Should Apple make a deal for Mac games with Microsoft or Sony?

[Bodhitree]

Should Apple make a deal with Microsoft or Sony for simultaneous releases of major PC games on the Mac platform? Things like Call of Duty, Overwatch, Fallout, Starfield, Doom, Halo, if they were to get simultaneous PC and Mac releases it would help the Mac platform a lot since it is not seen as a gaming platform.

Apple gets billions from Google to be kept as the preferred search engine on iOS, don‘t you think they should use some of that money to fill in the Mac games market? If anything would help the Mac market share grow long term then I think that would be it.

 

[JMacHack]

I’d recommend it to stop the constant whining here.

Does it make financial sense? Hell no.

The core audience that cares about gaming will under no circumstances ever buy a Mac. And these deals wouldn’t change anything for Apple, the games would still be on the gamers platforms of choice (PC, Xbox, Playstation, Switch), and only happen to be on Mac as well.

Likewise, any potential profit would be a blip on Apple’s radar. iOS games make more money for Apple than any potential games on the Mac, and any transactions on said Mac don’t have Apple’s tax.

It may satisfy the bellyachers here, and maybe a dozen people or so willing to switch, but that’s about it.

 

[maflynn]

should Apple make a deal with Microsoft

I think MSFT wanted to bring the gamepass to Apple (at least iOS) but Apple was having no part of it.

don‘t you think they should use some of that money to fill in the Mac games market?

Why?

Why spend billions of dollars if the return on that investment is so low that apple will not make money. How big is the market for gaming on the Mac - especially when Apple continually markets their computers for professionals. I know there are folks who want gaming but but what's the percentage of mac owners that want to game?

 

[Colstan]

Complaining about this issue may be cathartic, however I don't see the point in restarting this fruitless Sisyphean task, when there's already a thread that currently stands at 28 pages long, where we have discussed this multiple times ad infinitum. That poor horse has not only been beaten to death, but resurrected using fell magic, had its zombie corpse slain, then raised again, just to suffer the same fate, while broken on the wheel of pain. Please, just let old Bessie have some time to recover from her latest travails. I get it, the beatings will continue until Apple releases "AAA" games, but let the poor girl and her compatriot, the straw man, have some time to recover.

 

[icanhazmac]

Why spend billions of dollars if the return on that investment is so low that apple will not make money. How big is the market for gaming on the Mac - especially when Apple continually markets their computers for professionals. I know there are folks who want gaming but but what's the percentage of mac owners that want to game?

I think the general consensus of "Macs aren't for gaming" is rooted in the past. Intel Macs ran super hot, throw a discreet GPU into the mix with Jon Ivy's "thinner and lighter" designs and you do NOT have viable gaming machines just performance throttled ovens.

Enter Apple Silicon, why not invest a little to get some AS native game clients made and change the thought that "only a small percentage of Mac owners want to game" to an increasing number of PC gamers now game on a Mac because it is a viable platform.

Apple gaming will never be serious unless Apple wants it to be and how is prying some market share away from PC/Intel bad? Also, I am not talking hard core 2x 3090 type games but the next tier down. I only have a PC because most games don't have native clients and now bootcamp is gone but if Apple were seen as viable for 50-60% of games, say a generation or two behind then I think a fair number of PC people could jump ship without fear.

 

[dukebound85]

who cares about mac gaming

just get another device

 

[maflynn]

I think the general consensus of "Macs aren't for gaming" is rooted in the past.

No, my point is how many Mac owners are interested in gaming? 10%, 20%, 30%? Should Apple spend billions if most Mac users are not interested. I owners have no idea at what the percentage is

 

[icanhazmac]

No, my point is how many Mac owners are interested in gaming?

I agree, gaming is not high on the list of needs from current Mac owners, nor should it be as under Intel based Macs performance sucks and there is a lack of native clients forcing bootcamp use which not all people can figure out and even under bootcamp performance sucks.

My point is how many PC people, that occasionally play games, COULD Apple pull into the ecosystem IF there were popular titles that performed well, if not exceptionally, on Apple silicon via native clients. People who play games are currently defaulted to PCs, it doesn't have to be that way but Apple will need to spend some $$ first by subsidizing some native clients and get people talking about gaming on the platform.

Example: students love Macs, students love games, now they either default to a PC or need either 2 computers (Mac and PC) or a Mac and a console.... why not one device?

IMHO I see this as a better use of Apple's $$ than some of the crap they support on TV+.

 

[Realityck]

No, my point is how many Mac owners are interested in gaming? 10%, 20%, 30%? Should Apple spend billions if most Mac users are not interested. I owners have no idea at what the percentage is

I think a lot of more play games then they Apple realizes. It reminds me of years back when a engineer I know became a VP of a large company he played desktop games at home to relax. This transition hasn't helped along with the minimum number of native games we seen so far. Really the only way to tell would be some company that wants to enlarge their customer base test the waters. Sorry don't buy the description that Mac owners are only about productivity, no fun.

 

[JMacHack]

I think we’re also missing another key issue: Mac owners have a certain level of affluence (usually). Which probably means a Mac user can afford another machine to game on if so interested.

Many people in these forums already say they have a secondary machine for gaming.

What would be the point of bringing games to the Mac when Mac owners that care about gaming also have a console/gaming PC?

 

[Irishman]

I’d recommend it to stop the constant whining here.

Does it make financial sense? Hell no.

