💥 Steam on macOS ARM: Valve Must Break the Vicious Cycle — Before It’s Too Late

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SkeletonGamer 11 Jun @ 6:11am

💥 Steam on macOS ARM: Valve Must Break the Vicious Cycle — Before It’s Too Late

🎯 Why This Matters

Apple announced at WWDC 2025 that Rosetta 2 will be removed in macOS 28 (expected 2027).
This means all x86-only apps, including Steam, will stop working on the majority of Macs — Apple Silicon machines that have been on the market since 2020.

This isn’t a vague concern. It’s a five-year-old warning that’s becoming reality.

❗ Steam still runs on macOS only via Rosetta. When that’s gone, millions of users lose access to their libraries — even if their games are ARM-native.

⸻

🎮 ARM-native Games Already Exist

• No Man’s Sky is fully native and Metal-optimized.
• Resident Evil Village, Baldur’s Gate 3, Stray, and others run natively on Apple Silicon.
• Apple is actively assisting developers — including engine teams like Unity and Godot — to support ARM and visionOS.

✅ We have native games.
✅ We have ARM-native Macs.
❌ But we still don’t have a native Steam client to launch them.

⸻

🔄 The Vicious Cycle

Valve’s position often sounds like this:

“We don’t support macOS ARM because the user base is too small.”

But that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

No native client → fewer users.
Fewer users → no justification for a native client.
That’s not business logic — that’s inertia.

It’s time to break that cycle. And Valve is perfectly capable of doing it.

⸻

🧱 Valve Already Supports ARM Internally

In June 2025, Valve quietly added experimental ARM64 support to its SteamOS runtime — likely in preparation for future ARM-based hardware (Deckard, VR, etc).

So let’s be clear:

🔧 Valve has engineers working on ARM.
🧪 The runtime already exists.
🎯 The only missing piece is a build for macOS ARM.

A single Valve developer could:
• Compile the client UI (CEF-based) for ARM64.
• Link to existing cross-platform SteamWorks libraries.
• Package a universal binary (x86_64 + ARM64) — like every modern macOS app.

Apple would likely assist. They already helped with Unity, Godot, and major AAA ports.

⸻

🛑 Without Action…

• 💥 Millions of Mac users will lose access to games they paid for.
• ⚖️ Consumer rights organizations (especially in the EU) may push back against DRM lockouts.
• 🤝 Studios who ported their games (Hello Games, Capcom…) will see their work broken.
• 🧲 Alternative platforms (Heroic, GOG) will attract frustrated users.
• 🔇 Valve will lose goodwill and credibility — again — just like it did when it killed CS:GO support for macOS without warning.

⸻

🧩 This Is a Moment of Truth
• Apple Silicon has been mainstream since late 2020.
• macOS ARM gaming is no longer theory — it’s real.
• Apple has officially announced the sunset of Rosetta.
• Users are ready. Developers are ready.

The only one holding things back… is Valve.

If Valve does nothing, it won’t be a technical limitation.
It’ll be a choice to abandon part of its customer base — permanently.

Let’s not wait until it’s too late.

Let’s fix this. Please.

Last edited by SkeletonGamer; 11 Jun @ 6:40am

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Showing 1-15 of 20 comments

WiBlum 11 Jun @ 7:05am

Thanks, I agree with you,
Please Valve, do something to this, it's a red flag from more than 5 years for security reasons and efficiency on all platforms (including Linux and windows).

Making a 64 bit version and a native build on macOS (arm64) and Linux (64 bit and arm64) would be much more than just great, we will benefit from it, also please replace this awful Chromium Webhelper from your SteamWebhelper, it just mostly lags and breaks on some hardware and Linux OSes, thanks.

WiBlum 11 Jun @ 8:03am

Even if it seems like Chatgpt past through it, it's okay, I still agree

SkeletonGamer 11 Jun @ 8:18am

Originally posted by WiBlum:
Even if it seems like Chatgpt past through it, it's okay, I still agree

I've been gathering my ideas and synthesizing them with ChatGPT, indeed.

