Is Apple finally serious about gaming after its latest push?

Apple has an absolutely dominant position in mobile gaming because of the ubiquity of the iPhone but a minuscule desktop market share. Apple has big plans for 2024, and we got a look at some of what's coming.

Over the years, Apple has made quite a few moves to improve its position in gaming, especially for the Mac. Back in 2000, Microsoft took "Halo" out from under Apple.

Since then, Apple has occasionally made noises about boosting Mac gaming, but most have failed to amount to much. But ever since the launch of Apple Silicon in 2019, there have been rumblings that Apple is serious about it this time.

The company has been pushing the gaming capabilities of its MacBooks, especially since the Apple Silicon M3 generation began debuting in 2023.

Then, at the June World Wide Developers Conference, Apple announced several moves to strengthen the company's relevance in the gaming space, most of which were made possible by the Apple Silicon ecosystem.

These included announcing some high-profile new AAA games on Apple platforms, including Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadows, 11 Bit Studios' Frostpunk 2, Capcom's Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, and PocketPair's Palworld. Those games have already begun rolling out, with more coming in the second half of 2024.

Apple also announced the pending arrival of Game Mode for iOS and iPadOS, after it was previously only available on Mac OS. Game Mode is meant to help games run to their full capacity by kicking in when the game is launched and providing higher and more consistent frame rates.

Other gaming-related WWDC announcements included Personalized Spatial Audio for games, improvements to the Mac App Store for macOS Sequoia, and the introduction of Game Porting Toolkit 2 for developers, making it easier to port games from the Windows platform. Apple also began speaking at WWDC of a "Unified Gaming Platform," which encourages developers to view the Apple ecosystem as one platform rather than three.

What's next for Apple and gaming? And will this desktop gaming push succeed at a greater level than others have?

Where Apple stands

It's unclear where Apple currently stands regarding gaming market share, and Apple does not release its own statistics. It's been clear for years, though, that it absolutely commands the mobile space worldwide.

As of data released by S&P Global in 2022, Apple had $14.8 billion in annual gaming revenue. This placed it a distant second behind Tencent and ahead of Alphabet and Sony.

And, notably, ahead of Nintendo.

Apple's revenue in the gaming space mainly comes from its strength in mobile gaming, driven by commissions on downloads and in-app purchases. Apple, though, has long been well behind PCs in gaming revenue.

However, Apple's recent moves, leading up to WWDC in June of 2024, have indicated that it's seeking to close that gap.

Introducing the new games

I had the chance to attend a recent gaming showcase which included some of the newly announced games for Mac and Apple platforms.

There were demos of the new games, including "Frostpunk 2," Hoyoverse's "Zenless Zone Zero," and Blizzard's "Diablo Immortal." I also saw demonstrations of how some games can operate seamlessly across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

Frostpunk 2, from 11 Bit Studios (Photo by Stephen Silver)

I looked at "Frostpunk 2," the survival game set 30 years after an apocalypse event. The publishers have called it a "society survival game."

Playing on a MacBook Pro, the graphics and world-building certainly looked impressive. The publisher of "Frostpunk 2," 11 Bit Studios, announced at the end of June that the game's release was delayed three months.

Zenless Zone Zero, from HoYoverse (Photo by Stephen Silver)

Another highlight was "Zenless Zone Zero," an anime-styled game I played on the iPad. It featured convincing streetfight action in a fictitious Asian city called New Eridu.

The demonstrations, overall, emphasized that, in the Apple Silicon era, things have improved for developers, who can port games more easily while aiming for one platform instead of three.

Port in progress

I also got a look at the Game Porting Toolkit 2, which is being used to port "Control: Ultimate Edition," which is set to arrive later in 2024.

Control: Ultimate Edition, as shown in Steam's interface (Photo by Stephen Silver)

Software known as CrossOver was used to run Microsoft applications on a Mac, porting Windows games to the Mac ecosystem.

When we'll see the big games

"Assassin's Creed Shadows" will arrive on the Mac on November 15, the same day and date as PCs and other consoles. "Frostpunk 2" will land on September 20 on Apple and other platforms after initially being set for a July release. However, it is now available for preorder from the App Store.

"Palworld" will land on the Apple platform at an undetermined date in 2024, as will "Control: Ultimate Edition."

Palworld from PocketPair running on MacBooks

"Resident Evil 7 Biohazard" is available now.

What we didn't see

One conspicuous aspect of the showcase was the absence of anything involving Apple Vision Pro, which was not featured. This indicates that developers, at least the ones at the showcase, do not view the Apple Vision Pro as a priority.

While AI, under the name Apple Intelligence, was a big part of the keynote at WWDC, it was not emphasized either. This indicates that AI's role in gaming is further in the future.

What it all means

AAA game makers are clearly buying into this new strategy and see some potential in developing for Apple's platforms.

Whether the gaming public will buy in, in huge numbers, is another question entirely.

Some recent big AAA games from big publishers, including "Death Stranding" and "Assassin's Creed Mirage," have underperformed when they arrived in the App store. The test for Apple will be whether better games and more interest from developers can eventually help close the gap.