 Apple’s new M4 Mac mini. Source: Apple For all its success, Apple Inc. has never really cracked the gaming market — at least when it comes to consoles or computers. The company’s first meaningful attempt was the Pippin, a home game console co-developed in the 1990s — back before Steve Jobs returned to Apple to save it from bankruptcy. It was a commercial flop and pulled from the market after about a year. Over the subsequent decades, Apple approached the gaming market differently, making it a big part of the App Store, iPhone and iPad. But the company still didn’t have much sway over living-room gaming. In 2015, it tried to change that. The company revamped the Apple TV set-top box, adding a new App Store with games and software. But the device had a limited amount of processing power and wasn’t as entrenched in consumers’ lives as the company’s other products. Though the Apple TV box supports third-party game controllers, the device’s remote can’t be used for racing games or other titles that require motion control or a touchpad. Ultimately, game developers shied away from investing in the platform, and Apple TV never became a true rival to Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation or Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox. Apple made another push when it first unveiled the Vision Pro headset in June of last year. The company touted the device’s integration with Apple Arcade — its game subscription service — and the way that the M2 chip could process advanced graphics. The Vision Pro also had support for third-party controllers. Again, though, game developers didn’t really bite. The Vision Pro lacks hand controllers for virtual reality games, undercutting what could have been one of its biggest strengths. And the experience with Apple Arcade games — ported over to the platform — is less than satisfying. That’s meant that the Vision Pro is more effective for watching videos or doing some light office work, rather than blasting aliens or zombies. Now, Apple has another shot. It just released a new Mac mini with M4 and M4 Pro chips — and the company finally has a device that could become a respectable gaming machine. The combination of the Mac’s small size and formidable processing power — plus the ability to easily connect it to a living room TV setup — makes it the ideal starting point for a fresh push into the field. First, let’s start with the chips. At the $599 starting price, the Mac mini sports 10 cores apiece in its central processing unit and graphics engine. That puts it in the same territory as a similarly priced PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. If you want to spend more, the $1,399 M4 Pro version beats out the highest-end Mac Pro and Mac Studio models from a couple of years ago. Apple also offers a minimum of 16 gigabytes of memory and ray tracing for graphics, adding to the Mac mini’s gaming prowess. (When Apple brings ray tracing to the Mac Pro next year — complete with a chip that probably goes up to 32 CPU cores and 80 graphics cores — we’ll have one of the most powerful mainstream computer systems the market has ever seen.) So, from a hardware standpoint, Apple is in good shape. On the software side, the company recently upgraded its Metal graphics software. Combine that with other macOS graphics technologies, a well-integrated App Store, new software for porting games and support for third-party controllers, and you have a near-ideal system. But Apple’s biggest challenge remains a relative lack of gaming titles. Though the company has made some headway in this department — it brought over Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding and recently promised Cyberpunk 2077 — the Mac gaming library still trails those of Sony and Microsoft by miles. The hope for both Apple and consumers is that the latest hardware is enough to get game developers to seriously consider bringing more of their best work to the Mac. | 
