Apple's AAA games FLOP: Future of Mac gaming in jeopardy

Original article: mobilegamer.biz/those-assassi...
Quick video about how Apple's gaming strategy of investing in bringing HUGE AAA titles like Assassin's Creed Mirage, Death Stranding, Resident Evil 4 etc to the Apple ecosystem is failing and what this means for Mac gaming.
Timestamps:
00:00 Low sales numbers
03:00 Numbers accurate?
03:32 Mac gaming
04:05 Reason 1: Late
04:57 Reason 2: Expensive
05:10 Reason 3: Unoptimised
05:45 Not enough
06:41 Too many single player games
07:16 What Apple could do
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[@belowsubparcontent]

They need to put ‘em on steam

[@cheese_crab]

Yup. I saw RE4 was available and wanted to try replaying it on mac to see how it compared to my PC. Opened Steam and then quickly found the Apple store exclusivity for the native metal API app and went "nope"

[@gaborlelkes]

Exactly!!

[@chidorirasenganz]

ehh no reason to. can just use GPTK/Crossover for that

[@flyingcheesecake3725]

@@cheese_crabexactly

[@jayryco]

its really so simple and they still don't understand. And get valve to support steam natively too.

[@NexXxus86]

releasing 3-4 AAA titles doesn't make them gaming devices. But I tried Resident Evil Village on my iPad and I'm impressed how well it runs.

[@HandM80]

So what’s your point then? Your iPad can’t be a gaming device?

[@AquaticMammalOnBicycle]

"impressed how well it runs" is a common but meaningless sentiment. It's like if 99% percent of comments about literature talked about the ink and paper quality.

[@MichaelGGarry]

@@AquaticMammalOnBicycle What a stupid comment.

[@NexXxus86]

@@HandM80 yes and no. I don't find it comfortable to game on without a controller unless its a touch based game. I know I can use an external controller, but in the other way, I find it more comfortable to have the entire device and controller in my hands, like a steam deck or a switch.

[@NexXxus86]

@@AquaticMammalOnBicycle I meant it in the way of "in terms of running on a device this thin and without active cooling"

[@kekchanbiggestfan]

There are 2 problems with Mac gaming: 1. The App Store sucks ass 2. Apple’s new focus on “Mac gaming” is actually on Mac games in the App Store

[@vedantdesai1]

That's not remotely true. Two of the best running Mac games are No Man's Sky and Sims 4 - and both of those are on their own storefront (Steam for NMS and EA App for Sims 4). Both these storefronts are natively running on an ARM version for Apple Silicon and both the aforementioned games are natively running on Apple Silicon, ARM, and Metal. Mac gaming isn't limited to the App Store unlike iOS and iPad gaming which they are trying to push. However, the issue with Mac gaming is that developers aren't invested enough. Your point on the App Store stands true for iPad and iPhone gaming. Like NMS isn't available on iPad because of the App Store - same with Sims 4.

[@Jakef100f]

They need to partner with valve and release a rolling version of GPTK on steam

[@ProtectusCZ]

@@vedantdesai1 Sims 4 runs great on anything cause it's MOBILE GAME turned into full game like TS1, TS2, TS3

[@JimV.]

@@ProtectusCZ No it isn't, Sims 4 is a Sims Online sequel that failed in development called Project Olympus. because the always online on SimCity failed so much, they quit development on it and repackaged Project Olympus as an offline game, aka Sims 4.

[@daveh6356]

What about the App Store sucks?

[@Alvinladen]

How can people buy their games if Apple is only giving a very small storage space on their base models (256gb)? And, adding more storage is so overpriced.

[@_sparrowhawk]

Why would you be gaming on a base model anything?

[@nintendoever]

"Who is not seen is not remembered." Who looks for AAA games on App Store? What PC gamer looks for games outside of Steam?

[@FlorentChardevel]

Apple is pushing their own app store because of greed, instead of providing tools like GPT to Steam, the same way Proton works with Steam on Linux.

[@fenrirIO]

​@@FlorentChardevel Proton is developed by Valve/Steam, it is a different situation.

[@daveh6356]

Why would a PC gamer be looking for Mac software?

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

@@fenrirIO proton is an open source fork of the wine project, nothing is closed off unlike apple's ecosystem

[@Samhain__UK]

PlayStation users, Xbox users switch users.

[@IceBlueLugia]

Because it’s nonsensical to expect developers to port AAA games to the iPhone and nonsensical to expect mobile gamers to pay $60 for games. Apple needs to encourage devs to port their games to Steam. In an ideal world they’d also be on the iPad App Store but a lack of active cooling can really impact performance

[@blackandcold]

Yeah, shit shop, more expensive than everywhere else and years late...

[@_sparrowhawk]

My only problem with the shop is its inability to save to a foreign disk but again, how is Apple supposed to know that you own or don't own a game when the disk is external? I can see it working, but it's complicated.

[@yoshikinanami7434]

So complicated that Steam has been doing it for like a decade? I’m sure they can figure it out, they just don’t want to.

