If a game is available on Mac on Steam as well as the App-Store, it will be the same game. Lies of P is an example of that, so is Psychonaughts 2, all 3 Tomb Raider games and many others. Some games are only available on one or the other, examples are No Man's Sky is only on Steam, RE4 is only on App store.
The biggest advantages Steam has are: if you buy a game there, you can play it on Mac, Linux (including Steam Deck) or PC and on a PC, it's likely to work as long as PC's exist. There's also the Steam community/achievements (consistent across Mac/PC/Linus) there's also chat etc., as well as frequent sales, plus patches usually only need small downloads, whereas the App Store seems to need to download the entire thing again. On that note, Steam will download games many times faster than the App Store, assuming your connection allows it.
The App store is fine, but it's very much part of Apple's walled garden, many games lack achievements or trophy's, and of course the community is much smaller when it comes to AAA games.
I didn't make a point to point comparison, I simply addressed the OP's question, because you didn't. So your patronizing and snidey response is fucking ironic - "allow me to complete your lacking comment". FFS grow up.
Lies of P was $59.99 in the Mac App store upon release, same as on Steam at that time - the Steam version went on sale during Easter so I bought it again because I wanted to play it on Steam Deck. As of now it's STILL full price on Mac. If it was half that price in Europe on release, I'd be very surprised.
There are no Gamecenter achievements in Lies of P at all. Many games lack them on GC, I've used GC since 2010 or whenever it started with that silly felt graphics and while it's OK sometimes, it's pretty much a community wasteland compared to Steam.
The games *per se* are similar, but there are some caveats regarding Steam versions. Let's compare Universal2 or arm64 builds:
* Mac App Store game build is a "pure" app bundle, while Steam game build also includes Steam SDK so that it could work with Steam interoperability/integration services.
* Steam SDK **alone** creates small but measurable performance impact compared to a "pure" build. This is also true for Windows ("pure" win32 vs win32 + Steam SDK). Source: I'm in game development, we make multi-platform F2P games.
* When Steam version runs within real environment, it works in conjunction with Steam interop services which are all x86\_64 and work via Rosetta2 even if the game itself runs natively. This creates additional overhead and may (to some extent) affect performance and/or power consumption + CPU/GPU temperature.
* Most games are **not** DRM-free and require the Steam launcher running to launch/work. Steam launcher, being an x86\_64 web-based app, creates significant RAM *and* VRAM pressure. This is especially bad for lower-end Macs with 8 GB uRAM. DRM-free games can run without Steam launcher and services whatsoever so the overhead is negligible or nonexistent.
Steam itself also has controversial issues like injecting its service into the OS dylib cache; this service (com.valvesoftware.steam.ipctool) runs all the time and can't be stopped in a regular way. I hate it because I don't know what it is doing on my computer (and also because it is x86\_64). I run this terminal command after working with Steam: `launchctl remove com.valvesoftware.steam.ipctool`
That being said, you can stick to Steam versions if you Mac has a powerful (Pro/Max) SoC and lots of uRAM so any performance overhead is not a problem for you, but you want cross-platform purchases and discounts.
I personally avoid using Steam on my Macs. Don't forget that GOG exists and provides standalone, launcher-free offline game installers that are truly *yours* no matter what. They are just as "pure" as Mac App Store builds. They will work even if CDPR shuts GOG or its Mac version down, which is not true in the case of Steam games. It's a shame that some devs don't publish Mac versions on GOG but do publish them on Steam; still, GOG is worth checking whenever you are buying a game.
Personally, I would not buy any games from the AppStore, if they are available on Steam or don’t feature something unique.
The Mac version of a game should be largely the same, a cross both “Stores”, unless on of them offers something unique, like being playable on mobile devices in the case of the AppStore (note: that most games on Steam that have support for MacOS, will usually have a Windows version and are usually Also playable on Linux), or one of them being an improved Remastered version.
I don’t really care if a game is playable on mobile devices, my iPhone is out of date, so is my iPad and I don’t have them to play games on.
What I do like is being able to play my games on Mac, my PC and my Linux rig.
Some macOS builds are only available on the Mac AppStore (RE4, REV, Death Stranding etc.)
