Space Javelin: Apple financials, a Mac game rant, and more

The fine folks at Space Javelin featured me on a new podcast, in which we discussed Apple’s surprisingly robust Q2 financial results and a whole host of other topics. When the subject turned to Valve Corp.’s decision to axe SteamVR support on the Mac, I went on a rant. To be frank, I don’t care about SteamVR – it’s very niche. But Valve’s decision to walk away from SteamVR Mac support illustrates fundamental problems. Outside of Apple Arcade and the work of a few indies, the Mac game business is utterly moribund. Mac App Store discoverability is a joke. Catalina ended 32-bit app support which stops older games in their tracks. Apple’s graphics API switch from OpenGL to Metal has created issues too. Anyway, more after the jump.

In a Few Minutes: The ARM-based Mac

Ken Ray and I pontificate for a few minutes in this segment about Apple switching to a different CPU architecture for the Macintosh. Analysts have predicted it. Industry folks have speculated about it. What will a Mac with an ARM chip instead of an Intel microprocessor look like? How would Apple handle the transition? Listen in for details.

In a Few Minutes: Living In and Running from Apple Arcade

In this installment of Ken Ray’s new short-form podcast, we talk a little bit about Apple Arcade. It turns out that Ken has had enough of it and recently ended his subscription. Meanwhile, I’m enjoying it and consider it well worth the $5 a month I pay. It’s a little ironic, given that I used to review games and by some measure should be a lot more jaded with Apple’s offerings than I am. Let’s unpack it.