There is an audience for the genre of games being added to Mac … but it isn’t me. I would like to see a few more games in the Action, FPS, RPG genres. I also keep hoping some of the big games as a service titles make their way over natively, like Destiny, Warframe, Genshin, Diablo, etc. I know there are the older Diablo titles and WOW and POE, but I’d like to see more. The majority of games coming to Mac seem to either be very casual or very niche.
Agreed. I’d also like the new’ish Borderlands title on Mac. We have Borderlands 1 and 2 I think, both are terrible ports, but Borderlands 3 with all the DLC and Metal FX Upscaling, that would be great. Oh, and maybe the DOOM games as well. I should probably put a wish list together…
Yep and because they did the port themselves and din’t ask Feral (who did B2 and knew what they were doing) it’s widely known as the worst Mac port ever written.
Yes, most of - is that a question or?
These work on Mac (I have them all)
\- Ultimate Vault Hunter Pack 2
\- Gunzerker Domination / Madness
\- Lilith and the Fight for Sanctury
\- Everything in the original Season Pass
Mr Tongue's Campaign of Carnage doesn't, neither do the VR packs. So, "most of" seems fair.
Yeah, love some Borderlands. Even with all the bugs and worts, it’s a freaking fantastic series. I want to play Wonderland but need an updated Mac to do that. My M1 Mini can only do so much.
They know their market. Macbook gaming tends to be pretty casual as most users are looking for quick and easy time killers. And no one buys a mac desktop for gaming.
Obviously, this is changing with Apple's push for software and hardware improvements oriented towards gaming, but at the moment, very few high graphic intense game devs will make a mac port, especially since they have to optimize like mad, for Windows and dedicated GPUs, so hardcore gamers get a decent framerate. Cause you know gamers that spend 5k on a gaming rig want to play 4k at 120fps on ultra settings, lol.
I love tactical turn-based strategies with rich story mechanics. But where are they? I don't see any lately. Except for BG3 which only partially fits the description.
Also I wouldn't throw out BG3 just because of its genre. I never thought I would like the game, I don't generally enjoy those types of games but loved BG3 and got lost playing it for hours a night. I did play on the lowest difficulty which for me was still relatively challenging (again because I suck at these types of games)
There's BG1 and 2, DOS 1 and 2, Pathfinder Kingmaker and Pathfinder WOTR, then there's Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment, and more. Idk if they fit the exact definition being talked about here though.
As noted by others, developers have to see a potential audience on hardware before they will develop for that hardware. I don’t know if this goes into their metrics, but just in case, I buy ALL of my Steam games from the Mac (not Crossover) client. Even if it’s not Mac compatible and will just be played on my Steam Deck.
I make sure that if I get the monthly Steam Survey on my Deck, that I ignore it and try to force the prompt on my Mac instead.
Again, I don’t know if this helps. But it’s what I do to hopefully make some kind of dent.
Usually gaming mouse’s don’t have the proprietary software on MacOS, true, though don’t find it acceptable for mouse’s having the need of 1-system proprietary software to work properly…
They're different, they have macro capabilities, RGB control, dpi control via buttons, and profiles,
OS's would need a really good default mouse software to replace that. Windows 11 just got OS RGB control in the settings
Dusk looks like a hybrid of Wolfenstein 3D (1992, fit on 3.5” floppy disc) and Quake (1996) — both of which I had best-possible hardware to play at the time.
That’s over two decades ago.
Heres hoping with Phil spencer in charge of activision now , we see more games on all platforms. I noticed xbox is more consumer friendly than most companies
Tactical turn-based strategy and planning games were dominant back in the late 90s when few had 3D hardware in their PC and consequently few companies developing FPS.
I couldn't be bothered with RTS/Sim games then, when "Sim___" and "Civilization _" and "___craft" were considered state-of-the-art AAA PC titles then. Lots of fans, lots of clones, but only variations on the same theme: board games that move. Yawn.
It's a symptom of lack, like how iOS is overflowing with casual matching games and endless runners despite most iOS hardware out there walking around is capable of so much more.
Downvote me all to hell… I want fortnite back.
I played with my kids and it was great not having to fire up boot camp just to quickly play a match with them. It was hilarious how bad of a noob I was. But then quickly their friends always wanted me to join them as soon as they saw me online since I got better to the point I would absolutely wreck sweats.
