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[return to "Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm"]
1. PaulHo+VK2[view] [source] 2025-12-03 17:10:05
>>evolve+(OP)
Would love to see it on MacOS X -- Steam works great on my Mac Mini for the games it supports, would be great to see everything run on it.
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2. stetra+6Q2[view] [source] 2025-12-03 17:32:08
>>PaulHo+VK2
Yep. I know Apple has little motivation to support such a project but it would be great to see them work with Valve on this. Having the majority of Steam games "just work" on modern Macs, like they do on the Steam Deck, would be fantastic.
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3. concin+0d3[view] [source] 2025-12-03 19:24:07
>>stetra+6Q2
Apple leadership cares more about "games on the Mac App Store built for Metal on a Mac" than it cares about "games on the Mac". This won't change until leadership changes.
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4. galley+wd3[view] [source] 2025-12-03 19:26:56
>>concin+0d3
It does not matter what Apple wants if Steam ships their own compatibility layer.
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5. concin+Ih3[view] [source] 2025-12-03 19:46:33
>>galley+wd3
Valve is all-in on Linux and their own hardware. They have no reason to invest tons into a platform with an uncooperative vendor who culturally DGAF about gaming. Why run from Windows only to jump into a more hostile ecosystem? You can still run 32-bit x86 games on Windows ARM, you know.
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6. concin+7k5[view] [source] 2025-12-04 12:30:30
>>concin+Ih3
Also, I'll let everyone in on an open secret.

Apple's real goal isn't even the 30% from the Mac App Store. Their vision is to build a library of games that run on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and potentially Apple TV and Vision. You can connect a controller to all these devices, so any game would work (without clunky touch controls). That's why they're pushing Metal and will never adopt Vulkan. They want to make their ecosystem as strong as possible against competing ecosystems.

It's also why they've been pushing SwiftUI and Catalyst, why they don't care for web apps, why the Mac and iPad have gotten closer (they want each device just be a form factor that lets you access the same apps and files, though I expect they'll always keep the Mac as open as it is now), and why they made all their platforms adopt one design language. They probably ported Preview to iOS/iPad, and Home and Clock to the Mac, because they went through the Springboard/LaunchPad and asked themselves: "which of these apps could we bring to every OS?".

It's also why Google is dropping ChromeOS and switching everything to Android. One platform, one app ecosystem. They did it only to keep up with Apple. The tablet/desktop-ish side of their ecosystem lags far behind.

And it's why Valve is going all-in on Linux. Kickstarting an alternative ecosystem.

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