Whisky, a gaming-focused front-end for Wine’s Windows compatibility tools on macOS, is no longer receiving updates. As one of the most useful and well-regarded tools in a Mac gamer’s toolkit, it could be seen as a great loss, but its developer hopes you’ll move on with what he considers a better option: supporting CodeWeavers’ CrossOver product.
Also, Whisky’s creator is an 18-year-old college student, and he could use a break.
“I am 18, yes, and attending Northeastern University, so it’s always a balancing act between my school work and dev work,” Isaac Marovitz wrote to Ars. The Whisky project has “been more or less in this state for a few months, I posted the notice mostly to clarify and formally announce it,” Marovitz said, having received “a lot of questions” about the project status.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows has launched on Mac, PC and consoles, and while we gave it something of a mixed grade in our review, I find it a lot more interesting as a Mac gamer than someone else might.
What’s notable from a Mac gamer’s perspective is not only that a genuinely AAA game has come to the Mac, but also that it has launched on Mac at the same time as Windows. That doesn’t happen very often, and Mac gamers are used to waiting years before a title makes it to their side of the divide.
This changed approach suggests that Apple’s plan to woo games developers is paying dividends. Now this momentum needs to continue.
After all, as we’ve written before, the problem with gaming on the Mac is not the hardware — it’s the lack of games. Our recent Mac Studio review shows that Apple’s kit can hold its own when it comes to gaming performance, but with so many titles taking years to land on Apple’s computers (if they arrive at all), there are often slim pickings for Apple fans.
That’s been improving in recent years, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the latest proof of that. But if we go back a year and look at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2024, we can see that there are still several big-name titles that are yet to be found on the Mac.
Big names on the Mac
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Apple originally announced that Assassin’s Creed Shadows would be coming to Mac at WWDC 2024. But that wasn’t the only game that was teased during the event — in fact, there were many more. What about the other titles that were revealed at that time?
Well, three still haven’t made it to launch day, although Wuthering Waves is due out tomorrow, March 27. Other than that, the Mac port of RoboCop: Rogue City is still in development, according to its creators. Dead Island 2 was slated to launch in 2024 but is totally absent, with no clue as to when it might make an appearance.
The remaining ten games have all arrived on the Mac, and that includes Control: Ultimate Edition, which launched today. Palworld released on the Mac earlier in March, while Sniper Elite 4 came to Apple’s computers in January.
We saw Resident Evil 2 and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown in late 2024, while Frostpunk 2, World of Warcraft: The War Within, and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard appeared in the fall or summer. Riven and Valheim launched in June 2024, the same month as WWDC.
That’s not a terrible return, and with big-name titles like Assassin’s Creed, Control and Resident Evil all having made it to the Mac, there are plenty of excellent options for Mac gamers.
Waiting for Cyberpunk 2077
Fionna Agomuoh / Digital Trends
But despite all those launches, I’m still holding out for something even better: Cyberpunk 2077, which is reportedly coming later this year.
In fact, it’s probably very close to launch. Apple showed it running on a Mac Studio at its recent demo event, which suggests that it’s almost ready for go time. As well as that, eagle-eyed Redditors noticed that the game’s Steam package has been updated to support macOS, even though it’s not yet available for Mac on the Steam storefront. That all suggests it’ll get the green light sooner rather than later.
This could be a big win for Mac gamers, but it will be telling how well Cyberpunk performs on Apple silicon. According to testing down by tech YouTuber Quinn Nelson, Assassin’s Creed Shadows doesn’t perform well on the M4 MacBook Air, hitting an unacceptably low 23fps on average. While the game does better on an M3 Max chip — getting an average of 43fps — that chip is an awfully expensive way to get middling performance in your game.
We’ll have to hope that Cyberpunk is better optimized than Assassin’s Creed Shadows. It looked promising at Apple’s recent hardware demo, but that was on an expensive Mac Studio. That’s out of reach for many people.
Over to you, Apple
Apple
Apple promised a lot at WWDC in terms of the games that would be coming to the Mac, but this should only be seen as a starting point. Apple now needs to keep the releases coming into 2025 and beyond.
