The fact of Mac being subpar for gaming is known to all due to their long history. Everyone knows that at this point if you want to enjoy a wide range of gaming options, you must purchase a PC. However, this doesn’t mean that Macs aren’t useful for gamers at all.
Many companies have approached Mac to help with bringing gaming to the platform but didn’t work well for them. Valve recently came to know putting a client on a platform isn’t the option when the platform itself is the issue.
And now, Valve drops SteamVR support for Mac after less than three years of support. However, it seems that the player base of Mac isn’t strong enough to justify dedicating the considerable resources needed to keep SteamVR going.
The users of Mac will still be able to use SteamVR, but first, they would need to install Windows – which at this point seems like that going for a Windows-operating PC would be better. Valve has also decided to allow legacy builds of SteamVR to remain accessible through the Steam client on Macs, so while further support is dropped, what already is there doesn’t seem like it’ll be leaving.
The main objective here is for Steam to be able to put more attention on Windows and Linux, where the database is much higher. A recent survey conducted by Valve revealed that 95% of their player base is looking forward to being focused on Windows or Linux instead of Mac.
Though it is a bummer, it isn’t surprising at all. The story behind Valve and Apple make things work in their favor is pretty long, but Apple hasn’t been able to keep up with that. Many have also cited a Gabe Newell quote from 2007 where he said, ‘We tried to have a conversation with Apple for several years, and they never seemed to… well, we have this pattern with Apple, where we meet with them… and they say OK, and then we never see them again. And then a year later, a new group of people show up, who apparently have no idea that the last group of people was there, and never follow through on anything.’
Newell also mentioned that Apple seemed interested in gaming but never followed up or developed in favor of it. This has also created a problem for SteamVR. Why would Valve squander away their resources on a platform that doesn’t have any intentions of focusing on gaming?
