Apple’s Focus on Gaming for Mac Becomes Evident with 2023 Initiatives
Apple’s Mac computers have traditionally not been known for their gaming prowess; Instead, they’ve gained a reputation as reliable tools that creatives and professionals rely on to get things done. However, that hasn’t stopped Apple from trying to change that perception—indeed, making significant strides in this area.
It was only earlier this year that the iPhone manufacturer introduced a game mode with macOS Sonoma. This mode maximizes system performance so AAA games can run as well as possible. Speaking of AAA games, of course, we can’t forget the move to Apple’s M-series silicon, which has allowed the company to bring console titles like Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, Capcom’s Resident Evil games, and more.
In an interview with Inverse magazine, Apple CEO Gordon Keppel gave an insight into how the transition to Apple Silicon has been a transformative change for the company.
Speaking to Inverse’s Raymond Wong, Keppel said, “Now any Mac that ships with Apple Silicon can play AAA games pretty fantastically.” And this move to “Apple Silicon has changed our mainstream systems, which received huge increases in graphics with the M1, M2 and now the M3.”
For those unfamiliar, Apple introduced advanced graphics capabilities such as ray tracing with the M3 chipset, as it did with the 3nm-based A17 Pro in the iPhone 15 Pro models – allowing developers to improve graphics fidelity on Macs. , which was a problem with Intel-powered Macs.
“If you look at the Mac lineup just a few years ago, there was a mix of both integrated and discrete GPUs,” Martin explained. “It can add complexity when you’re developing games, because you have so many different permutations of hardware to consider. Today, we’ve effectively removed that entirely with Apple Silicon and created a unified gaming platform now for iPhone, iPad and Mac,” Martin added.
In addition to focusing on hardware, Apple also makes sure that developers have a good environment to make (or port) games to the Mac. Apple’s Leland Martin said that a unified hardware and software approach really helps the company.
Transferring PC games to your Mac is easier than ever
During WWDC 2023, Apple also introduced a new Game Porting Tool that will help developers port their Windows games to macOS – hypothetically allowing Mac users to experience more games than ever before. And of course, for users to see the immediate benefits, Apple announced that “Death Stranding: Director’s Cut,” which was previously a PS5 exclusive developed by Kojima, is coming to Mac.
Apple’s Game Porting Tool is based on “Wine”, a popular open source solution that optimizes Windows software to run on Unix-based operating systems such as macOS and Linux. And Apple has also made sure that the Game Porting Tool can convert DirectX 12 to Metal 3. DirectX is Microsoft’s API that handles graphics and audio playback on Windows and Xbox platforms and is equivalent to Metal 3 on macOS.
“Bringing the game natively to the Mac improves its performance and allows you to take advantage of many advanced features of Apple Silicon and Mac hardware, including features such as MetalFX and extended dynamic range capabilities on Apple’s built-in displays,” the company said back. in June.
It’s unclear how Apple will continue this momentum. We’ll have to wait and see how many other developers jump on this bandwagon to see how it works out for Apple in the long run.
