Overwatch not coming to Mac OS X

[marksatt]

The 5K iMac GPU isnt really capable even though spec-wise it could be (in 1440p).

Please note that I said 1080p. Not 1440p, not 4K and certainly not 5K. Just 1920x1080p. The GPU in the Retina iMacs, specifically the higher end versions, are pretty decent. Not top-of-the-line 300W monsters, but conceivably fast enough to run a AAA game at 1080p @ 60Hz.

That is because of thermal throttling when you start using it.

The new 2015 model has been modified such that this is not an issue - at least according to reviews. The 2014 versions did have throttling, but it shouldn't have prevented them playing games well. In fact in the reviews I've seen the old M295X model outperforms the newer M395X model - despite thermal throttling.

I just got an iMac with the M395X at work & I'm looking forward to stretching its legs.

So no, Macs are not and have never been made for people that want to kick back and play some games in between working sessions.

That's cobblers - the iMac line has never been intended primarily for work. Each generation was explicitly designed for & marketed to consumers. Various Macs have shipped with games as part of their Apple software bundle (Nanosaur in the early iMacs like my Rev C., Actua Soccer with a PowerMac 6500... etc) because Apple do know their consumers want to play some games, both AAA & otherwise. They just don't spec. their lineup like gaming PCs because that's also not their primary purpose.

 

[MichalM.Mac]

Please note that I said 1080p. Not 1440p, not 4K and certainly not 5K. Just 1920x1080p. The GPU in the Retina iMacs, specifically the higher end versions, are pretty decent. Not top-of-the-line 300W monsters, but conceivably fast enough to run a AAA game at 1080p @ 60Hz.

I really like your insider tech post explaining things. Have you considered blog about Mac development? I would certainly read it

 

[Mercury]

It's unfortunate but the iMac is essentially the high end of mac gaming. Yes, OW will be able to run on it and future iMacs, but can most macs in the wild run it?

 

[koyoot]

http://www.gamersnexus.net/game-bench/2200-overwatch-gpu-benchmark-and-fps-tests

That is hell of a lot well optimized game. Apple, hurry up with Metal so Blizz can bring it to OS X

 

[koyoot]

Also, D700, and M295X, M395X should be in the range of R9 380X(The same core which is in 380X is in M395X with lower core cooks in M395X).

M395 is the same level as R9 285 and M390 and FirePro D300 is around the same as 270X. FirePro D500 should be a bit quicker than 270X.

 

[cycledance]

another ******** response from blizzard:

will overwatch ever come to mac?

MissCheetah- Technical Support

Not likely. Apple has not kept up with the modern gaming graphics requirements. You can read more here about an interview with the OW Dev team. http://www.pcgamesn.com/overwatch/h...verwatch-and-how-there-could-be-in-the-future

http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20744924333

all recent macs (and most of them for years) exceed their minimum system requirements. https://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/7636

the truth is that blizzard has not kept up with metal. and all other blizzard games run fine on mac.

as a customer for almost 20 years i will never spend money on any of activision blizzards products again.

 

[Cougarcat]

another ******** response from blizzard:

the truth is that blizzard has not kept up with metal. and all other blizzard games run fine on mac.

as an almost 20 year long customer i will never spend money on any of activision blizzards products again.

Metal isn't sufficient for the latest AAA games as it's lacking in features they need, and Overwatch isn't running on an old engine like their other games.

Cross your fingers for Metal 2.0 at WWDC.

 

[JordanNZ]

another ******** response from blizzard:

will overwatch ever come to mac?

MissCheetah- Technical Support

Not likely. Apple has not kept up with the modern gaming graphics requirements. You can read more here about an interview with the OW Dev team. http://www.pcgamesn.com/overwatch/h...verwatch-and-how-there-could-be-in-the-future

http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20744924333

all recent macs (and most of them for years) exceed their minimum system requirements. https://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/7636

the truth is that blizzard has not kept up with metal. and all other blizzard games run fine on mac.

as a customer for almost 20 years i will never spend money on any of activision blizzards products again.

That post is from an MVP, not a Blizzard employee.

