Mac Gaming's Biggest Challenges

Price, upgrades, and compatibility still haunt Apple's rigs.

If you want to look at the history of the aging debate between the PC and Mac as gaming platforms, a good place to start is 1994. id Software had just released the immensely popular Doom for PC, but Macintosh users would have to wait nearly two years before the title arrived on their platform. Meanwhile, in 1995, a then little-known developer called Bungie released Marathon, a groundbreaking first-person shooter developed solely for the Mac OS. Marathon set new standards for the genre, incorporating a rich narrative and free-look with the mouse.
Almost 20 years later, the story of Doom and Marathon remains relevant. While the Apple brand continues to grow in popularity, thanks to the iPhone and iPad, Mac gamers are still frequently forced to wait upwards of two years for major games to arrive on their machines. And despite increasing similarities in regards to hardware, one has to wonder if the Mac will ever stand shoulder to shoulder with its Windows-based counterpart. What's holding these otherwise lauded machines behind?

Where are the Games?

While the sheer number of triple-A videogame titles available for Mac OS X is historically dwarfed by the library afforded to PC gamers, the issue is quickly becoming less relevant. Most gamers are no longer purchasing physical copies of software, breaking down the overall cost for a publisher to release a game on both PC and Mac. Almost three years ago, Valve introduced Mac compatibility within its popular Steam client, a move which served as a tipping point for a number of developers to consider the Mac as a viable option.
But despite the expanding library of major game releases, launch dates for Mac titles are consistently well-behind Windows. Let's take the Call of Duty series, easily among the most popular game franchises today. Call of Duty: Black Ops wasn't released for Mac OS X until late 2012; nearly two years after Windows. While the gap is getting smaller, including some major releases hitting both platforms on the same day, the launch-day woes of Mac users still linger from 1994.
Apple could counteract this issue with incentives for game developers and publishers to get games launched on the same day as PC. No one wants to play a new game months late, let alone years. The birth of the Mac App Store offers advantages Apple is rarely exploiting, including pushing competitive pricing and even getting some titles on its own storefront before PC.

The Perceived Silence of Apple

Apple appears to do very little in the way of presenting its machines as competent gaming rigs. There is a perception within the gaming community – no matter how accurate – that Macs are vastly inferior in regards to playing games. While there's certainly an argument to be made touting the performance of Apple's hardware, Cupertino has done little to sway opinion. Mac desktops and laptops are rarely marketed as gaming powerhouses, as Apple continues to focus on productivity applications, pushing the game debate to its line of iOS devices.

Does Apple support developers in bringing games to Mac? According to Aspyr, a company porting a number of major titles over to the Mac platform, backing from Apple is at an “all-time high.”
“As a company who's only goal is to service the Mac customer, we've always wished for two things from Apple: to sell more hardware and to increase hardware capabilities,” said Elizabeth Howard, Aspyr vice president of publishing. “In recent years we're getting both. In addition to this, Apple has introduced the Mac App Store which has given more exposure to triple-A games, and Apple has been supportive of our releases from a marketing and awareness perspective.”
While it's encouraging for a developer like Aspyr to state Apple is showing support to their endeavors, there's still the matter of marketing. Apple is no slouch in the realm of advertisements, but the company still doesn't portray the Mac as a gaming device with the same vigor as its iOS platform. The perception of the Mac as lesser-than the PC in regards to gaming won't change without an outward strategy by Cupertino.

A Lack of Upgrades and Costly Hardware

Clearly, from a software and development perspective, the Mac platform has made significant advances in recent years. But like any piece of consumer hardware, price and longevity play a major factor. A new, high-end iMac is more than capable of running (compatible) performance-heavy games with high settings. A Mac Pro offers an increased life-span, thanks to upgradeable components, including the ever-important option to throw in a beefier graphics card.
But there's a problem: the performance of the iMac is always fleeting, since it's impossible to upgrade its internals beyond memory. And in the case of both of Apple's desktops, the price is exorbitantly high when compared to similar PC gaming rigs. As it stands, there's little reason to pay upwards of $2500 for a Mac to play games, when a PC setup could run even more titles at almost half the price.


If Apple wants to compete with PC in terms of gaming, the company has to change its approach to desktop configurations. The Mac Pro, Apple's most upgradeable machine, hasn't received a thorough makeover since 2008. A redesign could bring in some more affordable, gaming-centric options. Someone buying a Mac Pro for gaming simply wants a fast CPU and competent GPU, and Apple could make both of those happen with a streamlined rig for a comparable price.

A Lack of Upgrades and Costly Hardware

Granted, it's not all gloom and doom for Mac gamers. We're still living in one of the best times for the platform, and with each passing year, the differences to PC grow slimmer. There are still advantages to owning a Mac, including a lower probability of catching a virus, and developers are starting to take advantage of the prevalence of iOS devices to offer cross-platform play.
Ultimately, games still remain a bit of an after-thought for the high-end Mac platform; an icing-on-the-cake option for those utilizing high-performance productivity and creative suites. But as broadband speeds continue to rise and the promise of cloud-based gaming becomes ever-more a reality, the platform may one day not matter. One day, the ghost of Doom and Marathon may seem like strange history.