[@crestofhonor2349]

@@_sparrowhawkgames being installed to alternative drives has been a thing for over a decade. Pretty much every store front except Epic has that functionality including the ability to auto detect games on other drives

[@blackandcold]

@@_sparrowhawk they recently stopped downloading the whole thing and then copying it using twice the size. Apple store is 20 years behind steam for games

[@blackandcold]

@@yoshikinanami7434 yes totally. Disappearing apps and content, dropped support for things (opengl, 32bit,…) without replacement can be also added to the list. Apple App Store is certainly not ready for gamers. Apple should have stayed with Steam as partner. But greed is greed.

[@jayeworley7461]

Damn I'm starting to get sick and tired of Apple not going fully into Steam and just forget about the App Store for games.

[@surlechihuahua]

In their App Store, they can get 30% of each sale. That’s probably what they want: a new source of revenue from software sold to existing customers, instead of selling Macs to gamers (which would be incredibly hard).

[@Dave102693]

I’m saying! Just go and team up with Valve.

[@blairo32]

That's great in theory. But valve has their own agenda here too. They want to push proton and more steam deck sales. ​@@Dave102693

[@jordanreed5866]

The fact that none of these games have cross save between iOS and macOS makes them useless to me. Apple NEEDS to force universal purchase and crosssave!

[@demetriouspough5484]

Apple CAN'T force universal purchase and cross save. The developers don't NEED Apple's platform, so they can do without putting their games on any part of the Apple ecosystem want.

[@eclipticpath]

@@demetriouspough5484 No but they can incentivize it by paying them more to include cross save too. Cross save would be the one thing Apple can separate themselves from the competition.

[@nintendoever]

Apple just have to do what everyone else would do: 1: Set a good budget for mac gaming project (easy for Apple); 2: Hire a marketing team who knows about games. Do events on physical Apple Store, media...; 3: Build a talented team for exclusives in house games; 4. Throw off actual App Store and build a exclusive game app, with a mix of native games + proton-like games, (partner with Valve and Codewears); 5. Invest money on native ports based on top 20 most played steam games (plenty of money for that) Leave the rest to Apple-Proton; 6. Patience. It will require at least 10 years for the model to be stabilized. 7. Partner with Nintendo for a Legal emulator exclusive for Macs and iPads (not iPhones, of course, leave it to Switch/Switch 2). Nintendo sells switches and games on Apple Stores. All Nintendo games runs on Mac/iPad for better graphics quality/4k 60 Fps.

[@WhoKnowscs]

They don't even have to do most of this stuff. Just stop ripping off consumers.

[@Somebodythatiusedtoknoww]

@@WhoKnowscs wth does this have to do with games

[@perfectalpha]

I've thought Apple should have purchased Nintendo because they have no gaming aspirations without in house talent. You're right with a lot of what you're saying, but I believe cloud gaming will be a thing before Apple has their stuff together from a native hardware standpoint. GeForce Now (from Nvidia) on Mac is superior to console gaming today if you're close enough to a data center. I don't know why folks are trying to make Mac gaming hardware a thing when it's niche at best.

[@kalei91]

Point 7 is just delusional, Nintendo would NEVER do that.

[@TheKaosTux]

Good points!

[@denisruskin348]

Just focus on Mac gaming. On iPhones the idea of playing RE4R on a 5,8” screen with touch control or Gamepad is just dumb. There’s a reason Fruit Ninja or Angry Birds were so popular. People on phones want a 5 min experience to pass the time, while they’re waiting, etc. iPads do make more sense though, but people upgrade those MUCH less often so unless you already have like an M2 one or thinking of upgrading, you’re not gonna get these super demanding games.

[@cheese_crab]

they're probably trying to get in on that sweet Nintendo handheld revenue, but I'm confused about why they chose these huge games instead of things more appropriate like Celeste, Ori, Stray, Dredge, Hades, Cup Head, Dead Cells, or older stuff like Fallout New Vegas/4 which it could presumable run quite well

[@chidorirasenganz]

Hades is already on iOS

[@chidorirasenganz]

Plus theres already tons of indie games on the iOS app store

[@KingVulpes]

​@@cheese_crabProbably make more sense to just release a Apple handheld

[@CleanDesign_]

On a 6.7 inch screen with a controller attachment , you basically have an OLED Switch with a better screen and APU. Apple needs to make a controller attachment themselves though, because some of the offerings out there are low quality, or some people don't realize they exist. It's true people don't want to play console games on a touch screen, but that doesn't have to be the case.

[@brandonwinston]

If they gave free steam key for an App Store purchase then Apple would profit and people could grow their steam library. Would have to work that out with the devs though

[@HockeyPlayer323]

It's really not worth in on iPhone. It's okay on Macs and iPads, but need to work with Steam to build people's library

[@tonyburzio4107]

* An iPhone without an external monitor.

[@spda242]

I want to buy/play the RE games and I also would like to try Death Stranding 1) Put the games on steam 2) Let me choose what drive to install game on or move it and create a link (ln -s) 3) 24h download of RE4 was just silly, this told me Apple isn’t serious with game distribution 4) MacOS need to support current gen Xbox controller, they only support an older no longer available version (Steam support current gen controller) 5) Put the games on Steam 6) How about newer games? How about porting more Indiegames, alot of them are better than AAA failures anyway I am completely uninterested in iPhone/iPad ports I think porting long lived multiplayer games would be interesting for a lot of people but also a huge investment for game developers since they need to do simultaneous releases if they want cross platform gameplay.

