I’ve demoed a lot of games on Apple devices – here’s why I believe the future of Mac gaming has never looked brighter
As a dedicated Windows PC gamer who owns some of the best gaming PCs around, I’ve been reporting extensively on Apple’s recent efforts to finally capitalize on its excellent M-series silicon and extend its gaming platform to the best MacBooks and Macs. Progress seemed slower than molasses for a while, with a number of solid ports being announced and launched that showed what Apple hardware could do, as well as a partnership with game developer and director Hideo Kojima. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much in the way of substantive progress in the long term, which left me quite concerned.
Then came WWDC 2024, and with it some major announcements from Apple that almost immediately turned around an increasingly bleak outlook. Just before the event, Apple revealed that Assassin’s Creed Shadows would be coming to Mac alongside PCs and consoles on November 15, 2024. It was also announced during the conference that Shadows would be coming to iPad.
Since then, there’s been a flurry of other Mac gaming news, including more titles coming to Apple platforms, developer toolkits that make game porting and development even easier, and more. But what really cemented things for me was my personal experience at a recent gaming showcase, which was nothing short of incredible.
Apple Gaming: Thoughts and Hands-On
I was able to try out various games on the iPad, iPhone and Mac devices, both hands-on and live demonstrations. These included titles such as Check, Assassin’s Creed MirageZenless Zone Zero, Diablo ImmortalValheim, Frostpunk 2And PalworldWhat impressed me even more was how well games ran on these devices. Even an iPhone could handle AAA titles.
Zenless Zone Zero was easily one of the most impressive demos of the day. It ran at an absolutely buttery smooth 120fps on an iPad M4. Likewise, Assassin’s Creed Mirage played almost as well on the iPad M4 as it did on the iMac. Even testing it on the iPhone proved to be a pretty impressive experience, running surprisingly well on high settings (although not without some hiccups).
Valheimis, while not exactly graphically demanding, a massive open-world game that is procedurally generated and therefore requires a solid desktop to run smoothly. The iMac handled that just fine. Palworlda similar game also ran well, with no visible glitches or hiccups. Frostpunk 2 And Diablo ImmortalTwo equally great games, though different in genre, ran on both Mac and iPad without any issues – in fact, I often forgot I was gaming on an iPad because the experience was so smooth.
Apple has also introduced a number of gaming tools and features that improve the overall experience. When I watched a live demo of Control Ultimate Edition and later played it myself, I saw how well it ran on a Mac and how well it performed with the dev toolkit Crossover, which makes it possible to play Windows games that aren’t yet playable on Macs. While not perfect, gameplay was smooth and almost entirely stutter-free, clocking in at nearly 60 frames per second even during more frantic battle scenes.
Game Porting Toolkit 2 is another development toolkit for porting titles to Mac, allowing developers to bring their titles to the platform much faster. This sequel to the original version further streamlines development for Mac, and makes it easy to bring existing Mac games to iPhone and iPad.
There’s also a Game Mode, which is already available on Mac devices and coming to iPad and iPhone in fall 2024. This mode helps minimize background activity during a gaming session, allowing for even smoother frame rates and lower latency.
Personalized Spatial Audio is a tool that significantly reduces audio latency and improves audio quality when voice chat is active by upscaling your game audio to high-quality 16-bit, 48kHz audio. The Mac App Store is also seeing some major upgrades, with game file sizes requiring significantly less storage space and players now being able to choose to switch to an alternate drive for installation.
The final big new feature is the Unified Gaming Platform, which takes advantage of the fact that iPad, iPhone, and Mac share the same software and hardware technology. Compatibility starts with the iPhone 15 Pro, any iPad with an M-series chip, and every Mac in the lineup since the M1 series.
By coupling this with the Game Porting Toolkit 2, developers can create a single version of a game for all three platforms, unlike consoles and PC, which require multiple versions. This has already been used to great effect on Death Stranding: Director’s Cut, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and the recently released Resident Evil 7 Biohazard.
The future of Mac gaming looks bright
I’ve been both hopeful and critical of Apple’s efforts with its Mac gaming initiative, pointing out both the positives and the weaknesses. But starting with WWDC 2024 and continuing with the recent showcase of games on Apple devices, I truly see the dream of fully supported Mac gaming coming true.
There are several points I outlined earlier that Apple needed to fulfill to really grab my attention as a gamer and someone who wants Mac gaming to take off. After WWDC 2024, the tech giant has already managed to fulfill two of those requirements. If Apple can now fulfill the final requirement and start adding more studio profiles, it would increase the number of eyes on its gaming initiatives and encourage more developers and gamers to invest in Apple devices.
Despite that, the future of Mac gaming looks brighter. Hopefully we’ll see more good news in the future, leading up to the day when Macs can rival PCs in terms of game library and popularity (since performance is already assured). Why, you ask? Because more competition is always better, leading to more innovation and constant upgrades to services, toolkits, hardware, and more.