Jul 05, 2017 More new games support Mac OS X than ever, and you can play any Windows game on your Mac. There are many ways you can play those Windows PC games on your Mac. After all, Macs have been standard Intel PCs that come with a different operating system preinstalled since 2006. Jul 05, 2017  More new games support Mac OS X than ever, and you can play any Windows game on your Mac. There are many ways you can play those Windows PC games on your Mac. After all, Macs have been standard Intel PCs that come with a different operating system preinstalled since 2006.

Update August 17, 2016: While official Mac support for Overwatch is still not on the cards, the new version of the Parallels software will support it.

There hasn’t been official word on an OSX version of Overwatch, but there is now a way to get it working. The virtual machine making Parallels now supports the game, the engineering team there having been in direct contact with Blizzard to get it going. The latest version enabled this and came out today for previous subscribers, launching on August 23 for general availability.

Overwatch’s loot boxes explained in our dedicated article.

First: the bad news. Parallels costs, and it ain’t exactly cheap. The default version is $79.99 / £64.99, plus you’ll need a legit version of Windows for it to run. It’s a virtual machine, so you won’t have to go through the hassle of dual booting, but it doesn’t get you around having to own a compatible OS. A copy of Windows 10, plus the game itself and you’re looking at serious money. But: it does work. In fact, here’s a video of it running:

This was achieved through a partnership with Blizzard by the Parallels team. Realising that Overwatch had now sold 15 million copies and seeing it as one of the most-requested programs to get running from their users, they called up big blue and got in contact with their engineers. Together they worked through problems – like, for example, there being absolutely no hair on characters when they started – and got it to a better place. It’s not official Mac support, but it seems to be as close as we’re going to get for now.

Parallels say that “collaborating with the engineers from Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch enabled Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac engineers to make changes in its code so there are less graphics artifacts, texture glitches and skittering, as well as make the game run a little faster.”

The entire point of Parallels is to make Windows programs run in a way that seems native to OSX. It also has a huge batch of other tools built in, and will run all sorts of Windows programs if you’re interested in more than just Overwatch. I used it at a customer service job once, and it’s one of the few parts of that experience that wasn’t totally awful.

If you’re in for all that, you can head over to the Parallels Desktop site and get downloading. 14-day free trials of Parallels 12 will be available from August 23, when it releases publically. Here’s their ad reel:

Original story, February 22 2016:Blizzard has had a long history of supporting Mac gaming, so to hear during Blizzcon that Overwatch was only coming to Windows, PS4 and Xbox One on launch and that there were no current plans for a Mac version was surprising and disappointing. I put the question to game director Jeff Kaplan in our interview – why now, on their most anticipated game in years, does Blizzard drop Mac support?

“It was a result of not having all the technological support we needed to make the game viable on Mac systems.” says Kaplan, referring to Apple’s policies with OSX. “We have a real love and dedication for Mac players, they’ve been extremely loyal to us and we love giving them Blizzard games.

“But when dealing with the PC, the Xbox One and the PS4 – all of which are extremely welcoming to the technological needs to run a next-generation shooter – in a lot of ways we felt left behind, that we weren’t given the support we needed to make a great product on the Mac.”

For those who might not be aware, graphics technology on OSX is pretty far behind – to the point that while the OS is more optimised for Mac hardware, dual-booting into Windows and running games on that is often a better solution. A Macbook which has no struggles whatsoever with a game in Windows can chug and require lowering settings while in OSX. At least that’s been my personal experience, and it just doesn’t have the driver support from Nvidia and AMD that Windows does.

Kaplan does think this could change in the future, but feels Apple aren’t currently doing enough to make companies want to develop for Mac – especially in comparison to their peers.

“There has to be a joint enthusiasm to really achieve success like that. The enthusiasm that comes out of Microsoft and Sony to have us on their platforms is overwhelming and we’re so appreciative of it.

“I think Apple’s an amazing company” he continues, saying that those who want Overwatch on Mac need to make that clear to Apple, “and I hope, I really hope Mac players are vocal back to Apple that Mac gaming is extremely important and should be extremely important. I can only guess how important things like iPhone and other products are to a company like that – but I think Mac gaming should have equal importance.”

