William Chilcote
Apple has made all iOS apps available by default on all new Macs. Rec Room has gone out of their way to disable this feature, so players aren't able to play the game on their computer. Here is why there is no reason to block the app on macOS:
  • Because the app is able to run on a majority of iOS devices, it will run fine on all Apple Silicon Macs.
  • Platform specific features such as Apple's In-App Purchase framework and I/O systems will work automatically on macOS
  • Because the app has gamepad support, it carries over automatically onto the Mac and the game is completely playable. Having sideloaded the app myself, it works fine. While keyboard/mouse support is not yet implemented in the app, it should not be hard to enable it on iOS.
Rec Room likely disabled the ability to run the app on macOS out of caution that the game would not perform well and give users a poor experience. In reality, this is absolutely not the case. They are only missing out on the opportunity to have the game promoted on the Mac App Store, where they could find new players, and help support existing ones. While a native Mac version of the game on Steam would be ideal, this is a simple start that requires a literal button press at minimum, and minor compatibility fixes at most.
February 20, 2021