Gamers don't buy MacBooks. Korea could change that.

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Gamers don't buy MacBooks. Korea could change that.

Published: 16 Jun. 2025, 07:00 Updated: 17 Jun. 2025, 14:05

CHO YONG-JUN
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi speaks at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on June 9. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Apple’s annual developer conference is one of the software community's biggest days of the year. As usual, the world's largest tech company made a laundry list of announcements that had worldwide nerds buzzing — a redesigned interface for the iPhone, new multitasking capabilities on the iPad and a more powerful search function on Mac computers.

But what caught the eye of Korean gamers during the glitzy hour and a half-long keynote was something else: the appearance of Korean games.

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Approximately an hour into the annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), after presenting the company's new Liquid Glass design and a virtual fitness coach for the Apple Watch, Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi turned his attention to gaming.

Federighi, saying that the upcoming macOS Tahoe "levels up the gaming experience," introduced a new Games app, a dedicated place for Mac owners to access installed games and tweak game-related settings.

As the Apple executive showed off recent and upcoming titles for macOS, he introduced Krafton’s life simulation game inZOI and Pearl Abyss’ Crimson Desert. In fact, they were the only two games whose gameplay was shown during the keynote.

As Crimson Desert, featuring realistic graphics, was played on the stage, Federighi introduced the game as one that "takes advantage of Apple Silicon to deliver incredible visuals and dynamic effects." inZOI was next in line: Federighi said that the simulator was coming to macOS for the first time during the keynote, explaining that it would utilize Apple's neural engine to run AI models.

Crimson Desert will roll out sometime in 2025, and the Mac version of inZOI will be playable on Aug. 20.

While they weren't mentioned by name, other Korean games, including HYBE IM’s Architect: Land of Exile and Neowiz’s already released Lies of P, also made brief appearances in the keynote.

Macs are loved by designers, video and photo editors and artists, and their hardware and software are well-optimized for such tasks. But gaming is an area where the company has long struggled. And though the integrated graphics of its recent processors are excellent, the lack of user-upgradability and the extremely high price Apple charges mean that pretty much every gamer buys Windows PCs. As a consequence, most games are developed for Windows, and very few are tailored to Mac computers.

But Apple's been trying to change that for years. It introduced Game Mode, which optimizes hardware and software for gameplay, to Macs in 2023 and also runs a subscription-based gaming service that runs mobile games on a larger screen. Neither has been able to impress hard-core gamers yet, however. Only 1.85 percent of Steam users currently run macOS, compared to 95.45 percent who run Windows and 2.69 percent who run Linux, according to Steam's monthly survey conducted in May.

It looks like Korean titles could be Apple's latest play for the picky gaming market. And maybe they could be the first play that actually works — but that's if the games released are actually any good.

A still from Pearl Abyss' Crimson Desert shown at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on June 9 [SCREEN CAPTURE]

It's clear why Korean games haven't shown up in a WWDC keynote until this year. The 2022 iteration introduced blockbuster titles, including Resident Evil: Village and No Man's Sky, and the following year saw renowned developer Hideo Kojima himself appearing to show off Death Stranding on Mac and iPad — in other words, many single-player games. Korean developers, at that time, were really only known for online play, with Krafton being almost singularly associated with its 2017 release PUBG: Battlegrounds.

That has changed significantly in the past two years, with the release of hit titles such as Dave the Diver, Lies of P and The First Berserker: Khazan putting Korean developers on the single-player map.

“The two Korean games were introduced during Apple’s keynote because they both are performance-intensive and can be a showcase for Apple’s hardware,” a source in the gaming industry told the Korea JoongAng Daily.

Lies of P, in particular, was nominated for multiple accolades in 2023, including the Game Awards and the Golden Joystick Awards, after receiving positive reviews. inZOI, meanwhile, introduced Smart Zoi, AI-driven non-player characters powered by Nvidia’s Ace software suite. The model is run locally and therefore takes up a significant amount of power and memory.

"We wanted inZOI to be enjoyed by as many users as possible, and that direction took us to work on the Mac version of the game," Krafton told the Korea JoongAng Daily. Mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower found in 2024 that iOS Users spend much more money on apps than Android users do, indicating a potentially profitable market. "Technical collaboration with Apple allowed us to develop the Mac port without big difficulties," Krafton added.

A still from Krafton's inZOI shown at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on June 9 [SCREEN CAPTURE]

But Krafton and Pearl Abyss are now the last piece of the puzzle: They have to produce a good game.

The outlook for both is currently uncertain. Both inZOI and Crimson Desert have received praise for their gorgeous trailers, but the former's early access release received mixed reviews for its lack of playable content, and the latter's demo sessions have left some players disappointed with its dull combat.

A list of games shown at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote session on June 9, including games from Korean publishers inZOI, Lies of P, Crimson Desert and Architect: Land of Exile [SCREEN CAPTURE]

After being made the centerpiece of Apple's major keynote, inZOI or Crimson Desert flopping could be disastrous for the tech giant's gaming hopes: It could cement the common conception that Macs don't support titles that gamers actually want to play.

But if the two Korean titles turn out to be hits by the time they reach macOS, that could hugely benefit Apple's reputation in the gaming community. Current Mac owners may feel less pressure to buy a separate Windows gaming laptop if their Mac can already run two of the year's biggest games just fine. And perhaps more importantly, the additional Triple-A options could help convince game-savvy consumers choosing their next machine to go for a Mac over a Windows PC.

Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi speaks during Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference keynote on June 9 [SCREEN CAPTURE]

BY CHO YONG-JUN [[email protected]]