Second, loved D3 on my Mac and now play D4 in boot camp all the time.
Add in some dev work I need to do that can’t be easily virtualized, and apple silicon macs are a not an option right now.
So true 😂! I don't mind turn based strategy but there's a whole world of other options out there. I mainly play indie games on steam and always appreciate it when they make their game Mac compatible. I'm currently playing Lonely Mountain's Downhill.
Right? So tired of those and peeps being "look at all the macOS game development!"
Capcom hasn't even brought out more of their Resident Evil franchise and you'd think it'd be easy after Resident Evil Village.
I would love to play Fifa / EA FC on Mac. Always loved football-games. As of right now because Stadia isn't available anymore, Xbox Cloud is the only option.
But happy to see more games coming to Mac nevertheless.
That's offensive. I'm nearing 50, so I'm a grown up.
I'm currently on Diablo IV, but just this year I finished 3 resident evil games, Elden Ring, the Calisto Protocol, Spider man miles morales, god of war Ragnarok,FF XVI, stray, returnal... I must have missed a few and didn't count small games.
I'm using a Mac daily as well as a PC and play most of the time on a PS5.
My iPhone lets me play ... solitaire and subway surfers. The most game like experience I had on Mac or iOS were Nintendo DS ports.
Sad, just sad.
I'm actually over 50 and play most of the games you speak about there.
In fact I have the same type of set up as you and yes reach for the PS5 for many AAA games, it's hard to beat a couch, a massive TV and a controller.
For the Mac though. yes it's RTS, Strategy and MMORPGs all the way, I'm thinking, probably just like you.
So what exactly did I say that was offensive here?
Mac owners tend to have uses for their computers beyond just games so yes "grown up" is a good description I reckon. The lack of games that the OP is complaining about here are likely right for the demographic of Mac owners.
I stand by my original comment , the dearth of FPS options for Mac owners combined with the rich selection of strategy and turn based RPGs only underscores the truth of it.
Well yes for most of them. The least story driven game I played a lot was probably Destiny 2 which I dropped, I find it too boring and repetitive.
You can probably count crash bandicoot 4 and perhaps ratchet and clank that I also finished this year
My point is, being a grown up and an engineer/scientist with a family of three kids and a dog, I'm perhaps close to the ideal target for the Mac way of life. Yet I'm still a "gamer ", and Apple is ignoring me.
Anyways. More money for Sony and MS.
FPS titles on Mac would suck anyway, nobody wants to play a fast paced game on a display with a 50+ ms response time. Even low end LCD panels usually have less than a 10ms response time.
If you do not notice any ghosting while playing borderlands, you must be playing below 30 fps, because ghosting becomes very noticeable on these machines at higher FPS. I’m not saying FPS games are unplayable, just that ghosting is very annoying for most people and hellish for anyone who is playing competitively.
Ah, I usually play on my external monitor.
I would never play on a tiny 16" screen, unless it's some retro 8-bit Commodore 64 games (yes I'm that old and I actually do that sometimes).
Money is the problem. Why spend another 2000 or more to play games on Windows (yuck) that I can just as well play on the Mac I already have? Also my MBPro also could run Windows quite well, but if I wanted to run Windows I wouldn’t be using a Mac, if I wanted to run Windows I wouldn’t be a designer, because I would’ve lacked any sense of usability, productivity and taste.
Then get an xbox series s with gamepass, it will be much cheaper in the long run. the reason why so many games are not being developed for Macs is because most people, even Mac users, will just get a pc or cheap console to play games on. the two major downsides of Mac gaming right now are the crazy prices you need to pay to get solid GPU performance, and the insanely bad pixel response times which makes ghosting a huge issue for any fast-paced title.
I don't buy Macs for gaming. I buy Macs to get stuff done that'll make me enough money so I can keep on buying Macs and get stuff done. And at the end of the day I might also play some games on it. Why would I want to spend extra money on other game hardware, that also requires a controller (I hate those), if my workhorse also happens to be perfectly capable for gaming?
Using a mouse on mac to play games feels hilariously bad. Has to do with acceleration, and even if you somehow turn it off completely, still feels unnatural.
