{"id":38703,"date":"2023-03-07T14:53:04","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T19:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=38703"},"modified":"2023-04-22T09:19:55","modified_gmt":"2023-04-22T13:19:55","slug":"cracking-the-mac-gaming-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/07\/cracking-the-mac-gaming-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Cracking the Mac Gaming Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oliver Mackenzie<\/a> (in August 2022, via John Voorhees<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Let’s take a look at our gaming benchmarks, calculated via video capture as is the Digital Foundry way.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

It’s not a particularly large table because, unfortunately, there aren’t many high-end Mac games that we can actually test, particularly when it comes to big-budget games. But we do have a few titles here - and the results are intriguing.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

This is a full-bore Apple Silicon version of Blizzard’s long-running MMO, but despite running natively, the same pattern emerges with the M1 Ultra yet again falling squarely between the two PC systems, falling well short of the 3090 but still delivering performance in line with a high-end PC GPU. The Max is borderline unplayable while the 3080M hovers around 30fps. All of these systems would be perfectly fine with the game at remotely reasonable settings, of course - we are running the game essentially maxed out at a whopping 8K internal resolution to create a proper stress test.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Gaming on Mac has historically been quite problematic and that remains the case right now - native ports are thin on the ground and when older titles such as No Man’s Sky and Resident Evil Village are mooted for conversion, it’s much more of a big deal than it really should be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Matthew Panzarino<\/a>:<\/p>\n

One arena still holds fascination for any of us who have found a home on the Mac for nearly every part of our digital life — save one: gaming. The M-series Macs are undoubtedly more gaming capable than any previous Mac due to the inclusion of much-improved onboard GPUs across the lineup. But even with big titles popping up on Mac in spurts, there still is a fairly large section of “here there be dragons,” where you would think Apple would like to map in the multi-billion-dollar gaming market.<\/p>

Borchers says that Apple is feeling like the Apple silicon gaming story is getting more solid release by release.<\/p>

“With Capcom bringing Resident Evil across, and other titles starting to come along, I think the AAA community is starting to wake up and understand the opportunity,” he says. “Because what we have now, with our portfolio of M-series Macs, is a set of incredibly performant machines and a growing audience of people who have these incredibly performant systems that can all be addressed with a single code base that is developing over time.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Millet says that Apple’s work on cracking the gaming market started with the early days of the Apple silicon transition.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Peter Cohen<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Reading this interview from last month, I was struck by the fact that I’ve heard the same basic line from Apple since they released the blue and white Power Mac G3 in 1999: “Now we have performant gaming hardware.”<\/p>

The problem isn’t the hardware. The problem is getting an entire industry of developers and publishers on board to support the platform, and consumers to buy them with this purpose in mind. Apple can’t fix this with new game-savvy senior management.<\/p>

Also, pointing out the amazing GPU performance of the M2 isn’t helpful, because most of us don’t have one. And won’t be goaded to buy one based on how well it plays games that have already been out on PC and console for years. It’s “Field of Dreams”-level magical thinking: Build better silicon and they will come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Cabel Sasser<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

A short story. We once submitted Untitled Goose Game to the Mac App Store. It was rejected by the reviewer because they thought you couldn’t skip the credits. (?!?) We explained that you could skip the credits by holding space. It was then rejected for something else and at that point we just gave up and never bothered to resubmit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Untitled Goose Game<\/a>, of course, is one of the funnest and most original games of the last decade. And Panic is a company that has made a couple of decent Mac apps over the years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Isaiah Carew<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

i think the most damning evidence is that the goose game is on a bunch of other really strict platforms, like Nintendo Switch, and not of the app store.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n