With the release of Counter-Strike 2, it seems Valve are continuing to move away from macOS support just like they did with SteamVR. Thankfully, Valve are still investing in Linux and CS2 is supported on Linux.
It was a little odd to see the Steam page remove mentions of macOS when CS2 launched, and now it has been confirmed via their support post that older hardware and macOS support is ending. As they said:
As technology advances, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue support for older hardware, including DirectX 9 and 32-bit operating systems. Similarly, we will no longer support macOS. Combined, these represented less than one percent of active CS:GO players.
Moving forward, Counter-Strike 2 will exclusively support 64-bit Windows and Linux.
Not really that surprising is it? Apple does make things more difficult with the Metal graphics API and their newer processors, and since as Valve said the player-base really was tiny Valve's time is better spent elsewhere. Does make me curious on what the Linux player count is though, but Valve aren't likely to drop Linux considering their continued investments across Steam Deck, SteamOS, Proton, graphics drivers, Linux kernel work and more.
They're also offering refunds on the Prime Status upgrade if the purchase was made between the announcement of the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test (March 22, 2023) and the launch of Counter-Strike 2 (September 27, 2023) if you're affected by it up until December 1st, 2023. Valve put up a legacy CS:GO version for now but support for that will end January 1st, 2024.
Perhaps some macOS users may want to give Linux a try…
"Everybody" uses them yet nobody wants to support them.
The weird thing in all of this is that Apple contributed to the development of many of the standards they are no longer upholding.
Now, was it the right move? If you look at their revenue from Apple store, looks like they did. But I had the feeling that is iPhone related. My impression is that their desktop stuff don't look any better than before, although they continue to get some support from a couple big names.
The recent release of a Apple's "Proton" indicates that things are not rosy, meaning Metal adoption is not in the levels they wanted it to be.
I had the feeling that while Tim Cook is in charge, things will remain the same. But I wouldn't be surprised if the next CEO, in a effort to boost profits, starts to drop anything that is proprietary in exchange for industry standards, like Chromium and Vulkan, to cut costs and make shareholders happy.
Similar with dota2 after migrating to sdl3. In Dota most of people was affected by #
"Wayland bug" but even after fixing it, there is some people that can't play at all because game crashing or gives illegally instructions at launch.
QuotePerhaps some macOS users may want to give Linux a try…
I suggested to a Mac user that they get a Deck for their gaming needs; they did, and it seems to have gone well: they're now recommending the Deck to other Mac gamers. So, yeah...
And unlike with Linux, macOS neither as the potential to gain significant % in the gaming market nor does it offer any real benefit/safeguard for Valve as Linux does.
Quoting: M@GOidAFAIK Apple started the Metal API more or less the same time AMD released their Mantle API. When Vulkan appeared, they had already invested a lot in Metal, so they made the call to continue that path.
Nobody stops them from implementing Vulkan, too though. It's not an either-or, so Apples insistence on "Metal only" is nothing but purely political.
Last edited by Termy on 11 October 2023 at 1:56 pm UTC
I tried putting the game on the csgo_legacy branch, but it doesn't seem to work for me for whatever reason, it just always launches CS2 instead.
Last edited by ThatOneGuy on 11 October 2023 at 3:05 pm UTC
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