[@BrentLeVasseur]

The future or Mac gaming is Windows gaming on the Mac. That’s why this channel is so important.

[@marcsheep]

Yep! Apple should focus on a platform-agnostic solution, like Steam Proton. Hoping that developers will port games for Mac has not been working so far.

[@sn-xc7rv]

In that case I'd rather just get a cheap gaming laptop and play everything flawlessly rather than buy an expensive Mac and have it run at 30fps on 1080p low

[@Dave102693]

Yup gaming on Windows on Arm

[@thomk3282]

If the purchases aren’t universal, meaning it can’t be played on Mac, iPhone and iPad, that’s a big fat no for me.

[@Zoolookuk]

The most obvious explanation is the price/performance ratio with Apple devices, and the fact that almost no-one buys an Apple device for the purpose of gaming, so the addressable market is small. If Apple really wants to get serious about gaming, they need to reintroduce something like the iPod Touch (so everything except the phone and give it a chip capable of playing these games) an Apple TV with something close to an M3 Pro/Max performance capable of playing any iPad/Mac game on the big screen, and stop selling their base Macs for over $1000 with 8GB of RAM and SSD's so small they were laughed at in 2012, let alone in 2024.

[@diverman1023]

The issue isn't so much a hardware or price one. The M1 MacBook Air 8gb still packs enough horsepower to run many very popular games extremely well like World of Warcraft and League of Legends. There are a ton of people (college students for example) who would say that machine for $899 is a great deal and runs MacOS buttery smooth. The people to be affected by a gaming push are specifically those prospective students who think "I love MacOS to work but I'm unsure I'll be able to do light/moderate gaming here and there in my dorm". It's more of a distribution issue at this stage. People don't want to use the Mac app store when they have a steam library, and they want developers to be able to port games to Arm without a hassle

[@marcsheep]

I’ve been listening to this excuse since 2020: “But developers just need to port their games to Apple Silicon”. So far, we went from 1 to 10ish AAA games.

[@chidorirasenganz]

ehh more like 20-30 current AAA games

[@tonyburzio4107]

Microsoft will not let their monopoly go so easily, Apple needs to hit hard and all at once.

[@marcsheep]

@@chidorirasenganz this is like 5-6 AAA games per year. Nintendo launches this in a week.

[@chidorirasenganz]

@@marcsheep there’s more to gaming than just “AAA” stuff tons of indie games have native mac versions and most games run through Crossover

[@justdude404]

@@marcsheepААА games from Nintendo? 😂 AAA prices - yes, but nothing else

[@st33ldi9ital]

Nobody wants to use Apple's app store. It's garbage. People want Steam. Apple doesn't profit from that. Why you think they launced M4 on Ipad? App Store lock in. Their whole strategy revolves around ecosystem lockin. Which is why they are fighting tooth and nail against the EU. If Apple wants gaming they gonna have to team up with Nintendo or something lol. Supporting EGPU would be cool but once again run into compatibility. No point in having the power if it's not compatible with what you want to run. Maybe they should invest in getting proton on Mac how Steam did with Linux. They also need to focus on the App Store. They really need a game hub for it or improve Arcade or something. Have sales. Attractive offers. Modding. Community. But Apple has no gig worth touting when it comes to gaming. PC has all the support... Supports all gpu interfaces, OpenGL, DirectX, Vulkan... has Steam, Epic, all the stores, all the sales. Xbox has gamepass. PS has all their goodness. Nintendo has exclusives. Apple has nothing going for it when it comes to gaming... So they have to change that. But really, I think they SOL. Too little too late. There's nothing Apple can do for gaming that can't be done on another platform better, easier, cheaper, and with more potential revenue. So, they can either pay up to play nice and support compatibility. Pay up for exclusive games and content, content that gamers actually want. Or team up with another platform. Like, if Apple Arcade had actual great lineup of games and could play on any Apple device with one subscription I'd totally go for that... that would be a gig worth touting. And yea, you can't be late to the party. You can't release a game year later, after it's already played out, and charging full price for it. That isn't gonna work... One of the major reasons I bought my M1 to begin with was it was advertised at the time to be able to run IOS apps on Mac.. the universal app. Then, they changed their mind about that and I have been sour ever since. So yes, they do need to enable IOS apps on Mac.

[@bruceleggett568]

How many came out when PC did? People dont wait.

[@gianlucab2261]

A. should drop Metal and adopt industry standard API: openGL and Vulkan. No way a developer is going to invest in a proprietary tech assuring so low revenues.

[@tonyburzio4107]

They can't, openGL and Vulkan both have a flaw for the way Apple hardware works.

[@tablettablete186]

​@@tonyburzio4107Can you explain? Because Asahi Linux pretty much contradicts your statement

[@sn-xc7rv]

Mobile game devs have invested massive amounts on metal lol 😂

[@ShanerTheGrey]

A few issues. On iPad and iPhone we need active cooling macOS sequoia will fix the double storage issue. We also need a better Game Center app similar to steam.

