Subj : Apple's WWDC 2025 has a lot to offer - but forget Apple Intellige To : All From : TechnologyDaily Date : Mon Jun 09 2025 16:30:08 Apple's WWDC 2025 has a lot to offer - but forget Apple Intelligence, what about the games? Date: Mon, 09 Jun 2025 15:18:06 +0000 Description: Apple's apparent refusal to engage with the gaming industry is slowly becoming a blind spot for the tech giant. FULL STORY ====================================================================== Apples Worldwide Developer Conference - aka WWDC - is upon us once more, and the 2025 edition looks like it could ring in some big changes for Apple. The rumor mill says that there are major redesigns planned for iOS on the iPhone, as well as iPadOS, macOS, WatchOS for the Apple Watch, and even tvOS for the Apple TV streaming box. Lots of people will be hoping for news on Apple Intelligence too (although I wouldnt hold my breath on that if I were you). But, in the words of the immortal Spice Girls - Ill tell you what I want, what I really, really want and thats more games for the Mac. I am that rare breed of creature known as the Mac Gamer. Its a small, select group, mainly consisting of me and Whoopi Goldberg , but its growing all the time and after decades of completely ignoring games on the Mac it looks as though Apple is finally showing some interest. Game On Apple has never liked games. John Carmack, one of the creators of Doom and Quake at id Software, once said that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs didnt think very highly of games , and Jobs attitude meant that Apple effectively ignored gaming on the Mac for decades (I never took it personally, said Carmack). That state of affairs didnt really change until WWDC in 2023. After making headlines with the debut of the Vision Pro headset, Apple very quietly released a new software tool called the Game Porting ToolKit (GPT) that was designed specifically to help developers produce Mac versions of their PC games. Apple's MacBooks can play the latest games - though you might need to do a bit of graphical tweaking if you're not running the latest Apple Silicon, (Image credit: Apple) This seemed to mark a real change in Apples attitude towards games, and the launch of GPT did help to bring a few AAA titles to Mac for the first time, including Assassins Creed Shadows, Control, Death Stranding, and multiple Resident Evil games. But the fact remains that most A-List PC games never get released on the Mac at all, so heres my wishlist for the Mac games scene at WWDC in 2025. More Powerful Hardware Even the best Macbooks and Macs have often been mocked for lacking the power to play games with modern 3D graphics in fact, Macs couldnt even handle ray-tracing until Apple introduced its M3 processors about 18 months ago. Even now, many Mac games still require very expensive, top-of-the-range Mac models in order to run at high graphical settings. There are some pretty good gaming PCs available for less than 1000/$1000 , and Apple needs to bring real gaming power to more Mac models in order to create a larger audience for new Mac games. In Apple's defense, though, there's no denying that the best gaming laptops can get pretty expensive - and many people need a single lightweight system for work as well as gaming, not a desktop-replacement powerhouse machine that can't last more than two hours away from a wall outlet. So the potential is there; Apple just needs to step up. More Tools For Games Developers The Mac operating system (aka macOS) relies on a piece of Apple software called Metal to handle 3D graphics in games. In contrast, PC games generally rely on Microsofts DirectX graphics software instead, and converting or porting - DirectX games to run on Macs is a huge technical challenge for game developers. Sonic Dream Team was a major recent Apple Arcade release. (Image credit: Sega / Sonic Team) Thats where the Game Porting Toolkit comes in, as it is specifically designed to help with this conversion process. Apple did introduce GPT 2.0 at WWDC in 2024, so releasing another update at this years WWDC would reaffirm Apples commitment to gaming. Apple could also simply buy Codeweavers, the developer of the open-source CrossOver software that GPT is partly based on (codeweavers.com). The CrossOver team has enormous experience in getting Windows games to run on Macs, and that could help Apple to smooth the path onto the Mac for many PC-based games developers. Open Up The App Store At the moment, many Mac games are only available via Apples own Mac App Store. Even if youve already bought Control: Ultimate Edition on Steam or the Epic Games Store then youll find that you still have to buy the Mac version separately on the Mac App Store so youre effectively paying twice for a game that you already own. Games on the Mac App Store also tend to be more expensive than on Steam or Epic where the PC version of Control: Ultimate Edition is currently on sale at a bargain price. Baldur's Gate 3 was a big win for Mac gamers, but it's not as if Windows players can't enjoy the iconic title. (Image credit: Larian) This applies to lots of other Mac games too, so Apple really needs to allow developers more freedom to sell their Mac games outside the Mac App Store. Unfortunately, Apples long-running legal battle with Epic over selling Fortnite on the App Store suggests that this is pretty unlikely. However, games such as Baldurs Gate 3 and Hades 2 do allow you to buy the game once on Steam and then download either Mac or PC versions as required, so thats something Id like to see from more games in the future. Revamp Apple Arcade Apple makes billions of dollars from its subscription services, and Apple Arcade was meant to provide an Apple alternative to gaming services such as Microsofts Game Pass for Xbox and PC. But while Game Pass tempts players with newly-released hit titles such as Oblivion Remastered and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 , Apple Arcade is full of aging mobile games like Angry Birds that were originally designed for the iPhone or iPad. The selection of 'Role-Playing Games' currently on Apple Arcade is... feeble at best. (Image credit: Apple) The selection of Mac games is seriously underwhelming, so Apple needs to work with game developers to bring some heavyweight A-list titles to Apple Arcade. Mac users know that Apple often makes splashy announcements at WWDC about forthcoming games for the Mac, but it needs to continue that commitment for the other 51 weeks of the year if it really wants the Mac to be taken seriously as a gaming platform. Zigazig ah! ====================================================================== Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/macs/apples-wwdc-2025-has-a-lot-to-offer-b ut-forget-apple-intelligence-what-about-the-games --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64) * Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100) .