Valve just dropped Mac support for its biggest titles — Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, and Half-Life all get the axe

News
By
published

City 17 and more are now off-limits on Mac.

Portal 2 on macOS
(Image credit: Future)

In the same week that Apple announced huge improvements for gaming on macOS Sequoia at WWDC, game developer Valve removed support for the platform from many of its games.

According to SteamDB, which is a database for Valve’s Steam storefront, Valve released a patch for a number of its games on June 12 that removed macOS support. Axed games uncovered by iMore so far include:

  • Counterstrike: Source
  • Day of Defeat: Source
  • Half-Life 2
  • Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
  • Half-Life Episode 1
  • Half-Life Episode 2
  • Portal
  • Portal 2
  • Left for Dead 2

While more recent Valve titles, such as Counter-Strike 2 didn’t ship with Mac support, a couple of games, such as the original Counter-Strike and DOTA 2, have retained macOS functionality, suggesting this isn’t a blanket decision. 

Way back in May 2010, Valve announced it was bringing Steam and a few of its games to the Mac. Over the years, titles like Portal 2 and DOTA 2 were simultaneously released on Windows and Mac. However, when Apple announced its silicon chip transition for Macs in 2020, Valve’s silence on whether Steam would support the M1 chip was very noticeable.

With the company now dropping support for the Mac, we now have our answer. iMore has reached out to Valve for comment as to why this decision has been made.

Thanks to Game Porting Kit, you can still play these games

Just because Valve has dropped macOS support from its entire library of games doesn’t mean it’s impossible to play them on your Mac. The 2023 release of Game Porting Toolkit (GPTK) is a framework by Apple to help developers port their games to the Mac. Apps like Whisky take advantage of this framework, allowing users to download Windows versions of Steam and play their purchased games on the Mac, all powered by GPTK. 

This means you can download Valve’s library of games, still available on Windows, but on an Apple silicon Mac and play them as you would have on an Intel Mac. Although we hope that Valve changes its mind to natively support macOS in the future, using apps like Whisky is a great solution in the meantime. GPTK 2, unveiled at WWDC 2024, takes the GPTK framework to the next level and has unlocked playing some hefty titles on Mac including Returnal, Uncharted, and other AAA PS5 titles.

M3 MacBook Air (16GB) | $1,499 $1,329 at Amazon

M3 MacBook Air (16GB) | $1,499 $1,329 at Amazon

The M3 MacBook Air only launched a few months ago and you can already get the upgraded version with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage for $170 off. It's the perfect laptop to use Whisky on for your Portal 2 needs.

View Deal

More from iMore

Daryl Baxter
Daryl Baxter
Features Editor

Daryl is iMore's Features Editor, overseeing long-form and in-depth articles and op-eds. Daryl loves using his experience as both a journalist and Apple fan to tell stories about Apple's products and its community, from the apps we use every day to the products that have been long forgotten in the Cupertino archives.

Previously Software & Downloads Writer at TechRadar, and Deputy Editor at StealthOptional, he's also written a book, 'The Making of Tomb Raider', which tells the story of the beginnings of Lara Croft and the series' early development. His second book, '50 Years of Boss Fights', came out in June 2024, and has a monthly newsletter called 'Springboard'. He's also written for many other publications including WIRED, MacFormat, Bloody Disgusting, VGC, GamesRadar, Nintendo Life, VRV Blog, The Loop Magazine, SUPER JUMP, Gizmodo, Film Stories, TopTenReviews, Miketendo64, and Daily Star.