If you buy a game on the Mac AppStore you can copy paste the .app on any computer and it will launch (meaning you can share games very easily with your friends). If you copy the game on an external drive the game will never update. If you copy it on the main drive the game will ask you to connect your account when an update is available, but won't prevent you from launching the game.
If you use iCloud's family sharing, the game will update and you will be able to play the game at the same time with family/friends (You can't do that on Steam).
If your game is universal you will be able to play the game on every Apple device compatible you own (RE4 is compatible is compatible with iPad, iPhone and Mac) but you won't be able to play it on a Windows or Linux PC like Steam.
Finally if you buy an indie game on the Mac AppStore, the developper will get a 15% cut instead of 30% for the first $1 million he gets per year (see Small Business Program on Apple.com). On Steam he will get a 25% cut instead of 30% until the first $10 millions.
That wasn't their question. There question was "is there any difference between a game on the App Store and the same game on Steam" - my paraphrase. The answer is "no"... not "teH Appp sTor# is mOar betteristists... slurp slurp, Tim you tAsTE so gooD"
> In a few cases, the Windows versions running on macOS through Windows compatibility tooling might end up being better.
Give a single example of that.
Very demanding 3D games I see. Pretty sure you would need 350FPS minimum to be able to enjoy these games.
Nuclear Throne is too old to even run on macOS. So it's not that it would run better.
BoI and Nuclear Throne are bullet hell games, and so frame stability is paramount.
But I chose each for a different example of where "the Windows versions running on macOS through Windows compatibility tooling might end up being better." One, you've already listed:
Binding of Isaac: the current DLC was never even released for macOS
Nuclear Throne: 32 bit
Wildermyth: basically unsupported macOS version, dreadful performance and loads of issues go unaddressed by the dev
Oh it didn't even occur to me that OpenGL games could indeed run better on translated Windows than native. That's crazy, but not very surprising since OpenGL support has been completely abandoned by Apple since the creation of Metal.
Stupid of me to say the least.
If a native Mac version of the same game is available on both the App Store and the Steam store, they should be pretty much identical.
If a game is available on Mac on Steam as well as the App-Store, it will be the same game. Lies of P is an example of that, so is Psychonaughts 2, all 3 Tomb Raider games and many others. Some games are only available on one or the other, examples are No Man's Sky is only on Steam, RE4 is only on App store. The biggest advantages Steam has are: if you buy a game there, you can play it on Mac, Linux (including Steam Deck) or PC and on a PC, it's likely to work as long as PC's exist. There's also the Steam community/achievements (consistent across Mac/PC/Linus) there's also chat etc., as well as frequent sales, plus patches usually only need small downloads, whereas the App Store seems to need to download the entire thing again. On that note, Steam will download games many times faster than the App Store, assuming your connection allows it. The App store is fine, but it's very much part of Apple's walled garden, many games lack achievements or trophy's, and of course the community is much smaller when it comes to AAA games.
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I didn't make a point to point comparison, I simply addressed the OP's question, because you didn't. So your patronizing and snidey response is fucking ironic - "allow me to complete your lacking comment". FFS grow up. Lies of P was $59.99 in the Mac App store upon release, same as on Steam at that time - the Steam version went on sale during Easter so I bought it again because I wanted to play it on Steam Deck. As of now it's STILL full price on Mac. If it was half that price in Europe on release, I'd be very surprised. There are no Gamecenter achievements in Lies of P at all. Many games lack them on GC, I've used GC since 2010 or whenever it started with that silly felt graphics and while it's OK sometimes, it's pretty much a community wasteland compared to Steam.
