Is it possible to play Astroneer on Mac?
Developed by System Era Softworks, Astroneer is a 2019 videogame set in a sci-fi sandbox world. Its gameplay is driven by astronauts exploring different planets and growing populations on them. Players will have to group up with others to gather resources, build colonized bases above or below the surface, construct vehicles, and use their own imagination to create whatever the mind desires. You can move between seven beautiful planets across our solar system and cover each bit of their surface while descending deep into the caves to unravel the secrets within. Having each planet gifted with its own unique landscape, the researchers will face a number of challenges to get over mysterious biomes and adapt the terrain to living conditions. Astroneer is indeed a very interesting place to spend time investigating each part of the plants together with friends. The game is based on Unreal Engine providing cartoon-like graphics with lots of unusual mechanics pushing your play far beyond traditional games. At the moment, it is available only for Windows, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch platforms. Although there is no Mac close to this list, we prepared a guide that will teach you how to launch unavailable games on Mac regardless.
Play Astroneer on Mac with Parallels
Astroneer game requires lots of PC resources, but if you have a powerful Mac computer (iMac, iMac Pro, or Mac Pro) Parallels Desktop can be a solution. This is software for Windows virtualization on Mac with the full support of DirectX and GPUs. It allows you to install Windows 10 on Mac with a couple of clicks and switch between MacOS and Windows instantly. You can run Windows just like on a regular PC, install Steam and enjoy the Astroneer game on Mac.
Note: Recommended devices to run resource-demanding games: MacBook Pro (models with Intel processor, discrete graphics cards, and 16 Gb of RAM or more), iMac (models with Intel processor, discrete graphics cards, and 16 Gb of RAM or more), iMac Pro (all versions are suitable), Mac Pro (all versions are suitable). Parallels on Mac computers with M1 (M1 Pro, M1 Max) chips may not support recent games. Games that require DirectX 12 and later currently not supported by Parallels.
Play Astroneer on Mac with cloud gaming services
Update: Boosteroid, Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now fully support Astroneer! Play the advanced game on a Mac, old Windows PC, and even Android!
If you have an old Mac or it cannot satisfy the Astroneer game system requirements, there is an easy solution. Cloud gaming provides you with sufficient cloud resources for a fixed fee. All you need is a browser or a small client program and a good internet connection starting from 15 Mbits/s. There are several great services, that provide such an opportunity, among the best are Boosteroid, AirGPU, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Nvidia GeForce Now. All of them have Astroneer in their game catalog, and you can play on any Mac computer (starting from MacOS 10.10) and even Android! Boosteroid, as well as Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now can stream games with high resolution (1080p), every service has its pros and cons.
Play Astroneer on Mac with BootCamp
Note: Mac computers with new Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3 Pro, or M1, M2, M3 Max) currently do not support BootCamp. In this case, please, use the options above to run Astroneer on Mac
This method is simple but time-consuming. If your Mac meets all the system requirements above, this is probably the best way to play Astroneer for now. You need to set up a dual boot of Windows and Mac via BootCamp. BootCamp allows users to choose the system to work in on startup, however, you won’t be able to switch between systems like in Parallels. You will need to reboot your machine every time you switch from Mac to Windows and vice versa. Remember that Mac is just a computer, that uses common processors, RAM, disks, and other components. So you can install Windows on Mac by allocating disc space of a minimum of 64 Gb (to be able to run Windows and a couple of games). To set up Windows via BootCamp, please, do the following:
For OS X El Capitan 10.11 or later
Mention, that for MacOS versions prior to OS X El Capitan 10.11 you will need to create bootable Windows USB.
- Download Windows ISO file
- Open Boot Camp Assistant (Go to Applications > Utilities)
- Define the Windows partition size, choose downloaded Windows ISO file
- Format Windows partition and go through all Windows installation steps
- When Windows boots for the first time, follow on-screen instructions to install Boot Camp and Windows support software (drivers)