences in GPUs.
I don't think you understand Valve that well. Valve doesn't do things just for profit. They do the things they do because they wanna do them. They're not publicly traded, they are fully independent and can do whatever they want. It's how we get crazy new things from them like the Steam Controller, virtual reality, the Steam Deck, and well, STEAM!
One of the reasons they push for Linux adoption so much is for that freedom. The sole reason Steam for Linux even exists is because many developers feared that Microsoft was gonna create a walled garden ecosystem with Windows 8 RT, so Valve wanted Steam and all of the developers' games available on Linux as a just in case scenario if there needed to be a mass exodus from Windows.
Why does the Steam Deck run Linux? Blame Windows
The Steam Deck and its Linux-based software are the culmination of a decade-long "hedging strategy" by Valve after the Windows 8 disaster.
www.pcworld.com
Proton used to be painful too. The first few years Proton ran horribly. Games ran half of how they normally ran on Windows. Years of work from Valve and the Linux community at large and now Proton has become so good that many games are running better on Linux through Proton than they did natively on Windows. Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy are two examples.
How Valve’s Long-Standing Embrace of Linux Is Helping Games Run Better
Coding wizardry is what happens when 'Elden Ring' on a Steam Deck can run better on Linux than Windows.
www.vice.com
In late 2021 Valve held a virtual Q&A about development on the Steam Deck, and when asked if Valve would prefer developers do native ports or Proton, Pierre-Loup Griffais said "We have no strong preference. Really, it comes down to whatever is the best experience. So if it's easier for the developer to get to a point where the best experience is achieved through Proton we think that's great. But if they have the know-how or the resources to work on a native Linux build, that has a great experience and has all the functionality and they're able to maintain it, we think that's even better."
So ultimately it does not matter if it's a native port or a compatibility layer. Games are games, and it's always better to go to the optimal setup rather than be locked down to only one way of doing things. Look at how many people got excited seeing their favorite games in a playable state on macOS through GPTK. It got people talking about the Mac in a positive light and thinking "maybe Mac gaming is possible," even me.