Apple's Gaming Woes

So it all started a long time ago in a galaxy far, far...well—this one. Apple was getting ready to announce their new Mac-exclusive game: Halo: Combat Evolved to the public, bringing Bungie on stage for the announcement. The game was going to ship within the next year, but it didn't happen before Microsoft purchased Bungie and turned Halo into an Xbox exclusive. Halo ended up being massively successful for Xbox and spent the next couple of decades being the main (read: usually only) reason people would buy the console.

What's Going On Now?

Hardware

We all know that this shit's getting expensive. Hardware costs have caused prices to rise literally everywhere with no real end in sight. Valve finally released the Steam Machine after a seemingly endless wait and it's almost entirely too expensive to be a console. A while back, there was a handheld boom with the Steam Deck, but that's also largely tapered off as more powerful units are getting increasingly expensive (and heavy...goddamn).

Studios

I'm not going to try and be an authority on the world of gaming studios, it's not a world that I've followed nearly as much as, say, consumer tech or AI, but I think it's safe to say we've all noticed that things aren't going well. Major studios are being shut down, games are taking too long to develop, many games are resorting to microtransactions and subscriptions to keep people engaged and keep making money. It's overall not great.

The Shift Away From AAA

We're starting to see a lot of people care less and less about AAA games with the highest quality graphics. People are starting to become fans of indie games with less visual fidelity, but have a good story or fun component to them. AAA studios have been running around like headless chickens condensing and splitting apart in the name of profits over telling good stories. Overall, people aren't happy.

Where Apple Could Come In

We're getting to the point where it's no longer going to be about getting AAA exclusives to be the reason people would start gaming on their Macs. With MacBook Neo and other successes in getting Macs into more people's hands, we're seeing a better platform for gaming emerge: the computer you're already using.

AppleTV with the same chip as a MacBook Air could be pretty killer for some gaming out there. Major titles are coming to macOS (late, but still coming). There's also a large swath of smaller games available either through the App Store or through third party sellers. While Sony and Microsoft are going to have to try and sell users on increasingly expensive new consoles with increasingly lackluster headline titles, Apple's just got to get you to believe that a Mac can game.

We've seen major pushes from Apple in Metal, the Game Porting Toolkit, and working with studios to create Metal ports of their games, but I think that the current landscape of the gaming industry is just unstable enough that Apple could do something interesting here.