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Comment by jillesvangurp | Hacker News Reader

There were some volunteers working on this topic that kind of backed away from this topic. But they got quite far with this.

What I don't get is why Valve isn't backing such efforts financially. There are millions of wealthy mac owners out there with pretty capable hardware. That should translate into quite a bit of steam purchases.

I just got a shiny m4 max laptop. I run Steam on a much less capable crappy old Samsung laptop (via manjaro). Would I run that on my mac if I could? Yes. Would I be tempted to spend a bit of cash on some fun games. Probably. Am I doing that currently? No, because that crappy old Samsung is too old and most games don't run on it. And I'm not in a mood to buy a dedicated gaming machine. I might at some point but just not a priority. But I don't mind dropping a few euros on a game to entertain myself once in a while.

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There's nothing much to get, Steam Hardware Survey shows that Steam usage currently sits at 1.6% for macOS which is LESS than even Linux: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw...

And with Apple's hostility towards gamers with moves like refusal to support OpenGL or Vulkan (adding extra Metal support work to their developers) and refusal to keep stable APIs for a long time for game developers, it makes sense for them to rather focus on a crowd that is easier to support.

When it comes to gaming, Apple is its own enemy since forever and has been similarly failing to gain serious traction even on iOS (considering how powerful the iOS hardware is). iPads could be Steam Decks of their time and Apple just never cared enough.

Overall I agree, and I'm not about to refute the statement, but I never thought the phrase "Linux users are easier to support" would be taken seriously - I find that marvelous and hilarious.

The way to support Linux gamers these days is to write a Windows game and test with Proton (to make sure it's not using unsupported APIs).

It's kind of hilarious and sad... but it works darn well and it's less work than porting to Metal and 64-bit macOS.

Unsurprising because unlike Linux, almost no games work on steam for mac. There's barely any point in running it on a mac. It's actually a pretty high percentage if you consider that.

My point was that volunteers got quite far getting steam and many games running on macs with decent framerates. The main person driving this recently moved on from working on that. Likewise, Asahi linux is getting quite capable at running steam and lots of games. That too is being driven by a handful of people.

Supporting stuff like that doesn't sound like it should break the bank for Steam. Basically sponsor a few people; maybe hire a few more to support them. It's basically all working at this point, it just needs a bit of love and attention. This wouldn't take years of additional development. And once steam runs properly on macs with thousands of games running smoothly, a lot more people might be using steam on their macs.

Yes, they'd be picking a fight with Apple. But as Epyc (Unreal engine) is showing, those fights can be won if you have deep pockets. And Apple is under a lot of pressure to moderate their anti competitive behavior. Perfect timing for Valve to make some money of all this with a minimum of investment.

> When it comes to gaming, Apple is its own enemy since forever and has been similarly failing to gain serious traction even on iOS.

Tell me you're only interested in talking about the gaming you care about without telling me directly.

In simple terms, iOS is the only growth market in gaming. Consoles and PCs are basically stagnant, with around 200 million people worldwide in that market and that number hasn't moved in decades. The only growth being made is by raising game prices and making ever more expensive Pro consoles.

iOS is the biggest game market in terms of revenue. You can disregard the games on there, but Apple is laser-focused on that gaming revenue they're making. Apple is the biggest gaming company in the world by revenue.

But it's a kind of gaming that is so different (by its interfaces) that it's almost offtopic : it's a bit like starting to talk about plane freight when the discussion is about cargo bikes...

Android is the main competitor here, and is struggling (low profit/sale). I guess handhelds like the Switch and Steam Deck might somewhat be relevant ?

You may be interested in purchasing a Steam Deck, or similar product. I am in a similar situation, where home machine is a Mac Mini. I wanted to play various games, but did not want to purchase (and maintain) a Windows machine. A Steam Deck—plus USB-C dock, connected to monitor and speakers—has been a good substitute for me.

Steam is already available for macOS and there are numerous games available for the platform.

If Valve were getting high numbers of people installing the macOS Steam client, and you can bet they do already have that telemetry, then they would take the platform more seriously. But most macOS users aren’t interesting in gaming on their Mac.

>What I don't get is why Valve isn't backing such efforts financially

I remember reading something a few years ago about how Valve basically gave up on Mac due to Apple being a complete pain in the ass to work with.

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