 

[cycledance]

That post is from an MVP, not a Blizzard employee.

good catch. looked pretty official to me tho.

 

[Janichsan]

That post is from an MVP, not a Blizzard employee.

…but she basically paraphrases and references to the (already known) statement from a Blizzard official:

“It was a result of not having all the technological support we needed to make the game viable on Mac systems.” says Kaplan, referring to Apple’s policies with OSX. “We have a real love and dedication for Mac players, they’ve been extremely loyal to us and we love giving them Blizzard games.

“But when dealing with the PC, the Xbox One and the PS4 - all of which are extremely welcoming to the technological needs to run a next-generation shooter - in a lot of ways we felt left behind, that we weren’t given the support we needed to make a great product on the Mac.”

Or, put short: "Apple has not kept up with the modern gaming graphics requirements."

 

[Washac]

…but she basically paraphrases and references to the (already known) statement from a Blizzard official:


Or, put short: "Apple has not kept up with the modern gaming graphics requirements."

Think you have it it one there, and I do not think they are going to either.

 

[JordanNZ]

Think you have it it one there, and I do not think they are going to either.

There are only two main things lacking in Metal currently that can't be worked around in some situations.
Geometry shaders, and Tessellation shaders.

Once those are added, expect a lot less bickering.

They WILL add features to Metal. And you'll probably hear about them at WWDC.

 

[antonis]

There are only two main things lacking in Metal currently that can't be worked around in some situations.
Geometry shaders, and Tessellation shaders.

Once those are added, expect a lot less bickering.

They WILL add features to Metal. And you'll probably hear about them at WWDC.

They'll probably do that, eventually. However, in the meanwhile, another percent of the trust devs have on Mac as a gaming platform will be lost (and it is a low percent to begin with). If apple would just keep supporting latest opengl while developing metal, none of these would happen. But they love alienation so much, they can't help it.

 

[MacAlien]

the truth is that blizzard has not kept up with metal. and all other blizzard games run fine on mac.

as a customer for almost 20 years i will never spend money on any of activision blizzards products again.

Um what? It's all over the internet how lacking Metal is. Blizzard can only do so much with an incomplete product. But hey, keep thinking it's all these game developers faults. >.<

Why would Apple only add features in at WWDC? It's standard stuff, not some touted new found discovery in favor of Apple. It hasn't happened yet, it most likely won't happen at some conference.

 

[Irishman]

Why would Apple only add features in at WWDC? It's standard stuff, not some touted new found discovery in favor of Apple. It hasn't happened yet, it most likely won't happen at some conference.

You're forgetting just how much Apple loves to make a big deal about things. What better opportunity than with a big announcement to devs at dub dub regarding the addition of features to Metal, features that should have been there all along?

 

[Cougarcat]

Why would Apple only add features in at WWDC? It's standard stuff, not some touted new found discovery in favor of Apple. It hasn't happened yet, it most likely won't happen at some conference.

Because 10.12 and iOS 10 will be previewed there. By and large, Apple doesn't release new OS features at other times, especially developer-related ones. Metal was a very "1.0" release, and if they don't address its shortcomings next month I'll be surprised.

 

[DevNull0]

It's funny though. The MBP forums are full of people saying nobody needs that much CPU or GPU power. Over there, they say Apple should be cutting down the size of the MBP even more and not pander to the 2% of users who think they need more power.

Then people are surprised and anorexic Apple can't run modern AAA games.

The iPad and iPhone are "desktop" class because Apple has gimped their "desktop".

 

[antonis]

It's funny though. The MBP forums are full of people saying nobody needs that much CPU or GPU power. Over there, they say Apple should be cutting down the size of the MBP even more and not pander to the 2% of users who think they need more power.

Then people are surprised and anorexic Apple can't run modern AAA games.

The iPad and iPhone are "desktop" class because Apple has gimped their "desktop".

