Popular third-party game store Steam has announced plans to terminate support for older macOS versions. The decision, scheduled to take effect in early 2024, will impact 32-bit games.
What Happened: Valve, the creator of Steam, confirmed via its support page that it would cease support for macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and 10.14 (Mojave) starting Feb. 15, 2024.
Post this, the Steam client on these operating systems will not be eligible for updates, including critical security ones. The company also said it will be unable to offer technical assistance for issues to users on macOS 10.13 and 10.14.
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It’s worth mentioning that macOS 10.14 was the last version of macOS to support 32-bit games Apple Inc.’s AAPL computers. Apple had previously stopped support for 32-bit applications with the advent of macOS Catalina.
As a result, several games that have yet to upgrade to support 64-bit will effectively become non-functional on macOS.
However, Steam will continue working on macOS 10.13 and 10.14. While it will still work, the Steam client will not receive any security updates. Likewise, 32-bit games will continue to work as long as they are installed.
Why It Matters: The decision to discontinue support for older versions of macOS aligns with the tech industry’s broader push towards more advanced, 64-bit systems. This move will inevitably affect a small percentage of Steam’s user base that is still relying on 32-bit games, as detailed in Steam’s support document.
The company also shared that a significant 98%+ % of Steam customers on Macs are already operating on macOS 10.15 or newer.
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