Homy 11 Jun @ 1:58pm

I hope this makes Valve to finally make a simple update to Steam client but I think it won't be until a few more years because Rosetta will not be deprecated totally.

- Rosetta is not fully deprecated or ”phased out” with macOS 28 in 2027.

- Existing Intel apps/games will continue to work according to Apple. New macOS can though break old software but that’s no news. It’s already a fact in Sequoia and it’s always been that way on any OS. Apple says ”we will keep a subset of Rosetta functionality aimed at supporting older unmaintained gaming titles, that rely on Intel-based frameworks”.

- After macOS 27 you can’t develop new x86 apps. All new apps must be ARM64. Xcode won’t have x86 support and new apps on Mac App Store must be ARM64.

- You still can use macOS 27 or older to make x86 apps but there is of course no guarantee that the apps will run flawlessly or at all in macOS 28 or later. Such apps can’t be uploaded and sold on Mac App Store either.

- Game Porting Toolkit will continue to work because it’s an evaluation and benchmarking tool for x86 games on macOS by Apple before the devs decide to make ARM64 games.

- Crossover will run one way or the other because there will always be Windows games that won’t have Mac port. Codeweavers stated in their roadmap back in 2021 that they’ll be prepared. Also considering that Apple uses Wine for GPTK and works closely with Codeweavers I’m sure they will find a solution and when I just checked to my surprise Crossover 25 is already a native Apple Silicon app while 24 was an x86 app. It still needs Rosetta to run x86 games/apps but Crossover itself has always been a x86 app until now.

- You can also always run your old games on a volume of macOS 27 or older with Rosetta 2 if they stop working in newer macOS with newer Rosetta. Your Mac must support older macOS though which is not always possible on newer Macs.

It's a bit different now compared to 64-bit transition. As long as GPTK is around Rosetta will and have to be around in some form. Those games that won't be maintained will eventually run into problem but it will take longer time and popular games get native ARM64 updates, like Aspyr did with RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and SimCity 4 or Cyan who has recently updated many of its old Myst titles or Feral just did with Total War: Rome II Emperor Edition.

Last edited by Homy; 11 Jun @ 1:59pm

SkeletonGamer 11 Jun @ 2:51pm

Thanks for the detailed reply. I see where you’re coming from, and I agree on a few points (especially the progress made with CrossOver and Apple’s collaboration with CodeWeavers). But I think we need to be more precise and realistic about what’s actually happening.

Apple did confirm at WWDC 2025 that Rosetta 2 will be removed in macOS 28.
What remains is a limited fallback, described as:

“a subset of Rosetta functionality aimed at supporting older unmaintained gaming titles that rely on Intel-based frameworks.” https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple-silicon/about-the-rosetta-translation-environment

That’s not full Rosetta. That’s a compatibility bandaid, likely for specific legacy APIs, not general x86 support. You won’t be able to rely on it for running most of your Steam library, especially if Valve doesn’t support macOS ARM natively.

Game Porting Toolkit and CrossOver are great… but not a solution
• GPTK is for porting, not for running your existing games.
• CrossOver is great, I use it too 👌, but it still depends on Rosetta to run x86 binaries.
• When Rosetta 2 disappears, all Wine-based x86 apps break, unless translated in advance (which few are).
• And this doesn’t solve the core issue: the Steam client itself will stop working natively.

You say users can “just run their games on macOS 27 or older”, but:
• New Macs in 2027 won’t support macOS 27.
• Developers can’t target x86 anymore in Xcode after macOS 27.
• Expecting users to freeze their system to keep access to their library is not a long-term solution. It’s a survival hack. 🫤

Valve has had 5 years since Apple Silicon launched in 2020. 😑
They just added ARM support to SteamOS. The work is already underway internally.

