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Steam dropping support for macOS Mojave and by extension 32-bit games
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this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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Those of us that already have Steam games installed on Mojave will no longer be able to update? Or will Gaben reach into my computer and forbid me access to content I paid for?
Edit: All this anger for asking a relevant question. I learned my lesson.
I read that.
The article, and Steam's quotes, don't say either or with any certainty, so I'll have to wait and find out.
From what I can gather, it sounds like things will keep working until something changes on the back-end that leaves the old Steam client unable to connect anymore. I don't think they can't say when that will be exactly though because it depends on future updates.
Figures.
Most software I use that dropped support for Mojave already at least let me use older builds in peace.
I appreciate your trying to help clear it up.
The problem is when those "older builds" rely on a connection to a back-end. If this was just a standalone piece of software that is one thing, but you can't just let out-of-date clients that connect over the internet to run indefinitely.
The games I bought are stand-alone pieces of software. The gatekeeper needed to run those games is another story.
You could likely set it up to work "offline" so you can still play your steam games. If you were to set the steam client to offline (Assumedly through the Mac top bar 'Steam > Offline Mode') it should never need an update or contact with servers to keep working. That said, I don't know if there is a limit on how long you can have a computer connected to a specific account while never connecting to Valve's servers.
I searched around last night and found out about "offline" mode. And that's probably what I will do come February. Thank you.
Good luck!
No longer getting updates nor texh support from valve
Hope so.
The article is very unclear. It keeps waffling between "it'll keep working." and "it might stop working."
I'm just wondering if it stops working because of an unforeseen problem or because Steam says "I cannot update, so I won't run."
It's not Steam's fault, but I have to hang on to this old battleship for a few more years before I can replace it with hardware current enough to run current software.
That’s not waffling… both of those things can be true. It currently works and will continue to but it may stop working in the future depending on what updates happen.
Yeah, this article is fucking shit. The support page at Steam literally clears the air on this.
I fucking hate people who write articles to stoke fear for clicks.
What about people who are confidently wrong in their ignorance and post old articles that don't prove what they think it does?
Thank you for that. That support page is way more useful.
The article only links to the Steam blog. And the Steam blog doesn't link to the support page either.
The blog doesn't link to that support page because that support page isn't related to this. It's out of date and was written when MacOS originally dropped support for 32-bit apps starting with Catalina. Valve was letting people know that even though they wouldn't be able to play their 32-bit games if they update to Catalina, they would still be in their library and available to install on Mojave and earlier. Valve was still supporting the 32-bit Steam client back then.
That's an old support page from back when Apple originally dropped support for 32-bit apps, it wasn't written with the discontinuation of the ~~32-bit~~ Mojave Steam Client in mind because at that point they were still supporting it. They won't be removing 32-bit games from your libraries, but the ~~32-bit~~ Mojave Steam client will eventually stop working, and without any warning, when a future update inevitably breaks compatibility. They may still be in your library, but you wont have any way to install those 32-bit games anymore.
This article isn't stoking fear imo, it's very straightforward about what's happening here. At some indeterminate point in the future, there will be no more installing 32-bit MacOS games from Steam and anything you already have installed will presumably need to be run in offline mode because the client will stop working.
Sounds like the client will keep working until something breaks compatibility, which could happen whenever. Backend updates, chrome functionality, lots of things could happen. Or nothing. They're not supporting it, they can't guarantee anything.
32 bit game support is a bit more unclear; I'd probably recommend downloading games you like to play a lot, I'm not sure they'll be distributing 32 bit macos versions long-term.