[@chidorirasenganz]

nah active cooling is unnecessary

[@crestofhonor2349]

Active cooling isn’t necessary. Apple needs to do better with their passive cooling. iPads also cool themselves fine

[@MB-nm8tt]

Those numbers can’t be right. 7000 copies sold for RE:Village? I can’t possibly be part of an exclusive club. If I bought RE:Village that means RE:Village sold an order of magnitude more than 7000.

[@jrecio325]

I blame no external storage option on app store. No one has space

[@Xanduur]

Don’t get me started about apples, stupidity with gaming on the Apple TV. So many great games from the iPhone and iPad could work on the Apple TV, but their storage limitations from years ago, kept developers away. I don’t expect much from Apple and these AAA titles

[@BarelyAverageDude]

If it's not on Steam it's going up in smoke

[@thomk3282]

Apple needs to sell an official backbone controller and market it well.

[@zembagyatso6510]

They only need to stop making appstore games and focus on steam

[@karmangamerz-english894]

I think apple should follow some steps like for upcoming GTA 6 they should talk with rockstar to release it on mac on the same day as of consoles and also much earlier then PC's, this will attract many PC gamers to mac

[@TorsionTestis]

. Pc gamers dont even use the epic game store on their pc if a game is exclusive and wait for steam release. If anything they would go buy a ps5 to play gta6 but never a mac.

[@kalei91]

No, it will not attract PC gamers to mac. PC gamers are infamous for being able to wait years for games, take all PS4/5 exclusives for instance, PS didn't attract PC gamers, they just waited until the games were ported to PC and played them then.

[@MastermindAtWork]

Apple could have avoid some of these issues if they had native Vulkan support in their OS years ago. Windows has OpenGL and Vulkan as an open fallback if devs were not using DirectX. Same with Linux. Forcing devs to only support Metal is lot of dev time and looking at Valve delisting a lot of Mac ports of their games, I can see why. If MacOS had a Vulkan fallback for applications, it would be easier for devs to port their game's rendering and, in addition, would make compatibility layers to run OpenGL games that ran on older macs and Windows software similar to Proton.

[@KingVulpes]

Maybe if they put them on Steam so I wouldn't have to buy my games twice

[@nuc]

I think this still shows some sort of promise. Mac’s ecosystem doesn’t cater to gamers at all. I’d venture to say that only a VERY small percentage of Mac users would even consider playing games on their Mac. I don’t think much will change until Apple gets some sort of exclusive deal, or their own AAA studio AFTER really refining the toolkits AND trying to change the Mac culture to include gamers as well. Also put the damn games on STEAM.

[@GeoHdReal]

Another factor is how much storage these games take when most people have base spec macs and iphones at 256 and 128 gigabytes

[@kritonios]

Correct, but I noticed the games sales have only been increasing game after game… this could go to show that more time is needed but gaming on the Mac is on the right track slowly but steadily increasing in popularity

[@crestofhonor2349]

I’m not surprised sales are super high. Not only are all of these limited to either high end iPads or just the iPhone 15 Pro, it also is on Mac App Store, further emphasizing the fact that people don’t buy games on Mac. I personally don’t own a device that can play any of these games on iOS and I don’t own a recent Mac, just a modern gaming laptop. I do think the sales are somewhat in line with what I expect because people do not game on Mac and the games on mobile tend to be F2P crap or super casual games Also the screen size isn’t even an issue. The Steam Deck, Switch, and ROG Ally wouldn’t be popular if people didn’t mind playing big AAA games on a small screen. The issue is just the audience. The gaming audience on mobile is hyper casual while those who buy handheld gaming devices tend to be less casual gamers. Touch controls to suck and I highly advise against them for these games. A controller is basically required for the best experience or possibly even mouse and keyboard for iPad too

[@WhoKnowscs]

Gamers: Don't want to primarily game on their phones. Yes, they'll play games on them but a real gamer isn't getting pumped up to play 3-4 hours(or more) of a AAA game on a 4 inch screen with touch controls. Don't want to rebuy games they already own especially if they don't agree with the DRM of Apple's store. Or is that just me who grew out of paying full price for the mac ports of games from Aspyr and Macsoft back 20-25 years ago? I got Death Stranding for free from the Epic Game Store on PC. It's not the director's cut version but I'd happily buy the upgrade at some point if I could actually get the mac version of the game in addition to the pc version. You can forget about me paying 40(much less 20) dollars on Apple's store for it though. Do not want to continue to feel ripped off and cheated. I have a ton of mac games from using macs for 40 years or so, but even recently you can buy a ton of games on Steam. GOG, Epic Game Store, etc. and get mac versions for nothing extra. The fact that Whiskey and Wine are heavily used to play the the latest PC variants of games clearly shows a demand for games but Apple is delusional if they think GPTK is for developers to get a handful of games on their app store.

[@WhoKnowscs]

And this doesn't count for the games I'm most interested in just aren't they ones they are offering. I want to play games like Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2(funny how they upgraded in to 64-bit which would mean it'd work in Rosetta 2 only to have Valve drop the mac version. Fortnite(PC version chokes because of anti-cheat, Mac version hasn't been updated in 5 years or so because Epic and Apple got into a legal pissing match over who should be making money from an IPhone version, but you can stream it or use an android emulator so there's that.) I'm mostly interested in AAA games in the 5 - 10 year old range but again I have zero desire to rebuy games I already own especially from the App Store.