All we’re asking is: build a lightweight ARM-native macOS client, even just to download and launch already compatible games.

It’s not about Proton. Not about emulation. Just about respecting paid access.

Let’s not pretend that fallback solutions can substitute proper support.
If Valve waits until Rosetta is gone to act, it’ll be too late. 😞

Andrew_Marin26 11 Jun @ 3:05pm

Originally posted by WiBlum:
Thanks, I agree with you,
Please Valve, do something to this, it's a red flag from more than 5 years for security reasons and efficiency on all platforms (including Linux and windows).

Making a 64 bit version and a native build on macOS (arm64) and Linux (64 bit and arm64) would be much more than just great, we will benefit from it, also please replace this awful Chromium Webhelper from your SteamWebhelper, it just mostly lags and breaks on some hardware and Linux OSes, thanks.

Is good

Homy 11 Jun @ 9:18pm

Originally posted by SkeletonGamer:
Thanks for the detailed reply. I see where you’re coming from, and I agree on a few points (especially the progress made with CrossOver and Apple’s collaboration with CodeWeavers). But I think we need to be more precise and realistic about what’s actually happening.

Apple did confirm at WWDC 2025 that Rosetta 2 will be removed in macOS 28.
What remains is a limited fallback, described as:

“a subset of Rosetta functionality aimed at supporting older unmaintained gaming titles that rely on Intel-based frameworks.” https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple-silicon/about-the-rosetta-translation-environment

That’s not full Rosetta. That’s a compatibility bandaid, likely for specific legacy APIs, not general x86 support. You won’t be able to rely on it for running most of your Steam library, especially if Valve doesn’t support macOS ARM natively.

Game Porting Toolkit and CrossOver are great… but not a solution
• GPTK is for porting, not for running your existing games.
• CrossOver is great, I use it too 👌, but it still depends on Rosetta to run x86 binaries.
• When Rosetta 2 disappears, all Wine-based x86 apps break, unless translated in advance (which few are).
• And this doesn’t solve the core issue: the Steam client itself will stop working natively.

You say users can “just run their games on macOS 27 or older”, but:
• New Macs in 2027 won’t support macOS 27.
• Developers can’t target x86 anymore in Xcode after macOS 27.
• Expecting users to freeze their system to keep access to their library is not a long-term solution. It’s a survival hack. 🫤

Valve has had 5 years since Apple Silicon launched in 2020. 😑
They just added ARM support to SteamOS. The work is already underway internally.

All we’re asking is: build a lightweight ARM-native macOS client, even just to download and launch already compatible games.

It’s not about Proton. Not about emulation. Just about respecting paid access.

Let’s not pretend that fallback solutions can substitute proper support.
If Valve waits until Rosetta is gone to act, it’ll be too late. 😞

I think I covered every point in your response from a realistic point of view but somehow you seem to think I didn’t.

I have seen and read Apple’s article. Rosetta has two functions. One is to let Intel apps run in macOS on Apple Silicon. The other one is to let developers build Universal binaries with XCode. Universal binaries are apps that work on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. It is this part of the Rosetta functionality that will be removed. Devs can no longer build Intel apps in macOS 28. The other part, the ability to run Intel apps won’t be removed. That’s what they mean by ”a subset of Rosetta functionality aimed at supporting older unmaintained gaming titles, that rely on Intel-based frameworks”. That’s not full Rosetta as ”a general-purpose tool for Intel apps to help developers complete the migration of their apps”, but Rosetta will still be fully capable of running ”older unmaintained gaming titles”. You will still be able to run most of your Steam library. Even the Steam client would run but eventually things will run into bugs and that’s when Steam has to make a native client.

GPTK and Crossover are the other side of Mac gaming. No. you can’t use them to run x86 Mac games but despite being a tool for evaluating and benchmarking Windows games GPTK is used for running Windows games in Crossover. GPTK and Crossover both need Rosetta and they too will use ”a subset of Rosetta functionality” to run Wine and X86 Windows apps. So they won’t break because Rosetta 2 will not disappear until Codeweavers find another solution.

