Valve Launches Native Steam for Apple Silicon After Apple Announcement

Valve has finally released a native version of Steam for Apple Silicon chips, in a move that coincides with Apple's announcement at WWDC about the future of software compatibility. The update comes at a crucial time, as Apple has indicated that the Rosetta 2 translation layer will be discontinued in future generations of macOS.

Since 2020, Apple has been transitioning from Intel x86 processors to their own line of ARM CPUs, the M series chips. This technological shift has brought gains in efficiency and battery life to Macs like the MacBook Air, but created a compatibility challenge, as most applications were built for x86. Apple worked around this with Rosetta 2, which translated x86 apps to ARM in real time.

However, at this year's WWDC, Apple quietly informed developers that within two generations of macOS, Rosetta 2 would be discontinued. This means developers would have to adapt their apps to be native to ARM or leave them unsupported.

Valve, historically not prioritizing macOS due to its tiny percentage of Steam users, took its time to release a native version for Apple Silicon. Five years after Apple's transition, and with the impending deadline for Rosetta 2, Valve has finally made an ARM version of Steam available as part of yesterday's Steam client beta.

The native version of Steam for Apple Silicon is currently only available in beta phase. Users can access it in Steam preferences, under the "Interface" section, by selecting the beta version from a dropdown menu.

Initial tests, though limited, indicate that the new version works well. There have been improvements in the Steam Overlay functionality and game recording, which now seems to work (although without game audio, a limitation of macOS for system audio recording). This update is a relief for the small but dedicated Steam user base on Macs, who have been wondering for some time if Valve would make the effort to maintain compatibility with Apple's latest hardware.