The M4 Mac mini made its big splash last calendar week . Among the normal Apple merchandising content , however , I noticed something I ’d never look before . It ’s the image above that I ’m talking about — and by now , you ’ve probably noticed the same thing that trance my eye . The PS5 restrainer .
Sure , you ’ve always been able to connect up a game comptroller and habituate it for Mac gaming , but never have I seen it promoted by Apple itself . By assign this so forward in the merchandising materials , Apple is not - so - subtly implying that these are PCs that are at least to some degree built for gaming . Is this Apple ’s first genuine attempt at taking a real step into the creation of personal computer gaming ? There ’s more grounds than you might consider .
Building momentum
If you ’re a gamer , prospect are you do n’t act your favourite claim on a Mac . Apple ’s computers just have n’t been seen as a gambling destination , despite impressive additions like the in style suite ofM4 micro chip .
It ’s not for lack of try . For several year now , Apple has been attempting to crack the play market place through a succession of different ideas . We ’ve seen powerful Apple silicon chips , games on theApple boob tube , the launching ofApple Arcade , theGame Porting Toolkit , and even the entry of theVision Pro headset . Yet none of these efforts have enabled Apple to knock companies like Sony and Microsoft off their lofty perches .
That could all change soon , though — at least according to Bloomberg newsperson Mark Gurman . compose in hislatest Power On newssheet , Gurman believes that theM4 Mac minicould be the gimmick to at long last help oneself Apple surmount the sustenance elbow room and offer its own games console to take on the PlayStation and the Xbox .
And I have to say , Gurman makes a very good gunpoint . Unlike former attempt on Apple ’s part , the Mac miniskirt declare oneself a lot of compelling reasons for becoming your next games console of choice .
For model , consider its raw , shrunken - down design . Apple has halve the sizing of the Mac mini while drastically increase its exponent output . Its footmark quantity just 5 column inch by 5 inches and it ’s a mere 2 inch improbable , making it far smaller than both Sony and Microsoft ’s console . It ’s compact , unobtrusive , and the perfect size for aliveness way gaming , plus it connects to your TV and controllers without a tour of duty .
On the interior is the herculean M4 silicon chip that offersDynamic Caching , computer hardware - accelerated re trace , and mesh shading , plus16 GB of storage as standard . In fact , Apple says the M4 is twice as good at electron beam trace as the M3 , which is Brobdingnagian . With all the public lecture of ray tracing support on thePlayStation Pro , that ’s an important point for Apple to make .
And if you want more , of course , there ’s theM4 Pro chipthat can go toe - to - toe with the M2 Ultra in the Mac Pro and theMac Studio . And the Mac mini offers all that for a very reasonable $ 599 starting Leontyne Price .
It ’s all these timbre that make the Mac miniskirt the idealistic machine for console - way gaming . alternatively of fetch out an all - new equipment like the Vision Pro or developing a platform like Apple Arcade , possibly Apple ’s best option for capture the gaming world was sitting here all along in the variant of its tiniest desktop computer .
A moving target
There ’s still one key area that Apple needs to improve : the games themselves . Because in good order now , the macOS games library is a long , long way behind what its rivals can offer .
Sure , the late news thatControlandCyberpunk 2077will be coming to the Macare both big wins for Apple , and they ’ll link otheroutstanding Mac gameslikeBaldur ’s Gate 3,Death Stranding , andDisco Elysium . But even a cursory glance at the dearth of AAA titles on the Mac will recount you that developer do n’t see macOS in the same light as Windows , the PlayStation , or the Xbox .
If Apple can ready that , though , it might finally bump a way to entice console gamers onto a new platform . It ’s already place the groundwork with the Game Porting Toolkit , and seeing other popular games make the leap could help convince more developers to land their games to the Mac .
The M4 Mac mini could play a big role in that . Apple is n’t positioning it as a games console per se , but perhaps it should prompt gamers about everything this minuscule machine has go bad for it . After all , if it takes off , Apple will have the perfect console rival in the strain of the Mac mini .