I didn’t say “users can just run their games on macOS 27 or older”. I said ”You can also always run your old games on a volume of macOS 27 or older with Rosetta 2. Your Mac must support older macOS though which is not always possible on newer Macs”. Did you miss that part? So I was neither talking about macOS 27 on new Macs with macOS 28 nor developers making new x86 games after macOS 27.

If you’ll have a M6 Mac by then that can run both macOS 27 and 28 you don’t have to ”freeze” your system. You can create two volumes for the old and new system and keep using your old apps. That’s a solution that I myself use now with Sonoma and Sequoia since some old games have stopped working or have bugs in Sequoia. It’s a solution that not all users are aware of, hence my suggestion.

Otherwise I agree with your comments about Valve but as I said I suspect they will wait until the last minute. We’ll simply have to wait and see how Rosetta will work in reality after macOS 27.

The_Abortionator 11 Jun @ 10:38pm

Can every Mac gamer stop with the belief its Valve's job to save Macs instead of Apple's?

No really. Its insane that APPLE killing off their own support results in you turning to valve saying its up to them to save APPLE'S platform.

Did it occur to you at any moment to contact Apple and try to appeal to them instead of putting Apples issues on Valve?

Its not Valves job to do another company's job and try and save a dying platform.

GAVIN 12 Jun @ 9:04am

yea

🌲🌌 Nomad 🌌🌲[MacOS] 12 Jun @ 10:49am

Seeing as Microsoft is also pushing ARM heavily, I think it would be best for VALVe to practice with a platform that's several years more mature in that field... *shrug*

#10

aiusepsi 12 Jun @ 12:28pm

Huh, Valve just put out a Steam client beta with native Apple Silicon support. That's either one heck of a coincidence, or this news finally made them pull their finger out.

Last edited by aiusepsi; 12 Jun @ 12:28pm

#11

🌲🌌 Nomad 🌌🌲[MacOS] 12 Jun @ 1:26pm

Originally posted by aiusepsi:
Huh, Valve just put out a Steam client beta with native Apple Silicon support. That's either one heck of a coincidence, or this news finally made them pull their finger out.

Holy hell that is one heck of a coincidence haha; thanks valve!!!

#12

Smart 12 Jun @ 1:34pm

ARM is ♥♥♥♥. Too slow. Thus no support from steam.^^
An this is the reason you get cut x86 support. Your chips are too slow to go on using it!

#13

🌲🌌 Nomad 🌌🌲[MacOS] 12 Jun @ 1:48pm

Originally posted by Smart:
ARM is ♥♥♥♥. Too slow. Thus no support from steam.^^
A this is the reason you get cut x86 support. Your chips are too slow to go on using it!

Did you not see the literal announcement of beta ARM support for the Steam Client? Let me guess, NVIDIA fanboy?

#14

Homy 12 Jun @ 1:55pm

Originally posted by 🌲🌌 Nomad 🌌🌲MacOS:
Originally posted by Smart:
ARM is ♥♥♥♥. Too slow. Thus no support from steam.^^
A this is the reason you get cut x86 support. Your chips are too slow to go on using it!
Did you not see the literal announcement of beta ARM support for the Steam Client? Let me guess, NVIDIA fanboy?

Yeah, that was fast, three days after Apple's announcment about Rosetta phasing out. I guess making a native client wasn't that hard after all. No petition or Vulkan was needed either. Valve just played lazy the past 5 years. This also shows that the revenues from the Mac sales are important. Trolls got it wrong once again. It's your turn now Epic! Lol

"Steam Client and Steam Helper apps now run natively on Apple Silicon."

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/SteamClientBeta/announcements/detail/545611272206420782

Last edited by Homy; 12 Jun @ 4:08pm

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Date Posted: 11 Jun @ 6:11am

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