Less than three years after announcing support for macOS, Valve has decided to drop support for Apple’s desktop operating system.
Valve confirmed the change yesterday, but considering it was Apple Earnings Day it went under the radar. So today we know that Valve has officially confirmed that it has dropped support for “OSX”, and is now recommending that “OSX” users rely on legacy builds of the software because no new versions are forthcoming. It’s not the greatest news, but according to Valve the team is simply focusing on Windows and Linux from this point on.
SteamVR has ended OSX support so our team can focus on Windows and Linux.
We recommend that OSX users continue to opt into the SteamVR [macos] branches for access to legacy builds.
Valve details how to opt into those branches in the official confirmation:
Users can opt into a branch by right-clicking on SteamVR in Steam, and selecting Properties… -> Betas.
For those who might remember, this is a pretty quick turnaround. Valve actually announced support for SteamVR on Macs back at the Worldwide Developers Conference in 2017.
There is a workaround here, technically, thanks to virtualization software like Parallels Desktop. As noted by UploadVR, Mac users can simply run that software to load up a real version of Windows 10 on their Apple-branded hardware. With that up and running users will be able to still use SteamVR and keep up with current builds of the software as well.
Is anyone really surprised by this development from Valve? Let us know in the comments below.