Is Overwatch ever coming to Mac?

Could it be that Overwatch for Mac is finally happening? After all, every other Blizzard has ever made is available on Mac, so why not Overwatch?

Overwatch wouldn’t just instantly become one of the best FPS games for Mac, it would be the hottest games the platform has received in a long time. And it seems this could become a reality.

Reddit users have found a way to install it on MacOS. And even though the game remains unplayable, many concluded Blizzard could be working on it. Apple Insider went ahead and performed more tests to confirm the installer was properly signed by Blizzard. You can even download an 8.75 GB package that is recognized by Battle.net.

The thing is, the downloaded files are useless…

The “Blizzard is working on it” theory also makes sense because Jeff Kaplan, VP at Blizzard, said earlier this year they were “open-minded” to it:

I will not say that it’s definite…that we will never be on Mac.

We are open minded to it, we just need the priorities of our development process to line up with the capabilities of the platform in order for it to become a reality.

So could Blizzard be preparing for a surprise launch?

Don’t get your hopes up

Following up their story, Polygon went ahead and reached out to Blizzard, who just said the team had “nothing to announce at this time.”

That could mean anything and we could still hope for the best. Except Gadget 360 actually interviewed Tim Ford, lead engineer for Overwatch, who said:

We have no plans of giving this game on the Mac.

There are several technology decisions that Apple has made that has made it a little difficult for us to release Overwatch in the way we want it to be consumed, and that is why we haven’t pursued it.

So there you have it, this isn’t happening anytime soon. And if you’re desperate for a quality hero shooter, you can always try the surprisingly excellent free-to-play Paladins.

Is Apple to blame?

Ford’s statement was understandable when Apple only supported old OpenGL versions. But with the arrival of Metal, and especially Metal 2, we expected this would change.

If Apple managed to convince Unreal and Unity to bring VR onboard, perhaps they could work with Blizzard to bring one game to their platform?

If Parallels managed to join forces with Blizzard to support Overwatch using Parallels 12, just imagine what Apple could do if they tried…

How to play Overwatch on Mac

A lack of a Mac version doesn’t mean SW: TOR can’t be played on Mac. It just means you’ll need Windows or another third-party tool. As you probably know, there are several ways to play Windows games on Mac.

So the question isn’t whether or not you can play SW: TOR on Mac. The question is how:

Bootcamp and Parallels are both straightforward methods. Wine can be a little trickier but this Reddit guide is an excellent starting point if you’re willing to go that route. No matter what method you chose, make sure your Mac meets the game’s official Windows system requirements:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz or better
• Operating System: Windows 7 or later
• RAM: 3GB RAM
• Graphics: 1GB RAM and support for Shader 3.0 such as Intel HD 3000 or better, AMD Radeon HD 7450, Nvidia GeForce 610 or better.

Running SW: TOR does require an extra effort, and after all these years, one has to wonder: Is it the best MMO you could be playing on your Mac?

Top Overwatch Mac alternatives

MMOs is the one genre where MacOS shines. MacOS doesn’t have all of the MMOs available on Windows but it certainly has the top ones. We covered all the best MMORPGs for Mac over here, including premium and free-to-play ones.

There are too many excellent choices to mention them all, but if I had to recommend a few, these are our favorites:

World of Warcraft (WoW)  is still the best MMO out there. It receives excellent Expansions, which even after all these years, manage to reinvent the game. Battle for Azeroth, the game’s latest Expansion, was somewhat criticized but Blizzard has been hard at work releasing patches to improve it. Blizzard is definitely willing to go the extra mile and that’s why World of Warcraft is still the best.

The Elder Scrolls Online is a somewhat recent MMO that was also supposed to dethrone WoW but couldn’t. Nonetheless, it’s still a great MMO and the only Elder Scrolls game on Mac. Same can be said about Final Fantasy 14, an MMO that might not be as good as WoW but still a great choice for Final Fantasy and anime fans.

If I had to recommend a free-to-play MMO, I would hesitate between The Lord of the Rings Online and Guild Wars 2, both excellent and generous in the amount of content you can enjoy without having to pay a dime.

Where to download SWTOR?

If you ever decide to give SW: TOR a go, you can download the game’s Free-to-play version here.

How to play Overwatch on Mac

While we prefer to run our games natively, sometimes there are games that are so good, we are willing to boot Windows on our Macs. Overwatch is one of those cases. But what is the best way to run Overwatch on your Mac using Windows?

To figure that out, we went ahead and tested the game using different methods. This is the machine we used:

SPECS

Parallels

The easiest way to use Windows on a Mac is with Parallels. There’s no need to reboot your computer and you have access to both MacOS and Windows at the same time. I use Parallels all the time as it allows me to cover all of my basic Windows needs without ever quitting MacOS.

The downside with Parallels (and virtualization software in general) is the loss performance. Running two operating systems simultaniously is obviously extremely demanding on a computer and demanding tasks such as gaming suffer. Overwatch is no exception.

The team over at Parallels did a great job making sure Parallels is compatible with Overwatch. They went to far as to work directly with Blizzard to ensure the best possible performance. From my experience, Overwatch works fine using Parallels. I never encountered a single bug during my experience. But in spite of the good job, the game still suffers from the significant performance loss linked to running Windows and MacOS simultaneoulsy.

On my high-end 2014 27-inch iMac, which can normally run anything you throw at 1080p and Normal settings, Overwatch in unplayable at XXX FPS on Low settings and 720p:

SCREENSHOT of SETTINGS

You can technically run Overwatch on Mac using Parallels but unless you have a brand-new 27-inch iMac or iMac Pro, performance will never be high enough.

Bootcamp

Unlike Parallels, Bootcamp allows you to run Windows on your Mac in the same way any other computer runs Windows: natively. If you’re looking for performance, Bootcamp is and will always be the best way to run Windows on a Mac.

Overwatch is no exception. Running the game using the same settings, my 27-inch iMac can run it at XXXXX, which is significantly higher!

⇒ TESTS on 1080p / medium too

Cider?

If you too are tired of waiting for Blizzard to release Overwatch on Mac, you can use one of these methods to run Overwatch on Mac. We defintily recommend Bootcamp but no matter which method you chose, make sure your machine meets the Windows minimum requirements:

https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/65159

Top Overwatch Mac alternatives

There are many ways to play Overwatch, some are easier while others deliver better performance. But they all require you to download and install Windows, which is for many Mac users the last thing they want. After all, that’s the whole point of switching to Mac.

If you can’t stand the idea of having to deal with Windows, there are two excellent Overwatch Mac alternatives that work “out of the box”:

Paladins

The first game to come to mind is, of course, Paladins. While many discarded it as a free-to-play (read: lower quality) clone when it was first released in 2016, Paladins has proven the world it’s much more than that. The game may be free-to-play with most of the playable characters locked behind a paywall, but the game is fun, the gameplay is tight and the online matches are as good as they get. And, did we mention it was free to play? 🙂 That means you can go ahead and give it shot yourself.

Team Fortress 2

The father of hero class shooters, Team Fortress 2 basically invented the genre. While not as fashionable as it once was, Team Fortress 2 still has one of the most active and engaging communities out there. Thousands of players still play it every day, and being another free-to-play game, you can download it and test it out for yourself.

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