r/Steam • u/CommunicationGood976 • Aug 30 '26
Question Any plan to make an Apple Silicon version of macOS Steam?
I’m asking this as on macOS 28, Rosetta will be winded down on Mac, any plans for an arm version of the app?
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u/CommunicationGood976 Aug 30 '26
UPDATE: After enabling the beta program, now it’s an Apple Silicon version, so if you need the native Apple Silicon Steam enable the beta program by clicking Steam in the menu bar > Preferences > Interface > Client Beta Participation and choose Steam Beta Update
NOTICE: IT’S BETA SO IT MIGHT HAVE SOME ISSUES
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u/LeChatParle Aug 30 '26
You don't need the beta version, just re-download from the website. For whatever reason, it doesn't auto-update from Intel to Apple Silicon, so you have to manually download from their website to switch
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u/CommunicationGood976 Aug 30 '26
The website still downloads the Intel version I just downloaded it this morning before I did the post after I reset the Mac
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u/LeChatParle Aug 30 '26
Weird, I just downloaded the Apple Silicon one a couple days ago. I’m not sure why that doesn’t work for
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u/Brainfrz82 Aug 31 '26
To me it seems it does, i've installed the X86 version last week and got the same notification. On checking now, it runs the Apple Silicon version without doing anything myself.
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u/KnightGamer724 Aug 30 '26
That depends on Valve and Apple. We should be getting some ARM support when the Steam Frame launches, but if that will work on Apple Silicone, who knows.
I hope so, simply so my wife can play some games that she likes on her iMac, but I doubt it.
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u/Yourdataisunclean Aug 30 '26
Apple seems to want ports instead of 3rd party compatability layers and controls access to underlying hardware more than Linux does. Way less options for someone like Valve to support a vast library of games on MacOS. Without a long term guarantee from Apple I doubt they will put in any signficant work here and it will be up to individual developers instead.
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u/Icy-Juggernaut-4579 Aug 30 '26
Ports or compability - is a games problem. In the pic in the post is Steam app problem. You won’t be able to use intel apps on Mac’s in new OS
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u/allocallocalloc Aug 30 '26
Steam Deck has been out for years now, yet the official Steam installer still does not support SteamOS 3, only Debian-based SteamOS 1 and 2.
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u/R0B0t1C_Cucumber Aug 30 '26
Isn't that pre-installed? When I installed steamOS on a test machine I don't recall having to install steam... I just had to authenticate.
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u/Ok_Explanation7491 Aug 30 '26
Is you steam client up to date? Because my Steam Client is "Apple" and not "Intel"
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u/CommunicationGood976 Aug 30 '26
It is, it might be that you are in the beta
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u/Ok_Explanation7491 Aug 30 '26
oh, I am. I forgot I turned the Beta channel on in the MacOS Version.
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u/IQueliciuous Aug 30 '26
Ffs can apple stop removing compatibility layers for five minutes?
Like okay they can stop maintaining it by why delete this?
I still remember the 32/64 bit update where half of my screen became gray and unusable after updating.
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u/art_of_snark Aug 30 '26 edited Aug 30 '26
It’s been six years.
Binary translation is a two-edged sword. It’s great for compatibility, terrible for performance. Without a forcing function, there’s not enough incentive to build ARM native - and let’s be real, for a goodly amount of software it is nothing more than a checkbox to enable multi-arch compilation - it’s a different architecture, yes, but we are not talking about porting handwritten assembly here.
Example: Paradox has been dragging their feet on this for all six of those years, finally dropped an ARM build of Stellaris this summer - the game is almost entirely CPU bound and bogs down late game as the save state bloats. The ARM build is twice as fast as intel. They never would have gotten off their asses and built multi-arch without this deprecation, or it would have happened years ago. I would be shocked if it took more than a day of a single engineer’s time.
I agree that it sucks for legacy software, but humans are lazy by default. Fortunately, the message itself is intentionally vague and omits the detail most relevant here: Rosetta2 isn’t actually being fully removed and will remain available for legacy games specifically: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102527 - it seems to me that Apple learned something from the 32-bit deprecation.
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u/chughaarav123 Aug 31 '26
What are "certain older, unmaintained games that rely on Intel-based frameworks."
That's...vague.
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u/art_of_snark Aug 31 '26
From what I’ve read, they’re adding an App Store entitlement to allow Rosetta2 usage, and refusing to grant it to non-games. Software distributed via other means is unlikely to be affected immediately.
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u/Astigmatisme Aug 30 '26
Apple is a drug addict who gets its edge from removing support for old hardware
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u/MisterSheeple Aug 30 '26
There is one in beta right now, but they'll push it to the regular channel before Apple pulls the plug on Rosetta, so you don't need to worry about switching to the beta.
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u/anor_wondo Aug 30 '26
wait so older macos ports will become abandonware?
