HUMANKIND developer says Apple silicon release no longer guaranteed

Humankind
Humankind (Image credit: AMPLITUDE Studios)

What you need to know

  • AMPLITUDE Studios says its blockbuster strategy title HUMANKIND has run into hiccups on Mac.
  • It encountered issues with the x86 version, but this is now going into beta.
  • Apple silicon players are out of luck, however, with long delays in store.

AMPLITUDE Studios says its HUMANKIND strategy title has encountered a lot of problems during Mac development, and that the Apple silicon version is a long way off.

In a release on Steam this week the developer stated:

As you may remember, we had originally planned to release the version for x86-based Macs alongside the Windows version. Unfortunately, as we worked on this version, we ran into various performance and stability issues. Many of these problems were difficult to consistently reproduce in our testing environment. This slowed down developing and testing fixes so much that we had to delay the Mac version. However, with the additional reports gained from the beta version we released on Steam, we have made good progress in resolving these issues. While our current Mac version will initially be released as a beta as well, we are hopeful that we can officially release this version soon after.

The x86 hiccup-into-beta scenario is a lot better than the problems for the M1 version, which AMPLITUDE says will take "significantly longer than that" and might never materialize.

Humankind

Humankind (Image credit: AMPLITUDE Studios)

That's because they didn't have "access to sufficient information and hardware before release" and that even though they anticipated big changes moving from Intel to Apple silicon they were "nonetheless surprised by the scope and complexity of adjustments required to run the game well." HUMANKIND's timeframe is now "several months" for M1 and Apple silicon, and even then the developer doesn't know if the results will be satisfactory. It's so bad AMPLITUDE can't even guarantee there will ever be an M1 release.

The developer apologized and said it understood if players wanted to request a refund through either Steam, the Epic Games Store, or publisher SEGA's own website.

It comes as Apple announced all-new Apple silicon this week with the M1 Pro and M1 Max that will feature in Apple's new best MacBook, the MacBook Pro (2021)

Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design. Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9