[@f.remplakowski]

A lot of people use (and are tied to) Steam or have a games console. Gamers are usually not going to repurchase a game when they have it on another service that is reliably gamer targeted and can offer it at lower prices when on sale.

[@williamnilsson1960]

I'm super excited about Mac gaming and the idea of a widescreen desktop setup with my MacBook, a Thunderbolt cable, and a PS5 controller. But I haven't switched yet because my PS5 offers more games and better performance. The limited game selection, having to buy games again, and losing progression are dealbreakers for me. If cross-save and a wider range of games were available, I'd jump in immediately. Imagine playing on the big screen with a PS5/Apple TV, then continuing on a MacBook or iPad using the same controller. A partnership between PlayStation and Apple could make this happen: 1. Enable cross-play 2. Enable cross-save 3. Expand the game library 4. Promote using controllers with Mac devices for a flexible gaming experience

[@BaRS_flint]

less than 3000 purchases is hilarious

[@FirstMomentsOf]

Instead of getting developers to port old games they should focus on getting developers to port yet to be released games. As this hits a significantly broader audience when, for example, rockstar released a new trailer saying GTA VI coming to Xbox, PS, PC and MacOS.

[@njoudrey1]

Does anyone know what percentage of Lies of P players were on Mac? Just curious since they released it on all platforms at the same time...

[@ganderthepanda8146]

What people need is a reason to buy from the app store vs an established marketplace like steam.

[@dalurkersteve]

On the Mac or iOS gaming fronts, having an actual AAA gamepass competitor would be huge as well. Right now Apple Arcade only has a few AA experiences and virtually no AAA experiences. If they could put some of these bigger games from non-mobile game studios on a premium sub tier that would be a step in the right direction. Freemium is king on mobile and people don’t want to drop 50 dollars for a phone game. A sub model for 5-10 bucks a month that includes those premium games that they could bundle with their other sub services would be more tempting

[@SCTimbal]

They should partner up with the big dev studios. Can you imagine a port of RDR2, or an exclusive GTA 6 release?

[@tnypxl]

Are we really out here being disappointed about a platform that hasn’t done anything in gaming AT ALL since its inception?

[@augustogalindo8687]

I think Apple’s goal by bringing old AAA games to the Mac and the iPhone was to show users and developers what their new devices are capable of. They probably knew these old games wouldn’t sell very well considering people probably already played them on other devices. But the real goal is to encourage game companies to release their games on all Apple platforms at launch at the same time as other devices like PC or PS5, these new launches would be the real success. However, another thing to consider is that a person who can afford an iPhone 15 PM or a high end mac probably has a gaming console too and will probably prefer to play it there. That would mean that at some point Apple will need exclusives if they want to be important in the gaming industry lol.

[@RomeoTango3]

Apple should spend some money and develop original games and fund established game houses to develop exclusive titles.

[@ropiko]

If they would make Mac’s with a minimum of 512Gb storage and 12/16Gb ram, that would help allot as most of these games would simply not fit on most Mac’s. Another big issue is the AppStore, not being able to choose an external drive for these makes it a no go. I get that they don’t want to support Steam and use their own AppStore, but c’mon the AppStore is neglected for many years. And yes, they should do the “buy once play everywhere” strategy, so Mac, iPad, iPhone and I would really like it if they would do the Apple TV (when it gets upgraded).

[@pixxelpusher]

Why not just have all native Apple Silicon games listed on Steam too? Stray, Disco Elysium, No Man's Sky on Steam are all Apple Silicon native.

[@Navierstokes256]

Its Ubisoft’s decision to choose the target platform

[@gabrield4892]

1. Make the games cross platform, I want to be able to play on my TV and my Vision Pro. 2. I'm an achievement hunter, Game Center sucks. Improve it. 3. The FPS has to be 60 FPS, 30 doesn't cut it.

[@BarelyAverageDude]

Im lifelong mac user, but I'm a PC gamer. Why would any gamer want to buy games that are only available on Apple devices?

[@RuralSquirrelJuror]

Ubisoft is also notorious for deep discounts on their games not too off from release

[@sunsetgaming2498]

Noo, I really don’t want Mac gaming to be mostly about predatory F2P games. I want real console games that are premium experiences. Apple needs to continue to improve the App Store and be more consistent about games being available at least on Mac and iPad with a single purchase. They should also improve gaming features on their operating systems to make them convenient to use as a Nintendo switch or other console

Someone in Apple should listen to you carefully

[@PieStudios]

You’re right, we need a wider variety of genres. No RPGs, shooters, or platformers is quite the travesty. Put Sonic Frontiers on my phone and it’s a guaranteed sale for me

[@GatoPaint]

personally I think the fact that they managed to forcerun a console game on a PHONE its a pretty outstanding deal, I'd say like with all Apple does, they're ahead of the industry and now sadly they will eat the "negative" press while phones for the next years will compete and improve on this, we're so close to have a console with console quality and "pocket friendly like a phone"

[@Wampa842]

Your argument is invalidated by the fact that Doom 2016 and Warframe can both run on the Nintendo Switch, which is weaker by processing power than my five-year-old budget phone. Apple hardware's build quality is commendable, but they've lost the lead they used to have in terms of processing power and are drip-feeding improvements to their cult. If you want to praise someone, praise the developers of the games and the compatibility tools.

