Apple’s macOS was able to run CS:GO, but its follow-up title, Counter-Strike 2, will not be available as a free upgrade for the platform as Valve has reportedly decided against bringing the newly released version to it. Apparently, there are not enough players on the Mac to justify making the effort to port the game.

Players who were running CS:GO on macOS will be eligible for a refund now that Counter-Strike 2 will not be launching for it

Even though Apple sells millions of Macs annually, the total player base for CS:GO for macOS, DirectX 9 and 32-bit operating systems was less than one percent combined. Such a negligible adoption of the game means that it would cost Valve more to port the game to macOS while also releasing timely updates, so it pulled support for Counter-Strike 2. As reported by MacRumors, Steam support FAQ states the following regarding the future of the game.

“As technology advances, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue support for older hardware, including DirectX 9 and 32-bit operating systems. Similarly, we will no longer support macOS. Combined, these represented less than one percent of active CS:GO players.

Moving forward, Counter-Strike 2 will exclusively support 64-bit Windows and Linux.

If you are unable to launch Counter-Strike 2 with your current hardware, you can access a legacy version of CS:GO. Support for this version of CS:GO will end on January 1, 2024.”

As for those macOS users who were Prime Status Upgrade customers, they will be eligible for a refund if the majority of their CS:GO playtime was on macOS and they played CS:GO on a Mac between the announcement of the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test, which was March 22 and the launch of Counter-Strike 2. The expiration date of refunds will be December 1, 2023.

If macOS users wish to play CS:GO on their systems, a legacy version is still available, with all the available features except for official matchmaking. The downside of continuing to play on the legacy version is that support will end on January 1, 2024, so there is a lot of time left. Given that Apple has decided to get serious about gaming on the Mac, Counter-Strike 2 not being available for macOS will feel like getting betrayed by the developer.

Running Counter-Strike 2 on a low-end system is possible as the game is not that resource-intensive, so it would have easily run on an M1 MacBook Air or even an M1 MacBook Pro. We will see if Apple can work out a deal and encourage Valve to bring the same game to macOS, and when that happens, we will update our readers accordingly.

News Source: Steam