Has Apple Silicon Got Game?

 

Has Apple Silicon Got Game?

If not, why not?

Anthony Lawrence (Pcunix)

TECHNOLOGY

DALLE cartoon of man using a game controller by author
DALLE cartoon by author

I am not a computer gamer. The longest I have ever played any computer game was when Castle Wolfenstein first came out. I managed to finish it after several tries and never played it again. Since Apple Arcade arrived, I’ve dabbled with three or four of those games for at least ten or fifteen minutes, but that’s all.

Gaming is not my thing. But it sure is a thing for a lot of other people.

I was still surprised to see Apple making a gaming pitch during WWDC 2023. All I’ve ever heard from people who are real gamers is that Apple can’t compete in that arena and never will be able to.

Price is often mentioned as a reason, but serious gamers spend serious coin on their machines. Upgradability might be more important, and Apple scores a flat zero on that. So what’s Apple doing pitching gaming?

The Apple M series chips are giving Intel ulcers, but what’s good for work isn’t necessarily good for competitive gaming. I’ve read some articles that say Apple gear is strong enough to play high level games, but I feel like they are saying, “Yeah, if you already have an M series box, you can play these games”, but I’ve never seen anything that added “And it’s really fantastic!”

That “can play” may be all Apple is after. Maybe just “You can play and it won’t be awful.” But Apple does seem more invested than that. Apple’s Keynote introduced software that will let game developers convert their Direct X12 games to Apple. They seemed to imply that the results would be very good.

That had to cost a lot of engineering time.

Apple also introduced Hideo Kojima at the Keynote. According to Techmeme, Wikipedia and a lot of other people, Kojima is famous in the game world. In the Keynote, he said that his game Death Stranding: Director’s Cut will be coming to Macs later this year and other titles will follow.

And podcasts like Techmeme Ride Home aren’t throwing shade at this.

If Apple really is looking to go beyond “playing games won’t suck on an M series box”, and they can actually do it, this could add more billions to Apple’s already near unbelievable pile.

I don’t know what to think. I just know that people who bet against Apple usually lose. What do you think? Game or not?

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