{"id":39951,"date":"2023-07-04T15:43:21","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T19:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=39951"},"modified":"2023-08-09T15:46:21","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T19:46:21","slug":"the-trouble-with-mac-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/04\/the-trouble-with-mac-gaming\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble With Mac Gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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Quinn Nelson of Snazzy Labs has an excellent video about the trouble with gaming on the Mac. The video’s title says it all: “Macs Can Game. But Apple Can’t<\/a>.” As Nelson explains, it’s not the hardware or the software that’s holding the platform back. It’s the size of the Mac market and the lack of any apparent strategy to attract more than a few big-name game studios to the Mac.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

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

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I’m not linking this @snazzyq video just<\/em> because it agrees with everything I’ve been saying for years on @atpfm about Apple and gaming…but it’s also not a coincidence that so many knowledgeable people have the same thoughts on the subject.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

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

So Game Porting Toolkit a starting point for Mac games, not an endpoint. In fact, getting games working on the Mac platform has never really been the issue. I’ve been covering this scene now for 30 years. Finding someone to convert game code to run on the Mac isn’t the problem. Game devs today are better at building portable code than they used to, and the tools they rely on are better at targeting multiple platforms, too.<\/p>

Business is the issue that’s stymied Mac games over the years. Game publishers often avoid the Mac platform because they don’t see the revenue potential. The counterargument is that Mac users don’t buy enough games because they aren’t out at the same time or in the same quantity as Windows. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg conundrum.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

After Apple announced Game Porting Toolkit, I did a straw poll of veteran Mac game developers. General consensus was interest, but eye rolls too. The mood can be summarized as, “We’ll see how long this<\/em> lasts.” <\/p>

What do they mean? Apple’s infamous for shifting priorities after announcing new game technology and walking away from it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

See also: Microsoft’s gaming strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Previously:<\/p>\n