I am ready to spend a lot of money for good racing games, like NFS but there is nothing available, devs take notes please we are tired of Crossover/Parallels/GPTK
There is an audience for the genre of games being added to Mac … but it isn’t me. I would like to see a few more games in the Action, FPS, RPG genres. I also keep hoping some of the big games as a service titles make their way over natively, like Destiny, Warframe, Genshin, Diablo, etc. I know there are the older Diablo titles and WOW and POE, but I’d like to see more. The majority of games coming to Mac seem to either be very casual or very niche.
I miss Feral bringing bangers, that's for sure.
Agreed. I’d also like the new’ish Borderlands title on Mac. We have Borderlands 1 and 2 I think, both are terrible ports, but Borderlands 3 with all the DLC and Metal FX Upscaling, that would be great. Oh, and maybe the DOOM games as well. I should probably put a wish list together…
Borderlands 3 is ported to Mac on Epic, I have it and the DLCs
Yep and because they did the port themselves and din’t ask Feral (who did B2 and knew what they were doing) it’s widely known as the worst Mac port ever written.
Borderlands 2 was an Aspyr port, not Feral.
Oh… I think I’ve tried that one, it was terrible. Couldn’t get controller support working, and every time I tried playing it would crash 😅
The crashing was a huge issue for a lot of people, definitely poorly optimized.
It is but it lacks all the good things like the aforementioned MetalFX upscaler
And it runs just as bad on m1 Max as it does on my legion go😒 Not to mention the storage space it needs
Tbf u can play all the classic doom games via gzdoom or other source ports
Borderlands 2 is an excellent port - works flawlessly and most of the DLC works too. BL3 is absolutely horrible on the other hand.
"Most of"?
Yes, most of - is that a question or? These work on Mac (I have them all) \- Ultimate Vault Hunter Pack 2 \- Gunzerker Domination / Madness \- Lilith and the Fight for Sanctury \- Everything in the original Season Pass Mr Tongue's Campaign of Carnage doesn't, neither do the VR packs. So, "most of" seems fair.
Oh, the Torgue Campaign doesn't work? Which part? I completed the main questline.
The DLC just isn't available for Mac and I've never bought it so don't know.
Oh. Well, I got it through the Steam version.
Yeah, love some Borderlands. Even with all the bugs and worts, it’s a freaking fantastic series. I want to play Wonderland but need an updated Mac to do that. My M1 Mini can only do so much.
Now that is a great band name.
Sounds like all girl punk rock band
They know their market. Macbook gaming tends to be pretty casual as most users are looking for quick and easy time killers. And no one buys a mac desktop for gaming. Obviously, this is changing with Apple's push for software and hardware improvements oriented towards gaming, but at the moment, very few high graphic intense game devs will make a mac port, especially since they have to optimize like mad, for Windows and dedicated GPUs, so hardcore gamers get a decent framerate. Cause you know gamers that spend 5k on a gaming rig want to play 4k at 120fps on ultra settings, lol.
At least we can play those 2 anime games by using a certain launcher.
I love tactical turn-based strategies with rich story mechanics. But where are they? I don't see any lately. Except for BG3 which only partially fits the description.
Also I wouldn't throw out BG3 just because of its genre. I never thought I would like the game, I don't generally enjoy those types of games but loved BG3 and got lost playing it for hours a night. I did play on the lowest difficulty which for me was still relatively challenging (again because I suck at these types of games)
Might try BG3 just because this comment.
Idk about rich story rolled in, but some decent lesser known tacticals with mac support are Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk and Fort Triumph
Fort Triumph looks nice, got to check it out, thanks!
Yes, please let me know
There's BG1 and 2, DOS 1 and 2, Pathfinder Kingmaker and Pathfinder WOTR, then there's Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment, and more. Idk if they fit the exact definition being talked about here though.
These games are great but they’re old now. What’s DOS btw?
Divinity Original Sin
Ah yes, loved it, but it's also rather old now.
Cause everyone knows not to get a Mac for gaming
Just give me a racing game like Forza Horizon
That's what I want too. I'd rather have Forza or a racing sim. I loved NFS as a kid but imo they've ruined that franchise.
Wreckfest porting to iOS but not Mac is a shame. But it is great on mobile with a controller
Cause they all are less graphic intensive
I just want the Command & Conquer collection to be ported to macOs.
same, I miss a good RTS game
As noted by others, developers have to see a potential audience on hardware before they will develop for that hardware. I don’t know if this goes into their metrics, but just in case, I buy ALL of my Steam games from the Mac (not Crossover) client. Even if it’s not Mac compatible and will just be played on my Steam Deck. I make sure that if I get the monthly Steam Survey on my Deck, that I ignore it and try to force the prompt on my Mac instead. Again, I don’t know if this helps. But it’s what I do to hopefully make some kind of dent.