The core audience that cares about gaming will under no circumstances ever buy a Mac. And these deals wouldn’t change anything for Apple, the games would still be on the gamers platforms of choice (PC, Xbox, Playstation, Switch), and only happen to be on Mac as well.

Likewise, any potential profit would be a blip on Apple’s radar. iOS games make more money for Apple than any potential games on the Mac, and any transactions on said Mac don’t have Apple’s tax.

It may satisfy the bellyachers here, and maybe a dozen people or so willing to switch, but that’s about it.

I don’t know about anyone else reading this thread, but for me, I only bellyache when someone participating in it speaks hyperbolically and fails to make it clear that they’re doing so.

 

[JMacHack]

I don’t know about anyone else reading this thread, but for me, I only bellyache when someone participating in it speaks hyperbolically and fails to make it clear that they’re doing so.

I’m aware my opinion is based on anecdotal evidence, but I have yet to see any data, concrete or anecdotal, which contradicts it.

 

[Bodhitree]

I think we’re also missing another key issue: Mac owners have a certain level of affluence (usually). Which probably means a Mac user can afford another machine to game on if so interested.

Many people in these forums already say they have a secondary machine for gaming.

What would be the point of bringing games to the Mac when Mac owners that care about gaming also have a console/gaming PC?

Good point. I was considering money spent on new computers as one pool, but many gamers have a dedicated gaming PC or console these days, and wouldn‘t consider a Mac for gaming.

 

[Irishman]

I’m aware my opinion is based on anecdotal evidence, but I have yet to see any data, concrete or anecdotal, which contradicts it.

Well, have you looked for opinions that don’t more or less align with your own, mate?

 

[JMacHack]

Well, have you looked for opinions that don’t more or less align with your own, mate?

I’m in the place most likely to find opinions contrary to my own, and so far I’ve only found yours.

 

[Irishman]

I’m in the place most likely to find opinions contrary to my own, and so far I’ve only found yours.

So, no.

 

[Madhatter32]

No, my point is how many Mac owners are interested in gaming? 10%, 20%, 30%? Should Apple spend billions if most Mac users are not interested. I owners have no idea at what the percentage is

Don't know but not sure it matters. The general gaming market is big -- that I know. There may not be a lot of Mac users interested in playing AAA games on a Mac because, well, you know, it's not possible to do so.

 

[JMacHack]

So, no.

Give me enough time and I’m sure I could dig some positivity up for apple from the relevant demographics. I’d need about a couple years an millions of dollars though.

 

[mi7chy]

I think we’re also missing another key issue: Mac owners have a certain level of affluence (usually). Which probably means a Mac user can afford another machine to game on if so interested.

Didn't you say you were still saving up for a base Macbook M1?

 

[Irishman]

Give me enough time and I’m sure I could dig some positivity up for apple from the relevant demographics. I’d need about a couple years an millions of dollars though.

You’re assuming that studies haven’t already been done. It doesn’t have to be your original work for it to count as legit.

 

[4743913]

I played Red Dead Redemption 2 on my Mac today.

such a good game.

 

[JMacHack]

Didn't you say you were still saving up for a base Macbook M1?

MacBook Pro 14” Max, thanks for asking! I ordered it last week.

 

[JMacHack]

You’re assuming that studies haven’t already been done. It doesn’t have to be your original work for it to count as legit.

Tell you what, if either of us come across studies, formal or informal, about this subject, we’ll post it in this thread.

 

[Hexley]

Should Apple make a deal with Microsoft or Sony for simultaneous releases of major PC games on the Mac platform? Things like Call of Duty, Overwatch, Fallout, Starfield, Doom, Halo, if they were to get simultaneous PC and Mac releases it would help the Mac platform a lot since it is not seen as a gaming platform.

Apple gets billions from Google to be kept as the preferred search engine on iOS, don‘t you think they should use some of that money to fill in the Mac games market? If anything would help the Mac market share grow long term then I think that would be it.

Apple makes more money in iPhone/iPad gaming than the whole gaming market combined.

Mac gaming would represent a booger-sized revenue by comparison.

Buy a Mac when the game you want to play is released. Odds are your 2021 Mac will be obsolete by the time that happens.

If you value your time just buy a gaming PC, PS5, Xbox Series X or Switch today.

Arguing about Mac gaming is like arguing Kirk vs Picard or Star Trek vs Star Wars.

 

[pmiles]

The "if you build it, they will come" thought process is flawed.

If 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of all games are written for INTEL architecture, DirectX, and AMD GPUs... at what point in your head does it remotely even makes any sense for someone to up and write a game for the 0.999999999999999999999999999999999999999% hardware that isn't?

To put this nonsense into perspective... lets use the metric system in the US as an example. We've lamented about switching to the metric system in the US for decades. To this day, we still are using the imperial system for no other reason than it would cost too much time and money to switch. We've been using that argument since the 1950's. Here it is 2022 and we are still using the imperial system even though we know the metric system is the logical choice without question.

So, if the mega giant corporations refuse to budge on that issue, the game developers will refuse to budge on this issue.

Doesn't matter if Apple builds the best gaming system on the planet... if it's not using the same basic system as everyone else, it's a dead end.

It's blatantly obvious why gaming doesn't exist on a Mac. If you can't see it, you aren't even looking. It's like shooting a gun with your eyes closed.

If you can afford a Mac, you can also afford a PC. If you refuse to buy a PC, that's your choice. But don't expect the games to come to the Mac platform in your lifetime. And you can quote me on that.