You’ll be able to lastly play Cyberpunk 2077 in your MacBook! Later this week. In 2025. 5 years after the sport hit PC and consoles (in an admittedly problematic launch). Cyberpunk 2077, arguably the most-anticipated recreation ever when it arrived in a blizzard of hype and expectations, landed on a Nintendo handheld earlier than it got here to the Mac. Insert Nelson Muntz “ha ha!” right here.
I don’t usually interact in this sort of across-the-fence taunting. Hell, as a life-long Home windows person and a career-long Android fanboy, I’ll admit that each Microsoft and Google are trying distinctly unappealing for the time being, as each corporations fumble their {hardware} and attempt to shove AI into each potential orifice of their software program.
However even when it’s largely unbiased of Microsoft’s actions, PC gaming is in a fairly great spot in 2025, not less than from a gamer’s perspective… and particularly from the angle of a gamer who doesn’t want a brand new GPU. And regardless of having an enviably centralized platform retailer, one which additionally has entry to thousands and thousands of iOS apps and video games, individuals who really need to play PC video games on the Mac are nonetheless at a definite drawback.
As a psychological train, I’m going to seize ten notable PC video games from 2025 with out checking if there’s a Mac model, and see what it appears like. Listed here are the ten launched this yr that I picked blindly:
9 Kings
Avowed
Murderer’s Creed Shadows
Blue Prince
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
DOOM: The Darkish Ages
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Monster Hunter Wilds
Spider-Man 2
Stellar Blade
On this listing, solely 9 Kings (simply the smallest recreation amongst them and in addition developed on the cross-platform Unity engine) and Murderer’s Creed Shadows, can be found for Mac proper now. To be truthful, Avowed and DOOM are printed by Microsoft (through its studios Obsidian and Bethesda), and Microsoft has an incentive to not launch video games on Mac. But additionally to be truthful, many of those video games are from huge publishers like Sony, Sega, and Capcom, who undoubtedly have the sources to port video games to the Mac on launch if they need.
So yeah, Home windows as a platform, whilst a gaming platform, isn’t with out its points for the time being. And personally I’m hoping that Valve steps up and offers it some much-needed competitors for laptops and desktops. However in order for you essentially the most video games, immediately, on essentially the most highly effective {hardware}, Home windows continues to be the way in which to go.
That stated, it’s not as if individuals with a Mac are fully locked out of PC gaming. There’s a fairly respectable listing of video games that customers can “port” themselves to Apple’s M-series Arm {hardware} utilizing an official Apple Recreation Porting Toolkit, which has similarities to Valve’s Proton compatibility layer for the Steam Deck. And streaming choices, notably Nvidia’s GeForce Now, open that up a bit wider in the event you’re prepared to dip right into a subscription.