It's very easy to see they are wrong saying MBP doesn't need a better gpu. A retina MPB 15" (2015 model) is the machine I use everyday at work. Using the integrated graphics on medium retina resolution, it struggles with expose (I use multiple desktops and windows at the same time, so I constantly switching using expose gestures). If I turn the resolution to high (retina) things get much more worst. This is not the expected behavior for an expensive "pro" machine.

I'm very curious to see what the new MBPs will bring on this matter. Integrated GPUs and retina has proved to be a very bad combination.

 

[MacAlien]

You're forgetting just how much Apple loves to make a big deal about things. What better opportunity than with a big announcement to devs at dub dub regarding the addition of features to Metal, features that should have been there all along?

Sad but true!

Because 10.12 and iOS 10 will be previewed there. By and large, Apple doesn't release new OS features at other times, especially developer-related ones. Metal was a very "1.0" release, and if they don't address its shortcomings next month I'll be surprised.

Possible. But forgetting, Apple is way behind in even basic supporting their own OS and hardware. They seem to have zero issues with leaving things in a very 1.0 state.

It's funny though. The MBP forums are full of people saying nobody needs that much CPU or GPU power. Over there, they say Apple should be cutting down the size of the MBP even more and not pander to the 2% of users who think they need more power.

Then people are surprised and anorexic Apple can't run modern AAA games.

The iPad and iPhone are "desktop" class because Apple has gimped their "desktop".

Every time I've read that thread, I always want to start yelling at those wanting smaller, more compact, etc... And like I said in that thread a couple times, let the MacBooks go smaller and more compact. Beef up the MBP lines to be worthy of their price tag like way way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth...

My MBP has issues with even WoW at half low, half fair settings with the AMD card on (gpu switching off), the Alpha and now Beta aren't much better. I don't blame Blizzard. I blame Apple all the way. And base specs are going up a bit next expansion, so unless something changes eventually even Blizzard is going to say enough.

 

[Dirtyharry50]

Sad but true!



Possible. But forgetting, Apple is way behind in even basic supporting their own OS and hardware. They seem to have zero issues with leaving things in a very 1.0 state.



Every time I've read that thread, I always want to start yelling at those wanting smaller, more compact, etc... And like I said in that thread a couple times, let the MacBooks go smaller and more compact. Beef up the MBP lines to be worthy of their price tag like way way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth...

My MBP has issues with even WoW at half low, half fair settings with the AMD card on (gpu switching off), the Alpha and now Beta aren't much better. I don't blame Blizzard. I blame Apple all the way. And base specs are going up a bit next expansion, so unless something changes eventually even Blizzard is going to say enough.

That's so sad but probably very true. I'll be very sad if WOW on Mac goes away along with the other games. I hope not. I can live with Overwatch being on console but that's just me.

 

[Washac]

That's so sad but probably very true. I'll be very sad if WOW on Mac goes away along with the other games. I hope not. I can live with Overwatch being on console but that's just me.

It's not just you, it's me as well.

 

[kingtj]

On the flip side? All of the rumors of Apple looking at using ATI's new "Polaris" GPU architecture mean the window might re-open for modern, graphically-demanding games to run respectably well on Macs.

Truthfully, now is the prime time for Apple to beef up graphics in its new systems, since both nVidia and ATI are launching new GPU technologies that are a full 2 iterations ahead of what's been on store shelves to date.

I can understand Blizzard deciding to skip Mac support for Overwatch, given the current landscape. But I think if Apple steps up its game, Blizzard would come back to it with future game releases.

 

[Jervasio]

Guys, is it possible to run overwatch using boot camp with good performance/FPS?
I have a 15" mid 2014 Macbook Pro, 16Gb of RAM + Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

Thanks!

 

[TheGreatWumpus]

Guys, is it possible to run overwatch using boot camp with good performance/FPS?
I have a 15" mid 2014 Macbook Pro, 16Gb of RAM + Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

Thanks!

You do meet the minimum requirements, but I wouldn't expect to play on anything more than low/medium. The game is well optimized though.

 

[jeanlain]

I'm resurrecting this in the off chance someone at Blizzard reads this forum:

You said that the Mac was not ready for your game for performance reasons (hardware and software).
This doesn't hold true anymore.
Get to work!