Apple's Mac App Store is now on virtually every Intel-based Mac out there. It's come preinstalled on new systems since January, including the brand-new MacBook Air and Mac Mini desktops, and it was pushed to owners of prior systems (who have at least OS X v10.6.6) via a downloadable update. While you're not locked into it for buying new software as you are with the App Store for the iPad, iPhone, and other iOS devices (jailbreaking aside), it's so convenient and easy to use that it's probably your first stop when looking for Mac apps (the same cannot be said for to on the Windows side). As with the iOS App Store, the Games section is among the most popular. It should look especially familiar, as many of the games, from Angry Birds to NOVA 2, are featured in both stores. The Mac App Store, however, does have a small collection of more traditional computer games for sale, including several that have been hits previously on the PC (a term used here as shorthand for a computer running Windows, although I'm sympathetic to the argument that these are all 'personal computers.' ) Related links.
That's a great idea. Many games on steam could be or are on the app store. It would take some work to do, and games would have to be optimized for mobile devices, but I can see it happening.
Looking through the games available in the Mac App Store, there were several excellent choices, such as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and BioShock-great games, despite being a generation or two behind. But, some of the prices attached to these games were surprisingly high (in app stores, prices are generally set by the software publisher). Call of Duty 4 was the first game in what became the Modern Warfare spin-off series, which is now up to Modern Warfare 3. Yet, that 2007 game was still selling for $50 in the Mac App Store (it was on sale for 20 percent off for about a week as an OS X Lion launch-window discount).
The PC version of this game can be found for as little as $20, and even the Mac version is less expensive on Amazon. Sensing a potential opportunity to save Mac gamers a few bucks, we checked the top mainstream games from the Mac App Store and compared them with both the downloadable and disc-based versions from Amazon and Steam (depending on which version was available from which retailer), and threw in a few PC versions as a control. Compiling the data, a few trends were obvious. First, there is evidence to support the claim of a Mac Tax for games. This can be partly explained by the additional work required by the third-party companies (primarily Aspyr) that translate PC games for OS X, but you're still paying more for older products compared with Windows gamers.
Second, there is also a clear premium for the downloadable versions of Mac games, as opposed to the boxed retail versions. We'd expect downloadable versions of games to be at least comparably priced, if not less expensive, as the nonphysical nature of the product eliminates manufacturing and shipping costs. At the same time, there is something to be said for the benefits of downloadable games, including updates and patches, and the overall ease of installation. While it's the most convenient, buying from the Mac App Store isn't always the least expensive way to get Mac games.
If you can live with the disc-based version (you'll need an external drive for the MacBook Air and Mac Mini, such as the $79 ), you'll save some money, but even downloads may be less expensive through Amazon or Steam. (We've also been reminded that OnLive has BioShock from our chart below as part of its $9.99/month PlayPack subscription.) The charts below reflect current prices on Mac games through the Mac App Store, Amazon, and Steam, as of July 28, 2011, and are subject to change. We've seen a couple of these games drop in price for a limited time at the Mac App Store in the past week, as part of an OS X Lion launch promotion, but those promotions appear to be over. Would you pay more for a Mac game to get it from the Mac App Store? Would you buy a disc-based copy of a game if it was less expensive? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Mac game prices as of July 28, 2011 (best Mac price is in bold) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Mac App Store $49.99 Amazon Mac disc $23 Amazon Mac download $32.20 PC Steam download $19.99 Civilization V Mac App Store $49.99 Amazon Mac disc $43.78 Amazon Mac download $42.94 Amazon PC download $29.99 Call of Duty 2 Mac App Store $29.99 Amazon Mac disc $14.99 Amazon Mac download $18.47 Amazon PC disc $10.50 PC Steam download $19.99 BioShock Mac App Store $29.99 Amazon Mac disc $37.70 Amazon Mac download $29.99 Amazon PC disc $5.88 Amazon PC download $14.91.
Can You Play Games on a Mac? Macs are made of the same components as any other PC. They’re just an Intel x86 computer in a fancier case with a different operating system. This means there’s no real hardware barrier to gaming on a Mac. It’s not like a PC has some magic video game component that your Mac lacks. However, Macs aren’t exactly designed for gaming.
The discrete graphics cards used in the high-end Macs aren’t all that great, and you don’t have the choice of the more powerful graphics cards you would in some Windows PCs. The Mac Pro is an exception, which carries a decent graphics card inside, but it’ll cost you a lot more than a comparable Windows PC would.
