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So for games I already own this is easy, Steam filters out the 32-bit ones when I go to my library. But if I'm looking at a game that I might want to buy in the Steam store, and it has a little Apple icon for compatibility, is there any way short of buying it to see if it will actually run on my new Mac?

The system requirements don't really say one way or another on any of the games I'm looking at…

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  • Some games marked as "32-bit, won't play on this version of MacOS", will actually play. I've got several that were very cheap, and I thought for a few bucks I'd give them a try. Worse, these don't show up in your library on the Mac if it's filtered for "Apple", unless you search for them by name. Oct 23, 2022 at 16:57
  • Hey @QuantumMechanic, what game would that be? And what does the PCGamingWiki article says? Some games are indeed supported but Steam never says if is supported or not, and PCGW is mostly up to date about the macOS compatibility list.
    – Lemon
    Oct 24, 2022 at 1:12
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    @Lemon, "The Signal From Tölva". Steam client claims it's 32bit, and may not play. But it does. I have other titles like that recently, but can't remember one off hand. PCGamingWiki has a checkmark for 64bit, and an X for 32bit, but otherwise no info. Oct 25, 2022 at 20:14
  • Maybe the developers pushed an update and forgot to update the game's macOS launch information.
    – Lemon
    Oct 26, 2022 at 5:46

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Steam does not says if the games are x64 or x86, but developers might report it somewhere in the "About this Game" or "System Requirements" sections.

One example is Fran Bow, where it says that is not compatible with Catalina in the Additional Notes section of the System Requirements.

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There are other games like Shadow Warrior that are not compatible with 10.15 but is not specified on the System Requirements:

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One solution in this case is to check the PCGamingWiki article for the game and see if it says that is not compatible in the Warnings section.

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    This is very helpful, but I'm surprised steam doesn't build it into the store interface: even if a small part of their customer base consists of Mac users one would think that could potentially dominate returns processing and customer service costs. Jun 27, 2020 at 23:35

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