“Apple has created a new Game Porting Toolkit that’s similar to the work Valve has done with Proton and the Steam Deck. It’s powered by source code from CrossOver, a Wine-based solution for running Windows games on macOS. Apple’s tool will instantly translate Windows games to run on macOS, allowing developers to launch an unmodified version of a Windows game on a Mac and see how well it runs before fully porting a game.”
The new software will allow Mac users* (see edit) to play ‘Windows games’ on their Apple silicon (M1/M2) devices. With development, this has the potential to bring gaming to Apple.
*EDIT: The Game Porting Toolkit is designed for developers to see how their game performs on Apple silicone to entice devs to create native ports. Thanks to commenters for pointing out this distinction. The CrossOver project on which it is built, I believe, is designed for end-users to run software on their Mac clients.
Similar, but not the same, to proton. Few games will work well enough to be playable off the bat. Most will still require porting work be done by the developer, to bring the game to a point that’d be considered playable.
Much like how the “linux-support” of many game engines went unused, I’m sceptical. The reason proton has been so successful is that it has been able to get the ball rolling with zero or near-zero work input required from the devs of the games it has brought to linux. This has give linux gaming enough of a start that putting in the work becomes more appealing in the cases where it is needed.
Just putting out the tools and telling devs, “use them” may not be enough to get mac gaming back on track.
They’re also not giving them the tools, they’re not allowed to use them for the final product, just to get a feel of how the game would run on the hardware if they port it 💀
Then its even worse than I thought. This is a total nothingburger.
The Steam Deck was also gave Proton a huge boost in visibility thanks to Valve’s Steam Deck ready branding, which is something only Valve could do thanks to them having control of Steam. Apple will need to figure out a way to similarly boost visibility for Mac compatible/playable games that isn’t just putting them on the Mac App Store (which I can’t remember using for anything other than an update in months).
Additionally, Valve also does work themselves to push the list forward. The catalog needs to exist first if they want gamers to move and the devs won’t put in the work without the market.
Valve saw that and did work to ensure tons of games would work on the Deck with no effort on the part of the devs. If Apple isn’t going to put in more effort then I don’t see how this succeeds.