Apple unveiled macOS Ventura yesterday, and it announced some big changes that are coming to the platform in the fall. There’s Stage Manager letting you switch between windows and apps, a redesigned control panel, updates to messages and mail, new Safari features and so much more. However, that’s not what caught my attention. Mac computers are finally becoming better gaming machines, which are not the words that you could use in the same sentence in the past without feeling guilty that your $1,000+ device wasn’t capable of handling AAA titles. In case you missed the event, here's a quick recap and Jaime Rivera's first impressions to catch up.

Apple announced the latest version of Metal, bringing real AAA titles to the Mac platform. It marks the first time Apple has taken gaming on Mac seriously in over a decade, and there’s a lot to be excited about. It will enable developers to optimize their games better, and bring them to the platform, taking advantage of the power of the M1, and now the M2 series of Apple Silicon.

Source: Apple

Metal 3 is bringing a tight integration between graphics and computing power. The new changes will enable games to load faster, improve rendering capabilities, and upscaling. As a result of the recent changes, Apple partnered up with Capcom and Hello Games to bring Resident Evil Village and No Man’s Sky to the Mac. The latter will also be available on the iPad at some point later in 2022.

Apple has been the go-to platform for many professionals in the past 20 years due to its simplicity and highly optimized software, but the platform hasn’t been focusing on gaming at all. Apple Arcade brings a lot of great and unique games to the Mac and other Apple devices, but it never really took off, and the games can’t be owned by users, forcing them to pay a subscription fee to gain access. It’s unclear if these two games will join Apple Arcade, or if they will be available as separate listings on the App Store, or outside of the App Store.

Apple must convince game developers to bring their titles to macOS

Many people argue that Apple doesn’t need to bring real AAA titles to the Mac, and that it doesn’t need to compete with Windows and other gaming platforms. I agree that it doesn’t need to compete with Windows, since it can’t offer the same extensive gaming library as Microsoft or Steam. Still, it needs a much larger selection of optimized graphics-intensive games that take advantage of the powerful new chips. The hardware is more than capable of handling immersive games, and Apple needs to make further adjustments to help developers and large gaming studios to port their games over.

You could argue that the gaming market on Mac is so small that it’s probably not worth it for developers to put the extra resources into developing for it, but if Apple offered some incentives, it could bring massive changes to the platform in the next three to four years.

Imagine playing Grand Theft Auto, Cyberpunk 2077, DOOM Eternal, Forza Horizon and many more without using a virtual machine and an expensive external GPU. For a machine that costs $2,000 or more, it should be able to offer some gaming capability without any hassle.

Gaming on Mac must happen

Source: Apple

The new Mac computers, powered by the M1 and M2 Silicon, are more powerful than ever, and while heating remains a concern, the platform needs to be more versatile. Apple computers already appeal to both casual users and professionals in all fields, making them an excellent choice for work and studying, but Apple needs to do more to make a better all-around laptop.

Apple won’t dethrone MSI, ASUS, Dell, Razer and other popular gaming-laptop vendors, but it has all the resources necessary to bring in the much-needed changes and convince publishers to port their games over. macOS barely makes a dent in the gaming world, but over time, it could grow to a much larger scale, offering an extensive library of games. The platform already supports gaming controllers, and with the introduction of Metal 3, Apple has shown that it has the power it needs to convince gaming publishers, and it remains to be seen if it can encourage more developers to join the other side. The future of macOS gaming looks bright, and I can’t wait to test out No Man’s Sky on the Mac.

Do you think gaming will happen on the Mac? What are your thoughts about Apple bringing two big titles to the platform? Let us know in the comments!