Once the only big-time developer to consistently support Mac gaming, Blizzard disappointed us when it didn’t release Overwatch on Mac.

Every other game from Blizzard is available on Mac, so why not Overwatch? And to make matters worst, Overwatch went on to become one of the most popular and critically-acclaimed shooters in years.

And in the meantime, Mac support (or lack thereof) was never even acknowledged, until last year…

Is Overwatch ever coming to Mac?

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. That explains why the entire Mac community went insane when a Reddit user found a way to install it on MacOS:

And even though the game was unplayable, many believed it was proof Blizzard was secretly working on it. Apple Insider went ahead and performed more tests to confirm the installer was properly signed by Blizzard and recognized by Battle.net.

The “Blizzard is working on it” theory also made sense because Jeff Kaplan, VP at Blizzard, once said:

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

Gadget 360 eventually interviewed Tim Ford, lead engineer for Overwatch, who unfortunately 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, Overwatch on Mac isn’t happening anytime soon. That said, there are still ways to play it on a Mac (or worthy alternatives should you refuse to use Windows).

How to play Overwatch on Mac

While we prefer to run our games natively, some games are so good, we are willing to boot Windows to play them. Overwatch is definitely one of those games.

But what is the best way to run Overwatch on Mac using Windows?

There are several methods at your disposal, each with its advantages and drawbacks:

As Bootcamp and Parallels are the most popular choices, we went ahead and tested Overwatch on both for you. We used our in-house 2014 27-inch iMac with a 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 16 GB RAM and a 2 GB Radeon R9 M290X:

All our tests were performed on Low Graphics Quality and 720p resolution (we know, these are surprisingly low settings but we wanted to give Parallels a shot):

As expected, Parallels struggled, even on Low settings, while Bootcamp, on the other hand, performed great:

Parallels: What went wrong?

Blizzard Games Playable In Mac Computer

Parallels is the easiest way to run Windows on Mac. There’s no need to reboot your computer and it gives you access to both MacOS and Windows at the same time. I use it all the time as it covers all of my basic Windows needs.

Parallels is often fast enough to properly run games with low requirements and the team over at Parallels went as far as to work directly with Blizzard to ensure compatibility with Overwatch.

But running two OSes simultaneously is too taxing to run a game like Overwatch. In our tests, Overwatch runs at barely 17 FPS, which is much too low to be playable.

We even configured Parallels to prioritize gaming performance, but the results were not any better.

Bootcamp: The safe bet

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 the way to go.

With Bootcamp, our 27-inch iMac runs Overwatch at a whopping 177 FPS, meaning you’d be able to easily run the game on Medium settings and 1080p or more.

What about the other methods?

There are other methods out there, such as Wine or Streaming. Both methods can work but I find Wine to be unnecessarily complicated and Streaming too expensive. In any case, whatever the method you chose, make sure your Mac meets Overwatch’s system requirements:

• Processor: Intel Core i3
• Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460, ATI Radeon HD 4850, or Intel HD Graphics 4400
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Storage: 30 GB available hard drive space

But what if you’re not willing to deal with Windows? Are there worthy alternatives to Overwatch on Mac?

Top Overwatch Mac alternatives

We’ve covered the best FPS games for Mac before, but if I had to recommend a few, these are our favorites:

But what if you’re looking for a hero shooter? In that case, you have two excellent options:

Paladins

While many discarded it as a free-to-play Overwatch clone, Paladins has proven to be much more than that. Most of the playable characters may be locked behind a paywall, but the game is still a lot of fun, with refined gameplay and shooting mechanics, good graphics and smooth MacOS performance.

Xbox Games Playable On Pc

And, did we mention it was free-to-play? Paladins is so good, it’s hard to believe it’s free. You’ll see!

Blizzard Games Playable In Mac Download

Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2 basically invented the hero shooter 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.

Playable Games Offline

What’s your favorite hero shooter on Mac?

Are you a Team Fortress 2 loyal fan or are you willing to go through the trouble of using Windows to play Overwatch?