The company has great hardware that can (mostly) hold its own when it comes to gaming, in stark contrast to even just five years ago. But it needs to ensure that developers see it as an attractive destination for their efforts. We won’t be able to call Macs true gaming machines until they have both the hardware chops and gaming roster to lure players in.
The record from WWDC 2024 is fairly encouraging. Now, I’m looking forward to seeing what gets revealed at WWDC 2025. The ball is firmly in Apple’s court.
Remember Apple Arcade? The gaming subscription service from Apple turns six years old today, but you might not have realized that — or even recalled that it still exists. As a Mac gamer, I feel like it’s Apple’s forgotten gaming platform.
These days, Apple Arcade barely gets a mention from its creator, whether that’s at a showy Apple event or in a quick press release. There’s practically no significant promotion for Apple Arcade, wherever you look. And that feels odd considering how much Apple is pushing Mac gaming these days.
The problem is that Apple Arcade has never really lived up to its potential. Games on Apple Arcade carry saves across to whatever Apple product they’re played on, and that means they have to work on every device from the beefiest Mac Pro to the most modest iPhone. As a result, developers inevitably have to make compromises. Many games simply feel like iOS ports that got lost and found themselves on the Mac, with huge buttons designed for thumbs instead of mouse pointers and blurry textures blown up large on Mac displays. Few feel at home on the Mac.
Then there are the tales of developer discontent. As reported by MobileGamer.biz, Apple Arcade developers have faced declining revenues and a lack of interest from Apple. One even said the service has “the smell of death” about it.
An earlier report from Midia Research claimed that up to 10% of US consumers play Apple Arcade games weekly, but I’d be willing to bet that the vast majority of those gamers play on mobile devices, not the Mac. Mobile gaming is a huge business and Mac gaming is decidedly not. I wouldn’t be surprised if that trend is reflected in Apple Arcade.
The native solution
Fionna Agomuoh / Digital Trends
I’ve been an Apple Arcade subscriber off and on almost since it debuted, and right now I’m decidedly in the “off” camp. It pains me to say it, but I can’t remember a single Apple Arcade game that has justified the ongoing fee and really stuck in my mind. Sure, there are plenty of good titles available, but few that I find compelling specifically from a Mac gamer’s perspective, as opposed to someone who plays on mobile.
That’s not necessarily the fault of the developers. Apple Arcade games are constrained by serious limitations, and that’s holding them back. Developers must ensure that their games run well and look good on the least powerful Apple device available, which inevitably means that more weight is put on iPhone performance than how the game will run for Mac players.
Now, there’s another serious threat to Apple Arcade: the Mac itself.
Mac hardware is getting more powerful every year and AAA games are arriving on the Mac’s sunny shores in increasing numbers. In the coming years, the choice for Mac gamers will increasingly be between Apple Arcade games optimised for iOS and proper, native Mac gaming experiences. As a Mac gamer, I know I would choose Cyberpunk 2077 or Assassin’s Creed Shadows over an Apple Arcade title every day of the week.
2K Games
I say this as someone who has given Apple Arcade plenty of time (and money) over the years. I liked the idea of being able to start playing a game on my Mac and then pick up on my iPhone if I need to leave the house. And I appreciate being able to play games free from microtransactions and adverts, which is a stipulation of getting a game onto Apple Arcade.
But in the end, the dearth of compelling titles for Mac gamers — a situation prompted by the very nature of Apple Arcade’s cross-platform requirements — has turned me away.
Fortunately, with the Mac looking like a more viable gaming destination, the slow decline of Apple Arcade might not be so keenly felt. After all, a game expressly designed for desktops will likely always be a better experience than something that has to work on every screen, from a 6-inch iPhone to a 32-inch Pro Display XDR.
But as I mark Apple Arcade’s sixth birthday, I can’t help but wonder whether Apple should simply drop the Mac compatibility requirement from its game subscription service entirely. That would allow mobile games to thrive on their own terms, without forcing unsuitable ports onto the developers.
If Apple can give other enticements to Mac developers and give them solid reasons to make native Mac games, everyone will be better off. That’s the kind of world where Mac gaming can thrive.
