.:\dGh/:.

The Meta-owned messaging app is extremely popular in Europe owing to its cross-platform compatibility.

There you have it. If iMessages was cross platform, people would use it, but it doesn’t, so people will pivot for the second best thing.

Also, Northamerica SMS roots are deep, deeper than Europe, Asia and Latinamerica. Disgusting or not, the people already made its choice: $1 a year was too much.

Let’s see:

• There is already Steam for Mac, which a great catalog and sales.
• The only appeal of an App Store game is cross-platform… in Apple devices.
• Consoles (with controls) are cheaper than any Apple product compatible with AAA games. (This includes the Steam Deck).
• There are no platform-selling exclusives.
• There is no exclusive hardware features.
• Major most-played games are not available OOTB: PUBG, Roblox, Rocket League, Genshin Impact, Apex Legends, Call of Duty, CSGO2.

Yeah, I get the sentiment: why. But Apple has to start with something, and if they want people to buy games they will need a bigger catalog, and for that they need to keep their porting tools easier to implement.