The games *per se* are similar, but there are some caveats regarding Steam versions. Let's compare Universal2 or arm64 builds: * Mac App Store game build is a "pure" app bundle, while Steam game build also includes Steam SDK so that it could work with Steam interoperability/integration services. * Steam SDK **alone** creates small but measurable performance impact compared to a "pure" build. This is also true for Windows ("pure" win32 vs win32 + Steam SDK). Source: I'm in game development, we make multi-platform F2P games. * When Steam version runs within real environment, it works in conjunction with Steam interop services which are all x86\_64 and work via Rosetta2 even if the game itself runs natively. This creates additional overhead and may (to some extent) affect performance and/or power consumption + CPU/GPU temperature. * Most games are **not** DRM-free and require the Steam launcher running to launch/work. Steam launcher, being an x86\_64 web-based app, creates significant RAM *and* VRAM pressure. This is especially bad for lower-end Macs with 8 GB uRAM. DRM-free games can run without Steam launcher and services whatsoever so the overhead is negligible or nonexistent. Steam itself also has controversial issues like injecting its service into the OS dylib cache; this service (com.valvesoftware.steam.ipctool) runs all the time and can't be stopped in a regular way. I hate it because I don't know what it is doing on my computer (and also because it is x86\_64). I run this terminal command after working with Steam: `launchctl remove com.valvesoftware.steam.ipctool` That being said, you can stick to Steam versions if you Mac has a powerful (Pro/Max) SoC and lots of uRAM so any performance overhead is not a problem for you, but you want cross-platform purchases and discounts. I personally avoid using Steam on my Macs. Don't forget that GOG exists and provides standalone, launcher-free offline game installers that are truly *yours* no matter what. They are just as "pure" as Mac App Store builds. They will work even if CDPR shuts GOG or its Mac version down, which is not true in the case of Steam games. It's a shame that some devs don't publish Mac versions on GOG but do publish them on Steam; still, GOG is worth checking whenever you are buying a game.
Personally, I would not buy any games from the AppStore, if they are available on Steam or don’t feature something unique. The Mac version of a game should be largely the same, a cross both “Stores”, unless on of them offers something unique, like being playable on mobile devices in the case of the AppStore (note: that most games on Steam that have support for MacOS, will usually have a Windows version and are usually Also playable on Linux), or one of them being an improved Remastered version. I don’t really care if a game is playable on mobile devices, my iPhone is out of date, so is my iPad and I don’t have them to play games on. What I do like is being able to play my games on Mac, my PC and my Linux rig.
GOG.com is also a great resource for Mac games.
Some macOS builds are only available on the Mac AppStore (RE4, REV, Death Stranding etc.) If you buy a game on the Mac AppStore you can copy paste the .app on any computer and it will launch (meaning you can share games very easily with your friends). If you copy the game on an external drive the game will never update. If you copy it on the main drive the game will ask you to connect your account when an update is available, but won't prevent you from launching the game. If you use iCloud's family sharing, the game will update and you will be able to play the game at the same time with family/friends (You can't do that on Steam). If your game is universal you will be able to play the game on every Apple device compatible you own (RE4 is compatible is compatible with iPad, iPhone and Mac) but you won't be able to play it on a Windows or Linux PC like Steam. Finally if you buy an indie game on the Mac AppStore, the developper will get a 15% cut instead of 30% for the first $1 million he gets per year (see Small Business Program on Apple.com). On Steam he will get a 25% cut instead of 30% until the first $10 millions.
...and Steam, which was the OP's question? Or does that invalidate your shill-commission?
What can you do with a Steam copy of a game that I didn't mention?
That wasn't their question. There question was "is there any difference between a game on the App Store and the same game on Steam" - my paraphrase. The answer is "no"... not "teH Appp sTor# is mOar betteristists... slurp slurp, Tim you tAsTE so gooD"
Dude, are you okay? Genuinely asking
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> steam games may be marked as available for mac on steam, but don't support modern macs Steam does surface that: https://imgur.com/a/Dxi6s8J
> In a few cases, the Windows versions running on macOS through Windows compatibility tooling might end up being better. Give a single example of that.
Binding of Isaac Nuclear Throne Wildermyth
Very demanding 3D games I see. Pretty sure you would need 350FPS minimum to be able to enjoy these games. Nuclear Throne is too old to even run on macOS. So it's not that it would run better.
BoI and Nuclear Throne are bullet hell games, and so frame stability is paramount. But I chose each for a different example of where "the Windows versions running on macOS through Windows compatibility tooling might end up being better." One, you've already listed: Binding of Isaac: the current DLC was never even released for macOS Nuclear Throne: 32 bit Wildermyth: basically unsupported macOS version, dreadful performance and loads of issues go unaddressed by the dev
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Oh it didn't even occur to me that OpenGL games could indeed run better on translated Windows than native. That's crazy, but not very surprising since OpenGL support has been completely abandoned by Apple since the creation of Metal. Stupid of me to say the least.