These graphics cards are also soldered in, so there’s no way to upgrade them a year or two down the line—even on desktops like the iMac or Mac Pro. Windows desktops are more upgradeable in this respect.
Entry level Macs don’t have dedicated graphics cards at all—they have integrated graphics chips that are even more asthmatic. They might reach the absolute minimum requirements of some popular modern games, but just barely. There’s no way you’ll be able to play new games at full resolution with all the detail settings cranked up, even with a specced-out iMac—but they are technically capable of playing many games. Even a MacBook Air can play Minecraft.
But, although it’s possible, is it worth doing? A Mac is never going to be as good for gaming as a dedicated Windows PC, especially for the price. Even a Mac Pro can’t compete with a gaming-focused rig that costs a quarter of the Mac Pro’s $2999 price tag. If you’re serious about having the best gaming experience, your Mac isn’t going to cut it. Build your own gaming PC or buy a console and be done with it!
If you’re looking to casually play the occasional game, though, a Mac may suffice. I travel a lot, and only have my MacBook with me when I do. I’m away from my beloved PlayStation 4 for months at a time. My MacBook is able to give me a small gaming fix. It might be more methadone than heroin, but it’s something.
What Games Are Available? The biggest issue with gaming on a Mac, though, is game availability. Windows’ DirectX APIs are incredibly popular with game developers. They don’t have any equivalents on macOS, which makes it harder for developers to port their games.
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Because of this, the catalog of games available on macOS is much much smaller than that for Windows. There are plenty of big games that will never come to Mac. Things, however, are a lot better than they used to be. While you can buy games through the Mac App Store, major games retailers like, and all have Mac clients with better selections than the App Store.
If the game you want is there and your Mac has the hardware to run it, it will run. The quality of macOS’ game selection depend on what games you like to play. AAA first person shooters are especially underrepresented. None of the recent Call of Duty or Battlefield games are available on macOS, but other genres, like MMORPGs and strategy games, are actually pretty well covered. Popular games like World of Warcraft, Civilization VI, and Football Manager 2017 are available and work without you having to jump through any weird hoops.
Here are the top 15 most popular titles on Steam: It’s a broad mix of AAA titles from major publishers, like Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, and indie hits, like Rocket League. Of the fourteen games (the Season Pass for Wildlands also makes the top fifteen), only five are playable on macOS.
However, those five games— Rocket League, Pillars of Eternity, Counter-Strike, Blackwake, and ARK—are all older or independent titles. Wildlands, Dawn of War III, For Honor, and the other big AAA titles are Windows exclusives, at least at the moment.
This, then, gets to the heart of it. If the kind of games you’re looking to play are available, work on your specific Mac, and you don’t mind playing them with the quality settings turned down low, you’ll be fine. If you want to shoot your friends in Battlefield One in high resolution, macOS is about as useful as a toaster. Better Ways to Game on a Mac If you don’t want to plop down another $800 for a decent Windows-based gaming PC, you have a few options for better gaming on your Mac.
The first of which iswell, Windows. RELATED: Gaming in macOS is stunted in more ways than one. It might be easy, but if you’re serious about gaming, it’s probably worth your while to set up. Boot Camp lets you install Windows on a separate partition, so you can boot into Windows or macOS whenever you want. You have your macOS partition for day to day use, and when you want to game, you restart your Mac and run Windows.
You still won’t necessarily be able to play games at high settings—after all, you still have whatever low-power graphics card came with your Mac—but at least you’ve got a much wider selection of games to choose from. Also, because they’re designed for the operating system, the same games tend to run better on Windows than on macOS. Even if you can play the game natively in macOS, you might have a better experience running it through Boot Camp. RELATED: If that doesn’t appeal to you, you might be interested in NVIDIA’s new game streaming service called.
Instead of running the game on your PC, NVIDIA runs the game on a high powered server somewhere and streams it to your PC. That way, its servers are doing all the heavy lifting, and you reap all the benefits—it’ll even let you play Windows games from macOS, no Boot Camp required.
This service is not available quite yet, but it will be launching for Mac in March of this year. This looks like it could be a promising way to game on your Mac without having to faff around with dual booting. Sony has a similar service for PlayStation 3 games, but there are currently no publicly announced plans to bring it to macOS. Macs are not gaming computers, but they are computers you can game on—as long as you accept their limitations. If you’re looking for a computer that can play the latest games in high quality, look elsewhere. But if you already own a Mac and just want a way to kill a few hours, it can work. It has for me.