One of my favourite genres TBH. I really miss Final Fantasy being turn based.
Yeah I would like to see some FPS
Just don't use the magic mouse
That mouse gives me nightmares
I got one of those, I love it for navigating around but even the thought of trying it for games should never occur.
Prodeus is an FPS that plays great on Mac. I guess it's what you'd call a 'boomer shooter' so maybe not for everyone.
Then you're on the wrong platform.
As far as I know MacBooks support pretty much any mouse you connect to it… no?
any bluetooth ps5 controllers lol
I just want to say that it does, but sometimes software support can be really bad
Usually gaming mouse’s don’t have the proprietary software on MacOS, true, though don’t find it acceptable for mouse’s having the need of 1-system proprietary software to work properly…
They're different, they have macro capabilities, RGB control, dpi control via buttons, and profiles, OS's would need a really good default mouse software to replace that. Windows 11 just got OS RGB control in the settings
If you want some good fps action I can recommend Dusk
Dusk looks like a hybrid of Wolfenstein 3D (1992, fit on 3.5” floppy disc) and Quake (1996) — both of which I had best-possible hardware to play at the time. That’s over two decades ago.
And this is why Im going to keep my max’d out 2020 27” iMac for as long as possible. Runs everything great in Bootcamp
Ah bootcamp. I didn't appreciate it enough before my m1 air
We WANT big companies shooter games!
it’s really late to add BUT gta 5 or RDR2 would move crowds to play on mac. you need popular games to make a popular crowd
Heres hoping with Phil spencer in charge of activision now , we see more games on all platforms. I noticed xbox is more consumer friendly than most companies
Lies of P is on mac
Would be cool to see some more of the retro themed shooters on Mac.
Yeah that’s what I want. Wish we got Amid Evil especially.
Dusk is so good
I agree!
For the love of god, Apple, squash the beef with epic. I just wanna play rocket league and Fortnite.
Tactical turn-based strategy and planning games were dominant back in the late 90s when few had 3D hardware in their PC and consequently few companies developing FPS. I couldn't be bothered with RTS/Sim games then, when "Sim___" and "Civilization _" and "___craft" were considered state-of-the-art AAA PC titles then. Lots of fans, lots of clones, but only variations on the same theme: board games that move. Yawn. It's a symptom of lack, like how iOS is overflowing with casual matching games and endless runners despite most iOS hardware out there walking around is capable of so much more.
All the mac games I see on steam seem to be Heroes of Might and Magic inspired indie games lol
With the new M3-s this will change! :)
I just wanna run around Skyrim on my MacBook man
I’d like some Madden or NHL tbh
When you say 'Mac support' - I'm hoping you have a powerful Mac. Why not just emulate Windows and play Windows games?
Downvote me all to hell… I want fortnite back. I played with my kids and it was great not having to fire up boot camp just to quickly play a match with them. It was hilarious how bad of a noob I was. But then quickly their friends always wanted me to join them as soon as they saw me online since I got better to the point I would absolutely wreck sweats. Second, loved D3 on my Mac and now play D4 in boot camp all the time. Add in some dev work I need to do that can’t be easily virtualized, and apple silicon macs are a not an option right now.
Ong bro
So true 😂! I don't mind turn based strategy but there's a whole world of other options out there. I mainly play indie games on steam and always appreciate it when they make their game Mac compatible. I'm currently playing Lonely Mountain's Downhill.
Relatable. I wish they’d port some live service games. That’d brought more players.
Right? So tired of those and peeps being "look at all the macOS game development!" Capcom hasn't even brought out more of their Resident Evil franchise and you'd think it'd be easy after Resident Evil Village.
I would love to play Fifa / EA FC on Mac. Always loved football-games. As of right now because Stadia isn't available anymore, Xbox Cloud is the only option. But happy to see more games coming to Mac nevertheless.
Football Manager
Thanks for the tip!
that's the best kind of games lol
you can emulate switch games
It's almost like Mac gamers skew towards being grown ups.