[@stye_]

I am a big fan of FPS games, and so far, there is not a single modern shooter available for the Mac. No COD, no Battlefield, no Fortnite (still no indication if it’s coming back to Mac), no Halo, etc. Apple should focus more on multiplayer games, which bring in a lot more players.

[@TimWong49152]

Really easy problem to fix. Call Take-Two and offer to pay them $$$ to bring Rockstar titles to the Mac (not iPhone, not iPad).

[@Dragon-dl7ep]

I have most these games on steam already. I think they should focus on having new games on release & support for free to play multiplayer games.

[@Evil1nside]

What they should do is bring some of those competitive multiplayer games to the Apple eco system. Games like CS, PUBG, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty, Fortnite, Quake, etc.etc, also push for actual new releases to come to the Mac on release, instead of few months, or years later.

[@neonmidnight6264]

Death Stranding port was extremely well made. The problem is - App Store really struggled with making it download properly, and it was a little too late past the release date, it is also not such a high profile title that everyone would seek out to play. There are just way too many convenience barriers. I think Apple can overcome them but I fear they don't have attention span, persistence and willingness to invest money in that for sufficiently long time for that to be a success.

[@c.daubz.5386]

Ya can’t compare the game numbers when these games were old already on other devices so not like it is first time release of AAA games, another thing apple is just now finally starting in AAA games on their newest devices which haven’t been out a year yet, lets give them 3-5yrs of pushing AAA gaming and see where Apple is then” not saying they shouldn’t have done better already but that they are just now showing interest to the public for console style gaming

[@SS-hb1xm]

focus on timeless games theyre usually light multiplayer games that iphones can run perfectly. and that will cause in app purchases that will help benifit their market and gain popularity

[@Alex_5423]

They don't give a shit about how much sales they have got on games. They're trying to stimulate people to upgrade to the latest iPhones. Capcom and other devs were with a high probability paid by Apple, so they aren't bothered by low sales.

[@mariussm7797]

The problem is the price.

[@sirBadd]

They should stop focusing on these AAA games and make a mega deal with Nintendo to add many of their classics to Apple Arcade

[@justinsurpless4137]

I just don't even understand how you'd even play AC Mirage on a iPhone/iPad?

[@antonlovestea]

The issue is not in that noone want to play them. I do not want to pay for a game, because: 1. I want to play the game on other platforms at least as possibility. 2. I want regional prices because I would not pay for a game 60$ when the game in my region for Windows costs 15$. I will NOT. 3. App Store is a piece of crap, at least of now. As we know new updates MIGHT improve it. 4. Games released on the App Store are not even available on all Apple platforms. It's pathetic.

[@superchill45]

Apple needs a Phil Spencer. Get Overwatch on the App Store or Street Fighter. I want to see a long term commitment. Apple iOS ecosystem is underrated for gaming. iPhone iPad, Vision Pro, Mac and maybe one day Apple TV? This is a killer ecosystem for gaming

[@skykal]

The App Store game prices are outrageous with no regional pricing and very rare sale periods, if I can get the same game from Steam for less than 1/4th the cost I’d be pretty stupid to even consider the App Store.

[@slalomie]

Only way I see Apple competing in AAA gaming is by pivoting Apple Arcade to a cloud gaming service. I only bought RE4 for my M1 Pro bc I don’t have a console, gaming PC and zero Steam library. Most gamers do. No surprise RE4 doesn’t run well on my 15 Pro.

[@_sparrowhawk]

I don’t think cloud gaming is that popular anywhere.

[@aaronwetzel9702]

If Apple really wanted gaming on their systems, they would offer more than just tools to developers to help them see how much work it would be to por ttheir games to MacOS. As it is, developers see how much more work it takes to do it and determine that the profits are not good enough. You add the premium cut they take from the App Store verses having developers on Steam/Epic/EA, it makes it a poor investment to do a ton of additional work. Add to the fact that these Resident Evil games are a niche game in the AAA world, too. Not everyone is into horror-type games. If they really want to make a push, they should push very, very popular games that reach a brooder gaming population.

[@infernal-toad]

Apple should also keep in mind people don’t only want Modern games on their devices. Porting more games from the PS2-PS4 era would be the best way to actract more people as those older games mostly take less storage and easier to run even on the last intel macs or more older iphones and ipads. Oh and for Apple’s devices, as 8GB RAM becomes the minimum for future iphones (that are mostly cheaper than entry level macs) 16GB RAM and 512GB Storage really deserves to be the bare minimum given the fact that the cheapest macs are already costs near the 1000 bucks. If Apple wants to keep up with Microsoft, then they better should try their best.

[@woogaloo]

Your first reason was what I was thinking all along. By the time these game released most people had already beat them. If I were to play them more I would actually like to move my saves back and forth from my console to my iPad. I wouldn't want to start back over. I also don't enjoy playing on screen controls which is why I have a steam deck. I know I could carry a controller with me, but that's not as exciting. I hope they lean more into Steam rather than trying to keep it locked to the App Store.