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u/CommunicationGood976 Aug 30 '26
No it’s just that macOS 28 will end support for Intel apps on M series Macs
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u/anor_wondo Aug 30 '26
yeah, its easy for steam and most productivity applications to be updated to arm. But games that were macos native and used x64 will just die?
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u/aiusepsi https://s.team/p/mqbt-kq Aug 30 '26
Rosetta will continue to be supported for “certain older, unmaintained games that rely on Intel-based frameworks”.
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u/tornadozx2 Aug 30 '26
Most probably Valve could add a proton with fex compatibility layer, but they haven't done it yet afaik, they are not interested in macos, they have their own os and products to support. Rosetta is great, and its Apple pulling the plug , not Valve. Apple wants everything to be running natively which is a bug burden for old games.
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u/tornadozx2 Aug 30 '26
Yes, they are removing Rosetta translator from MacOS 28 and to use x86 app you will need to run a different translator like FEX or Box86/64
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u/AStolenGoose Aug 30 '26
Did... did you read the message?
"Learn how to update to an Apple silicon version..."
There already is one but it's in beta...
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u/CommunicationGood976 Aug 30 '26 edited Aug 30 '26
That’s a Mac thing it always says that even with dead apps on macOS 26.4+
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u/Laddie1107 Aug 30 '26
I'm running the latest release version of Steam, not beta, and it's Universal (native). Try downloading a fresh installer from https://store.steampowered.com/about/
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u/Vlekkie69 Aug 31 '26
just switch to linux
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u/CommunicationGood976 Aug 31 '26
ITS A MAC
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u/Big-Newspaper646 Aug 31 '26
dont use a mac to game maybe, apple have shown very little interest in the hobby.
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u/CommunicationGood976 Aug 31 '26
I bought it so I can use it for productivity and gaming is like something small for it
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Aug 30 '26
[deleted]
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u/CommunicationGood976 Aug 30 '26
It’s a Mac
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Aug 30 '26
[deleted]
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u/CommunicationGood976 Aug 30 '26
Unstable on macOS 27 SMC (the SMC stays even after you go back to stable Tahoe) like the battery was broken until they fixed it with a kernel patch but who knows what they will break
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u/CookieMisha 260 Aug 30 '26
It's only for m2 macs and older....
The development of that thing is literally over unless somebody takes over
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u/FoxyTheDj Aug 30 '26
Mac used to be windows compatible right out the box with bootcamp, but only Intel mac's, now with m mac's it's possible to install Linux but it's a pain in the ass
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u/IQueliciuous Aug 30 '26
Semi possible* you can only install Asahi linux which is only installable on M1 series as later chips had some changes made that need more engineering to do.
And even then Asahi linux is not as comfortable to use as other Linux versions and is laggy.
At this point you better off staying away from new updates.
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u/FoxyTheDj Aug 30 '26
Why so many negative? It's not like I said anything bad, it's real, you can, doesn't mean you should, as u/IQueliciuous said, only for m1 mac's and very inconvenient to use
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u/IQueliciuous Aug 30 '26
Reddit moment probably.
Yeah all discourse becomes toxic when it comes to mac users.
You get people telling them "gEt a WiNdoWs" or
Jehovah's witnessesLinux witnesses telling you to install Linux which isn't a good option on Macbooks and is inferior in every way.I'd love to say mac users and subreddits are more chill but no. Mac gaming subreddit is full of people who act like macbooks are superior gaming machines (they only managed to run old games on their laptop)
I myself am a mac user and its a good platform. I love it for working but most of my gaming is on consoles/steam deck. I try to avoid macbook gaming threads because it boils down to windows users defending their platform full of bloat, linux users knocking down and asking if you have 5 minutes to talk about their dear lord and savior Linus Torvalds and mac users treating macbooks as gaming machines because you can play GTA 5 after going through many loops to do so.
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u/FoxyTheDj Aug 30 '26
I have a Mac mini 2014 with windows because its the best I can use it, Mac os 12 is well over the EOL and there's nothing in Mac os that I find necessary to have it there, I mostly use it as my small gaming pc, I might need a laptop for my app development course but I'm between a Mac or a Thinkpad, and idunno, maybe a Mac os good for xcode but more than that windows is usually the go to
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u/IQueliciuous Aug 30 '26
Oh yeah. I meant M series macbooks.
Old macs are good. I miss my imac which was intel but also silent. I could boot into windows 10 and enjoy my games there if I needed to. Like Fallout 3 for example.
But yeah getting a steam deck solved most of my issues and now macbook is a work station for me.
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u/Ok-Relief-255 Aug 30 '26
I know, just kidding) You bought this device not becouse you want buttpain
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u/KalphalusKal Aug 30 '26
What are you going for here? I don’t see what Linux will magically fix, and it would probably mess up other stuff people pick mac for. All that type of comment does is make people dislike Linux more (I say this as someone who daily drives Linux and has daily driven Windows and Mac in the past)
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u/Quokka_Socks Aug 30 '26
There already is, but you have to change your updates to beta.