[Apple Shockwave](19) "Diablo 4 Runs on MacBook!"

Apple, Once Indifferent, Turns Sincere About Gaming
Demonstrates Apple Silicon Gaming Potential with Game Porting Toolkit
Original Player Attempts Comeback Against Dominant Wintel PCs and Consoles
Also Aims to Counter Nvidia's Focus on AI

Editor's Note[Apple Shockwave] is a content series that examines the upheaval caused by Apple entering the semiconductor market. You might wonder why Apple is involved in semiconductors. Apple is no longer just a company that makes smartphones and computers. After long efforts starting from its founder, the late Steve Jobs, Apple has designed world-class semiconductors used in mobile devices. If Intel was the leader in the PC era, Apple has become the top predator in the mobile era semiconductor ecosystem. Amid the global semiconductor supply chain crisis and large-scale investments in semiconductor production facilities, we will carefully examine the upheaval and prospects in the semiconductor market brought about by Apple Silicon to broaden our readers' insights. Apple Shockwave will visit readers every Saturday. After more than 40 installments, it will be published as a book.

"Running Diablo 4 on a MacBook works incredibly well." (IT review specialist YouTuber Itssub)

Recently, YouTubers have been revealing footage of the popular game 'Diablo 4' running on Mac computers using Apple Silicon. It is an unfamiliar sight.

A scene from the Diablo game running on an Apple MacBook. Various information related to the game execution is visible in the upper right corner of the screen. YouTube capture.

Apple computers have been distant from gaming, at least since 2000. Major games were the domain of dedicated consoles like Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation, which use Intel and AMD CPUs, or Windows PCs.

However, gaming has become possible on Apple Silicon PCs. Apple has unveiled a strategy to seriously embrace gaming.

At the 'Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2023)' held at Apple headquarters on the 5th (local time), the biggest focus was the mixed reality device 'Vision Pro.' Attention was drawn to Apple's innovative product after a long time. However, while it did not receive much attention at the time of the WWDC 2023 announcement, gaming has become a hot topic as more users experience it.

Game-related sessions at WWDC 2023 event

At WWDC 2023, Apple held a session titled 'Bring your game to Mac.' The core of this session was the 'Game Porting Toolkit.' The Game Porting Toolkit is seen as an important clue that will change the direction of Apple PCs, which had been distant from gaming. For gamers, it was a showcase demonstrating how well games run on Mac, and for game companies, it was an unspoken pressure to release games for Mac. It introduced a new use case for Apple Silicon.

Coincidentally, the day after WWDC 2023, 'Diablo 4' was released starting in Korea. The timing is too perfect to be a coincidence. Diablo 4 was the optimal 'testbed' to verify the compatibility of Apple Silicon and gaming. User feedback has been positive. Although it did not deliver the best performance, it was considered satisfactory given the current environment.

Apple Silicon has been warmly received by consumers since its launch. Compared to laptops using Intel CPUs, it offered longer battery life, was more affordable, and delivered better performance. After the introduction of Mac computers using Apple Silicon, many YouTubers began purchasing Macs with M1 and M2 chips and iPads for video editing. This is why Macs are regarded as tools for productivity.

The situation with Apple Silicon PCs and smartphones is different. The iPhone is an entertainment device. The iPhone can run the game 'Genshin Impact.' For gamers, how smoothly Genshin Impact runs is a key indicator of smartphone performance. Therefore, when a new iPhone is released, many share their experiences playing Genshin Impact. Since the iPhone Xs, Apple has significantly outpaced competitors in gaming performance. Compared to smartphones using Samsung Exynos or Qualcomm Snapdragon APs, the iPhone's gaming performance was superior. Gaming proved Apple Silicon's dominance in the smartphone sector.

The gaming situation on Mac computers was different. It was rare to play popular PC games like Diablo or Valorant on a Mac. These games are not released for macOS. When using Intel CPU-based Macs, users could play games via Microsoft's Windows Boot Camp, but there were many performance limitations. Playing games on a Mac was almost a declaration of defeat in gaming. When Apple stopped producing PCs with Intel CPUs and began producing only Apple Silicon PCs, Windows Boot Camp also became unavailable.

