> though if Apple suddenly took gaming seriously, like extending Rosetta to act as a translation layer for Windows games a la Proton, I’d gladly throw down for an M5 Ultra when it’s released
No joke, if I could run my Steam library on my phone, I'd probably buy a new phone every year (and might need to, given what the thermals and rapid charge/discharge cycles would do to battery longevity). But Apple's current strategy is to provide a tool, then let developers do the work themselves; compare to Valve's efforts (and occasionally stepping on rakes when games update themselves).
I completely agree. I've worked on the Whisky project and am fairly familiar with WINE, Proton, and CrossOver. Proton uses the underlying technology of WINE, which is largely supported by CodeWeavers, who mainly create CrossOver, essentially Proton for MacOS. CodeWeavers also supported the creation of GPTK, which uses WINE as well. CrossOver, considering it's live-translating Windows x86 calls to MacOS x86 calls, and then piping that through Rosetta, works INCREDIBLY well on my M1 Pro. Elden Ring was easily out-performing there than on my Steam Deck.
As far as I can tell, the main issue for putting CrossOver on iOS is a lack of API support and an inability for iOS software to start new processes. AltStore and emulators on iOS are exciting, and with iPadOS and MacOS becoming increasingly similar, I hope to see someone give WINE on iOS a shot.
I would love to see a world where I can play my Steam library on my iPad or my iPhone, considering the wild amount of performance they can output, but the limitations of iOS make it very difficult or likely impossible.
This is simply not true anymore. I really believe when the App Store started, they did not see it as a profit center, but in the last 10 years, the bean counters took over.
There have been credible rumors that Valve is experimenting with an ARM-based SteamOS for the next Steam Deck which would bring quite a lot of games to mobile.
You can already do this with tools like Winlator of course, but Valve's performance patches would probably make the whole process a lot easier to get working easily.
Any such feature would come to Apple hardware last because of Apple's arbitrary software limitations (maybe it'll work in the EU?), of course, but once Proton goes full ARM, it's only a matter of time.
So this doesn't help for iOS, but through the power of WINE and other cool tools, you actually can: https://gamehub.xiaoji.com/
These are especially great on the various Android based gaming handhelds that are out now with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and similar SoC's in them, but it works on a phone too
The problem is they don't "let the developers do the work themselves"
If only the platform was open enough that developers had real access, Apple might get away with like you say not providing first party support for gaming.
I mean it more as a counterpoint to what Valve is doing: games are automatically opted-in to working with Proton and pass through a Valve-operated certification program. Because developers aren't part of that loop, you see occasional cases where games issue updates that break compatibility, with users blaming developers based on an outdated, Valve-provided certification.
No joke, if I could run my Steam library on my phone, I'd probably buy a new phone every year (and might need to, given what the thermals and rapid charge/discharge cycles would do to battery longevity). But Apple's current strategy is to provide a tool, then let developers do the work themselves; compare to Valve's efforts (and occasionally stepping on rakes when games update themselves).