[@scottjames8973]

For Mac they need to have more variety and accessibility on Steam is key. There's also the fact that most people are already using Crossover or similar for frankly better games sooner.For iPhone it's just a waiting game for more people to own phones capable of playing them. Since AI features are locked behind new phones, I suspect that this will change relatively quickly.

[@aaronmurgatroyd5810]

Phones are not suited to AAA games in general. Keep them for Laptops and Tablets, and they MUST support controllers on both. Touch controls do not belong in AAA games.

[@slickedge2340]

Apple should strive to get GTA VI native to Macs on day 1

[@imjamf]

They definitely need to target multiplayer and "free to play" games. The current AAA games on MacOS are great, but they aren't the focus of gamers today. If they continue to port single player games, they should at least port something relevant like Elden Ring or Cyberpunk. I also don't understand why some ports are exclusive to the App Store or Steam, they should be available on both.

[@DanielLavedoniodeLima_DLL]

If Apple is not in talks now with Rockstar Games to bring GTA VI to Mac at the same time as their future PC release, their gaming efforts are already dead

[@MarcosVinicius-tq9nh]

AAA games, full price and story mode only... Bring something like, Helldivers 2, diablo 4... something that can be updated and upgraded, would fit better...

[@Laffs4fun]

The real problem is that developers have to pay $1000 for a Mac just to make a game vs on windows it’s $149 and windows will run on almost anything. If they really wanted to cheap out they would make a game on Linux which is 100% free. So what I’m saying is they should make a dev kit of sorts that would be more affordable and they need to allow more 3rd party app stores on all their devices. The dev kit could be a monthly payment or a set payment of around $100 to undercut windows. Next make developer accounts free.

[@disgustingdust1584]

Here are some suggestions that Apple could consider: 1) Value for money. Why buy a 3 years old game for full price in the app store, when you can buy it, in a steam sale for less. Regular sales, realistic prices (for old-ish games) might help the platform. 2) Heal old wounds. Apple could eat some humble pie and heal the wounds with Valve, Nvidia and others, to help their platform with games and game developers. 3) Commit to a platform. Rather than keep changing. In Apples 30 / 40 yr, they have changed CPU’s what 4 times, been friends with graphics manufactures then enemies. This tends to upset developers who have just converted to one platform or mastered one Platform. Only having to develop for yet another maybe temporary platform, till apple decided to change again. Apple needs to commit to Apple Silicon and Metal for at least 10 years or longer. 4) Alternatively, Apple could commit to an open standard and support Vulkan, Open GL & Metal natively. Dropping Open GL support, is what upset Valve and stopped the development of Half-life for Macs, back in the OS9 days. As mentioned, wounds need healing. Not forgetting the issue with epic games and the loss of the native fortnight build. 5) Develop a method of supporting on board GPUs and installable GPUs (Nvidia / AMD). They had intel laptops with Dual Nvidia GPU’s, the 2009 MacBook Pros. I could see a Mini Gaming tower with an Apple silicon GPU and a slot for an installable GPU. I am sure that would sell like gang busters and not to just gamers. 6) Stop pushing triple A titles, that run better on other platforms and push AA or indie titles. Not to mention the attitudes of some triple A developers (EA) to such subjects as “crunch” and burning out staff; closing of game development, because their games don’t sell well. Quickly pushed out, buggy games, are all the hallmarks of triple A publishers. 7) Buy or heavily invest in companies who port or bring windows games to the Apple platform (Codeweavers / Crossover, Feral interactive, etc) 8) Port the back catalogue of old 32 bit Mac games to 64 bit. 9) FUN! Gaming is hard to quantify “what is fun” as everyone has their own definition of “what is fun” or “what’s fun to play”. Death stranding, looks pretty, but “is it fun to play?” I have never played it, so I would be rather unscientific to judge something I have never played. I have played previous Kojima games and found the lacking in fun. Being preached at for 30 minutes at the end of Metal Gear Solid 2 and be told to "stop playing the game", by the game. So, I took its advice and stop playing. If the Mac platform is know as a more casual gaming platform than a “hardcore Gamer” platform, then why not embrace the casual and make it the best and most fun casual gaming experience available. Continue to improve the compatibility to use game controllers on the platform. Create a dedicated Gaming App / Store, that understands its' market and knows what its' player base wants, such as cross platform playability (iPad, iOS OSX). Multiplayer cross platform support with Mac and PC, maybe even console. Basically a better gaming store experience. 10) With Arm Chips becoming a windows PC (laptops) thing now and games not preforming well on those snapdragon chips, even through prism. Maybe game developers might start developing with the Arm chip set in mind and create games that work on both platforms. but that’s just wishful thinking. 11) Buy or invest in gaming studios to help develop native games for the platform. The third most wealthy tech company in the world and they cant buy four game developers and get them to develop games on the platform. Apple could give them the freedom that the likes of EA and Ubisoft and Microsoft don’t, to create games that might or might not be the next big thing, but, to do as Apple once sold its self upon and “Think Different”.

[@DiogoMarques07]

AC Shadows will not release on iPhone, only on Mac and iPad.