Jobs' First Job Was a Game Planner... Returning to the Beginning?

Brick Breaker Game Running on Atari Console

Was Apple really uninterested in gaming? No. Apple has been sincere about video, audio, and gaming since the early days of Mac. In fact, gaming could be said to be Apple's starting point.

Apple founder Steve Jobs began his career at Atari, a video game company that allowed games to be played by connecting to a TV. Walter Isaacson's biography 'Steve Jobs' explains that Jobs entered the information technology field through his employment at Atari. Jobs dropped out of Reed College in 1974 and joined Atari. According to Isaacson, Jobs was attracted by the job posting that said 'a place to have fun and make money' and went to Atari. Atari accepted Jobs as an employee after he insisted he would not leave unless hired, despite his hippie appearance. After returning from a trip to India, Jobs presented the brick-breaking game 'Breakout.' Jobs was responsible for planning, while Steve Wozniak, Apple's co-founder, handled development.

Breakout was also the first game playable on the 'Apple II' PC. Blockbuster games of the 1980s like Ultima, Prince of Persia, and Lode Runner first appeared on the Apple II. Prince of Persia did not succeed on the Apple II but became a hit on consoles and Intel CPU-based PCs. By 1989, when Prince of Persia was released, the Apple II's performance could not compete with Intel CPU-based PCs.

Game 'Prince of Persia' running on Apple II computer

Afterward, for gaming, Microsoft's MS-DOS or Windows operating systems, Intel or AMD CPUs, and Nvidia or AMD graphics accelerators (GPUs) became the 'national rules.'

Gamers want to use the best CPUs and GPUs to spot and strike enemies before others. However, this national rule has reached a turning point. Apple has shown genuine interest in gaming and is ready to enter this red ocean.

Apple's emphasis on gaming reflects changes in market trends. Apple now aims beyond Intel to Nvidia's territory. Although Apple's M and A series SoC chips with integrated GPU cores cannot immediately surpass Nvidia's GPUs, which operate separately from the CPU, the market shift centered on AI could bring new currents.

To Counter Nvidia, the GPU Powerhouse?

Nvidia's GPUs have rapidly risen as the new king of the semiconductor market due to their use in artificial intelligence (AI) training and cryptocurrency mining. Nvidia, which focuses solely on semiconductor design, surpassed a market capitalization of $1 trillion?an achievement greater than Apple's. Apple's market capitalization, built by selling massive numbers of iPhones, AirPods, iPads, and Apple Watches annually, is $3 trillion.

AI is a crucial point, but PC GPUs remain Nvidia's core revenue source.

NVIDIA GeForce graphics card

However, Nvidia's recent earnings show a decline in the share and performance of PC GPUs. This could indicate Nvidia's potential focus on AI chips in the future. There are even opinions that Nvidia's core GPU business is being sidelined. Tech media TechRadar has speculated that Nvidia might withdraw from the consumer GPU market. This presents an opportunity for Apple.

Apple-focused media Macworld also evaluated the Game Porting Toolkit as the first step to solving Mac's gaming issues and predicted that many game companies will release games for Mac in the future. Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the top company in the gaming industry, could also be a factor that makes Apple pay more attention to gaming.

If games start running fully on Apple computers, it will be another factor attracting young users familiar with iPhones and iPads to Macs. Apple's current Arcade games are insufficient.

In 2000, Microsoft abruptly acquired Bungie, the developer of the game 'Halo,' which was scheduled to be released on Apple. This was a major incident that angered Jobs. Microsoft later succeeded in establishing itself as a giant in the gaming console market with Halo on its Xbox.

The fortress Microsoft built over more than 20 years through PCs and consoles is a high wall for Apple. However, Apple has experience breaking down walls. Forbes recalled that when the iPhone was released in 2007, it led to the downfall of then-leading smartphone makers Nokia and BlackBerry, suggesting that similar upheavals could happen in the gaming market.

It could mean a day when pro gamer Faker plays League of Legends (LOL) on an Apple Silicon computer.