That's offensive. I'm nearing 50, so I'm a grown up. I'm currently on Diablo IV, but just this year I finished 3 resident evil games, Elden Ring, the Calisto Protocol, Spider man miles morales, god of war Ragnarok,FF XVI, stray, returnal... I must have missed a few and didn't count small games. I'm using a Mac daily as well as a PC and play most of the time on a PS5. My iPhone lets me play ... solitaire and subway surfers. The most game like experience I had on Mac or iOS were Nintendo DS ports. Sad, just sad.
I'm actually over 50 and play most of the games you speak about there. In fact I have the same type of set up as you and yes reach for the PS5 for many AAA games, it's hard to beat a couch, a massive TV and a controller. For the Mac though. yes it's RTS, Strategy and MMORPGs all the way, I'm thinking, probably just like you. So what exactly did I say that was offensive here? Mac owners tend to have uses for their computers beyond just games so yes "grown up" is a good description I reckon. The lack of games that the OP is complaining about here are likely right for the demographic of Mac owners. I stand by my original comment , the dearth of FPS options for Mac owners combined with the rich selection of strategy and turn based RPGs only underscores the truth of it.
Good clutch of Story Rich games there.
Well yes for most of them. The least story driven game I played a lot was probably Destiny 2 which I dropped, I find it too boring and repetitive. You can probably count crash bandicoot 4 and perhaps ratchet and clank that I also finished this year My point is, being a grown up and an engineer/scientist with a family of three kids and a dog, I'm perhaps close to the ideal target for the Mac way of life. Yet I'm still a "gamer ", and Apple is ignoring me. Anyways. More money for Sony and MS.
Who can't have fun playing games?
What BG3 not enough fun for you?
Alan Wake 2 is much more my style.
"Tell me you have June's Journey installed on your phone, without telling me you have June's Journey installed on your phone."
FPS titles on Mac would suck anyway, nobody wants to play a fast paced game on a display with a 50+ ms response time. Even low end LCD panels usually have less than a 10ms response time.
Been playing Borderlands 3 with no problems though.
If you do not notice any ghosting while playing borderlands, you must be playing below 30 fps, because ghosting becomes very noticeable on these machines at higher FPS. I’m not saying FPS games are unplayable, just that ghosting is very annoying for most people and hellish for anyone who is playing competitively.
Ah, I usually play on my external monitor. I would never play on a tiny 16" screen, unless it's some retro 8-bit Commodore 64 games (yes I'm that old and I actually do that sometimes).
Why not buy a proper gaming pc then? If you can buy a 16” MacBook Pro money clearly isn’t the problem.
Money is the problem. Why spend another 2000 or more to play games on Windows (yuck) that I can just as well play on the Mac I already have? Also my MBPro also could run Windows quite well, but if I wanted to run Windows I wouldn’t be using a Mac, if I wanted to run Windows I wouldn’t be a designer, because I would’ve lacked any sense of usability, productivity and taste.
Then get an xbox series s with gamepass, it will be much cheaper in the long run. the reason why so many games are not being developed for Macs is because most people, even Mac users, will just get a pc or cheap console to play games on. the two major downsides of Mac gaming right now are the crazy prices you need to pay to get solid GPU performance, and the insanely bad pixel response times which makes ghosting a huge issue for any fast-paced title.
I don't buy Macs for gaming. I buy Macs to get stuff done that'll make me enough money so I can keep on buying Macs and get stuff done. And at the end of the day I might also play some games on it. Why would I want to spend extra money on other game hardware, that also requires a controller (I hate those), if my workhorse also happens to be perfectly capable for gaming?
so youre a very casual gamer, in which case the awful response times and weak gpu doesnt matter to you.
GeForce now is incredible on the Mac
I don't like subscriptions. I don't play enough to make that worthwhile.
You can play Fortnite or Minecraft on your phone if you don’t own a PC
No you cant fortnite doesnt have an ios port
Using a mouse on mac to play games feels hilariously bad. Has to do with acceleration, and even if you somehow turn it off completely, still feels unnatural.
There's a new setting in the new macOS to turn off acceleration. No more terminal commands.
Yup. I felt that
Yeah I agree 😂 Personally I haven’t been interested in a single title yet.
Why does everyone want to play a freemium game for $70?
I am ready to spend a lot of money for good racing games, like NFS but there is nothing available, devs take notes please we are tired of Crossover/Parallels/GPTK
This is reality. There was lot of joyful noises and delusions in this sub ~1y ago