[@loodwich]

A simple example is "Total War: ROME REMASTERED." I bought it the first week, but it was on Steam. I have several games that I play on my Mac, but I bought them on Steam or on the game's webpage. Why? In Steam, I have the game for my Mac or CrossOver, but I don't play a game like that on my phone or iPad. I have several Mac games like Humankind, Civilization VI, several titles of Total War, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, ENDLESS Space... the problem is the App Store

[@jvlppm]

A partnership with Valve for an integrated Proton Layer / Gaming Toolkit could be a good start. Maybe even Apple developing the next Steam Deck, I could then say, yeah, macs can game, and it would be an incentive to get games ported to run with better performance on that Steam Deck. But Apple would need to reach deep their pockets.

[@joshuag876]

First all of these native mac ports need to be added to Steam, not the App store, second Apple needs to push harder to get perfect compatibility layers in place to allow windows native games to run, which to their credit they are making progress on, and third we need anticheat software to be fixed so it can run via GPTK and Crossover that way we can get multiplayer games.

[@krystiano.610]

As a mainly PC gamer, I don't care about any game released on the app store - I have a large steam library and I don't want to pay twice to play on both my MacBook and PC - Apple should just accept the fact that its current exclusive approach will only lead to developers unwillingness to port their games to MacOS (cuz nobody buys games on the app store). As for iPhone gaming, when possible I prefer streaming from my own PC rather than playing the native versions (e.g. Genshin Impact) - less device heat with better quality and framerate

[@mipmapp5207]

This would be my feedback to Apple - not as an armchair CEO but as a general schmuck who games occasionally. I have no interest in what is being brought into gaming. Resident Evil, Death Stranding, Lies of P all look impressive but not something I’m gonna sit down with for extended periods. But I do (and would) with games like Valheim, Palworld, Deep Rock Galactic and other AA or indie titles that are multiplayer that I can play with my kids or games that can be played in short gaming sessions. I use my Mac for work mostly so having my downtime be something that fits family gaming would be of interest to me. That’s the niche I fall into and I’m not sure how many would be the same as me. I’ll be buying Palworld when the Mac version is available so I can join friends and family. I currently play Vaheim with my sons. These are games you can easily jump into and out of without dedicating huge sessions to, and I can move my MacBook from the office to the living room to join. The Mac is light and being able move to another room to join a game that my kids are playing would play to that strength. For this reason RE7 and all these intense single player games don’t interest me.

[@tablettablete186]

Rock and Stone!!!

[@mipmapp5207]

@@tablettablete186 Rock. And. Stone! Deep Rock works really well on Whisky on my M1 Pro thankfully.

[@sotonin]

They need to give developers INCENTIVE to put their games on the mac store.... Like they need to pay these companies or Apple ecosystem will forever be a void of modern games

[@powdoa]

I wonder how many copies of BG3 sold on apple silicon Macs? More than 7,000 I would imagine!

[@andymejia5456]

Why pay full price to play on a phone or iPad when you can play it on your console

[@sxifster2144]

Andrew great point, honestly just need the games that have been on iOS which would run a lot better if they came to the Mac then that would start the interest in games on Mac which would lead to exclusives coming such as the paid games. Same idea the iOS App Store had and it's the reason why it's the biggest in the world. Start with free AAA games that'll will help fund in-game purchases if there are any (most likely) then the exclusives come and larger audiences will buy when released.

[@pooriakhosravi9415]

the controls on the iphone and ipad are pretty bad the hole point of plying a game on iphone is to play it on the go but resident evil touch controls are terrible.

[@drzeissler]

these selling numbers are far to low to be true.

[@caucasia_lucas]

I would be intresting to see how many copies was sold solely for mac for bg3

[@MatiasIseas]

Today resident evil 4 costs 70 euros in the app store 😂. I want to support Mac games market, but that price makes no sense

[@VisionProGamingGuy]

the article is most about iOS. the main issue is the games play like a$$ on iPhone. the port is low quality low effort, they barely run, low frame rate, and crash often. and then you add on top the games were designed to be played on PC/Console…such as the UI being too small on iPhone, the virtual controllers sucking, the gameplay style requiring too much attention for too long. High End mobile games like ZZZ by mihoyo are getting 40million in preregistration. We're more likely to see the high end mobile developers make more astounding games than the old console developers being able to make good games for mobile ….. AC Mirage crashed within minutes for me on iPhone 15pm . as an app developer I know the revenue estimates we've seen have been 10x off in either direction before for my own games and my friends.

[@jennyblock3866]

The Mac books you need to play games in top quality is to expensive. Who buys a Mac book for over €3000,00 to play games?

[@anthonyzheng7274]

The issue with multiplayer games is while the MacBook Pro has a beautiful screen and incredible hardware (now in 2024), the system isn't designed for gaming ie: it has a high total input latency. Jarrod's Tech channel explains this: the time it takes for gunshot to go off after mouse click in Counterstrike. I have an M3 Max 16 inch and this high input latency can be noticeable just playing league of legends. I'm a mechanical god in league when I'm playing on my gaming laptop (razer blade 16) but for some reason I feel like a 90 year old when I'm playing the same exact game on my MacBook. There's just no way for me to enjoy any multiplayer games if my hardware prevents my gameplay from being competitive.

[@anthonyzheng7274]

Single player titles and laid back MMORPGS (FFXIV) on the other hand, are an INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE if played on a Mac that can handle the settings.