The idea of streaming video games via browser is best for multiple platform support but Apple don’t want it on Mac. The sun was still not very hot in Cupertino when Craig Federighi began to answer the email of John Stauffer, an Apple executive who had proposed a curious idea. According to him, an idea: to create a streaming platform from which he can broadcast Windows games to his Macs but also Apple applications, such as Final Cut Pro, to other platforms.
Federighi answered him with a resounding “no”, and showed that his focus was still on betting on increasingly powerful chips for his smartphones and also seemed to talk about the transition to M1 chips already then when mentioning the code name of the “Olive” project. That stance seems immovable four years later, and we wonder if Apple will seize the opportunity offered by the M1 and their successors for gaming on their Macs.
Final Cut Pro running in your browser, that was the dream
That email was part of the documents that were exposed in Apple’s lawsuit against Epic in recent weeks. There is a lot of revealing data that has come to light thanks to that trial, but now we know this other that shows Apple’s position on streaming games and applications.
Stauffer proposed the acquisition of LiquidSky, a company that at that time posed a rival to GeForce Now and PlayStation Now. They ended up disappearing, but for that manager the acquisition could “represent the largest ecosystem of applications in the world.”
The idea was to go beyond what Stadia or xCloud now offer: Windows video games (even AAA titles) could be streamed to Macs and thus provide them with that capacity, but also for Stauffer that platform would also allow Final use. Cut Pro (for example) didn’t need a Mac, just a browser.
The idea is eye-catching, but Federighi made it clear that it would represent “a massive change in the way we offer computing to our customers.” For him that strategy made sense for his competitors “but little sense for Apple, given our strength in providing high performance in local computing.”
Will we see a Mac for gamers?
Federighi’s position certainly seems to be consistent with what Apple has shown in later years in the field of gaming and hardware.
The Cupertino company is doing great with mobile video games, but Macs are still the great forgotten in a segment that is a gold mine for its competitors but that, curiously, Apple does not seem to take into account.
In fact, Apple has made things very difficult for Stadia and xCloud, and only Amazon Luna managed to launch successfully on iOS devices thanks to a “shortcut. ” Microsoft already offers a beta that follows the same strategy for xCloud, and that should make it possible for macOS users to take advantage of these platforms as well.
If we pay attention to that email from Federighi and those ideas are maintained (something quite likely), Apple will not give open support to this option, and the question is what will happen to gaming on Macs now that the transition to computers has arrived. chips M1.
These chips have quite decent GPUs that allow you to enjoy games that are not too demanding, but there is already talk of the future M1X or M2 chips – if those are their final names – that instead of GPUs with 8 cores they will have 16 cores.
And that at least, because months ago there was already talk of future chips with up to 128 cores, something that would offer really spectacular graphics power.
That graphical power would support Federigui’s argument for “local computing” (no streaming), and perhaps it would raise a boost for gaming on Macs. Even so, Apple’s ambition in this area seems nil, and that graphical power may simply be is intended for the creative field.
The possibilities seem of course almost endless for this new family of chips and even for projects like the one that talks about future virtual / augmented reality glasses. Another thing is that Apple wants or not to take advantage of streaming video games service.