Is Apple about to enter the gaming PC arena to take on the likes of Alienware and Razer? A new supply chain rumor seems to indicate so.
According to Economic Daily (via TechRadar), the Cupertino tech giant may be working on an "e-sports PC" that would cost as much as $5,000. The report claims that the PC could either be an all-in-one desktop in the vein of the iMac, or a large gaming laptop along the lines of a Razer Blade 17 Pro.
Apple's rumored gaming Mac could get unveiled as early as this June during Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), and may see a launch next year.
A dedicated gaming PC would be new territory for Apple, but the move wouldn't be an entirely surprising one. The iPhone maker made its biggest gaming push yet in 2019 with the launch of Apple Arcade, a $5 monthly subscription service that delivers more than 100 games that you can play on iOS, Mac and Apple TV. And with titles from the likes of Sega, Ubisoft, Warner Bros. and Capcom on the service, Apple already has relationships with major AAA publishers in place.
Apple is also no stranger to high-end desktop hardware, having just launched the new cheese grater Mac Pro that starts at $5,999 and can be configured to up to a bonkers $52,199 if you choose to go all out with a 28-core CPU, 1.5TB of RAM, dual Radeon Duo GPUs and a 4TB SSD.
Apple is one of the few major players in the laptop space without a dedicated gaming line, with rivals like Dell, HP, Acer and Asus all offering a variety of gaming laptops at multiple prices. As such, a gaming-focused MacBook could help Apple reach a whole new market and break the stigma that Macs simply aren't great for games.
Many popular titles such as Rocket League, Fortnite and World of Warcraft support Mac, but hot games like Apex Legends, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are notably absent. However, a dedicated gaming Mac could encourage more major developers to get on board with macOS.
As with any Apple rumor, you should take this gaming PC speculation with a grain of salt. If Apple does indeed have a gaming Mac up its sleeve for WWDC, we should be seeing it in just a few months.