These days, I often feel like I’m one of those rare breeds: a gamer who also loves Macs. My home office work is split between my M1 Mac mini and my small-form-factor Windows PC, and to be honest it’s annoying to have to switch between the two all the time.
Unfortunately, my love of gaming — and Apple’s relative inexperience here — means that I’ve had to stick with both macOS and Windows for some time now. Sure, I’d love to drop Windows once and for all, but it just doesn’t feel as though the Mac is quite there yet in terms of gaming performance.
That said, Apple’s M4 chips have made gaming much more viable on a Mac. As we saw in our Mac Studio review, the M4 Max chip is very capable when it comes to gaming performance.
I’ve previously talked about how the Mac mini’s gaming performance has made it difficult to resist ditching my Windows PC and going all-in on macOS. Now, the Mac Studio is making the whole situation even more confusing.
The Mac Studio arrives
Fionna Agomuoh / Digital Trends
Pricing-wise, the Mac mini and the Mac Studio seem to be fairly far apart, even when you boost the former’s chip for better gaming output. Get a Mac mini with M4 Pro chip and you’ll pay around $1,399 — for the mac Studio with M4 Max chip, you’re looking at starting price of $1,999. That $600 difference is sizeable.
But things get a bit more interesting when gaming becomes a more serious consideration. Because there’s no discrete GPU in these Macs, and because the M4 Pro is far from Apple’s strongest chip, you’ll probably want the beefiest M4 Pro you can get. Upgrade to the version with a 14-core CPU and a 20-core GPU and you’re looking at a $1,599 price — a more reasonable $400 less than the Mac Studio.
That’s important because the M4 Max is much better for gaming than the M4 Pro. In our Mac Studio review, the M4 Max hit 114fps in Civilization VI and managed smooth frame rates when running Baldur’s Gate 3 at 4K resolution, for example. It also outdid the M3 Ultra in gaming performance, which we were not expecting.
Apple
When we tested the Mac mini, it performed worse than the previous-generation M3 Max chip. While we don’t have a direct comparison of the M4 Pro and M4 Max yet, it’s clear that the latter should be way ahead.
This has upended things a bit for me. When the M4 Mac mini came out, I was so taken by its dinky size and so impressed by its overall performance (despite it lacking a little in gaming) that I was almost ready to get rid of my M1 Mac mini and my Windows PC together and replace them with Apple’s tiny desktop machine.
Now that the Mac Studio with M4 Max is here, it’s looking like the more attractive option for gamers. Sure, you’ll have to pay more, but it offers more reliable gaming performance while simultaneously outdoing even the M3 Ultra in terms of frame rates. That’s obviously pretty confusing, but if it means I don’t have to spend $4,000 and up for an M3 Ultra Mac Studio, that’s fine by me.
We need more native games
Mark Coppock / Digital Trends
So, does that mean that the Mac Studio is the best option for Apple gamers in search of a desktop machine? Maybe, but Apple still hasn’t solved the biggest problem here: a lack of native games.
The recent addition of Cyberpunk 2077 was a big win for Mac gamers, but it really feels like the exception that proves the rule. Illustrating the gulf with Windows, there’s still no native support for Grand Theft Auto V, Call of Duty, Elden Ring and other AAA games and franchises on the Mac.
Sure, you could supplement your Mac with Nvidia GeForce Now, and that’s something I’ve considered before. But that can get expensive and doesn’t cover every game. And really, I’d like to game natively rather than relying on another pricey subscription that drains my bank account every month.
It’s a shame that you have to spend Mac Studio money to get decent gaming performance within Apple’s ecosystem. Considering current GPU prices for Windows machines, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. But I’d still rather not have to sell a kidney to enjoy a spot of Mac gaming at smooth, stable frame rates.
Still, I can’t deny that we’re seeing progress. That the M4 Max can offer solid gaming performance at all is a welcome improvement over previous years. Hopefully 2025 will be the year of top-tier games coming to the Mac — and of Apple solving the biggest problem Mac gamers are currently facing.
