It has been years of Crossover emulation and now finally we have a MacOS version. It runs smooth and perfect but…
How on earth it’s possible that we cannot play with our PC friends. How is possible in BIG 2026 that this release only supports playing online against Mac users, its a complete shame.
Apple likes to be very closed off and exclusive. I imagine getting around their proprietary workings will be a lot harder than getting around those of XBox or Playstation.
But yes, it will be a major detriment to the Mac playerbase.
How they even release the macos version of the game with no Cross-play support
It just make no sense, man!
I suppose it’s possible that crossplay support was intended but they found they were having too many issues (XBox patch anyone?) to roll it out when initially planned. This may also explain why the May patch is somewhat delayed: they could be trying to resolve those issues before they release it. This is entirely speculative on my part, but it does sound reasonable.
Mac versions in Steam use Steam as online infrastructure so it can be outside Apples claws.
I don’t know what they’ve done but the port is brilliant tech wise and a DISASTER for ranked and online gameplay.
this mac port runs incredibly well!
If only we had crospplay with all other platforms?!?! Seems like such a waste not to have this, why release a mac port at all?
if Fortnite can do it…
We need to put some pressure
Crossover version is broken since last update.
Now it’s IMPOSSIBLE to play with steam windows users.
Bravo. Amazing.
No Crossplay is really disappointing. I was pitching the game to an old Friend so we could play Coop Campaigns together and we where astonished to find, that we were unable to play together.
This needs to be adressed.
this is terrible. The game plays so well and yet it appears to be killed from the beginning because people want to play with their friends. Any chance of this being added?
I play a lot of co-op with a friend. I’m on Mac, he’s on PC. This is so irritating!
The developers on Porting Kit says it would take 1 - 2 month to fix.
On Reddit, I saw a lot of people saying that they only played solo.
I don’t play competitive either, but co-op is such a good way to “play solo” with a friend and catch up.
Have anyone seen a good reason for no cross play?
Soooooo, why can’t we Crossplay?
I don’t know if the devs of the port created it’s own online infrastructura or if Microsoft devs did it so closed to it’s servers that the new devs couldn’t use it in Mac.
But now you need to buy a windows PC if you wan to play this game online with friends or in the ranked ladder.
Probably due to the fact that it’s a portage done by another team, so first they had to make the game running correctly. Then they can work on cross-playing.
The game wasn’t designed at first to have cross-play, so it’s normal it’s not part of the main core of the game.
Just give the devs time, it’s very early release, they will definitly add cross-play for mac users, as they did for playstation (but it was done by them not by a third party group)
Until they add it, I suggest you try adding a linux dual-boot to your mac, and try by using Wine to play the game, it may be your temporary solution. (but it requieres the pc version on steam for it to be tryied)
I’ve always played in Crossover version to emulate windows version. That one is wrecked after the Mac release and doesn’t work anymore.
I’m disappointed about the fact that they didn’t say a thing about this until people bought the game and asked then on twitter. That’s not a correct approach. Even if they add it later, this strategy needs to be addressed to improve.
Lack of official information is not acceptable.
If you read the “features” here, under online multiplayer: https://www.feralinteractive.com/en/games/ageofempires2/mac/features/
It’s explicitly saying:
“Challenge other macOS players […]”
I understand your frustration but you can’t blame them for “not informing”. Maybe it wasn’t detailed enought yes, but technically it was written since day 1 of the announcement of mac os version.
However I suggest you to contact directly Feralinteractive to request corss-play, and to be patient, if they made crossplay with other platforms, why wouldn’t they do it for mac too ? Just remember that Mac and Microsoft are not the same things so it takes time for compatibility.
What you should also do is eventually contact the emulation team to request a support extend for their version until cross-play is available on the official version. They can understand that multiplayer mac users are blocked and they surely can do something temporary until better solution.
That claim is not a valid justification, sorry. It’s ambiguous, just like a non-restrictive feature. If majority of users didn’t know about it, it’s not valid communication because your job is to communicate it.
Technically, the emulator is not an official tool, so consider that before the official release, mac player were not able to play at all officially, and now they can, but are limited to mac only multiplayer.
The emulator is a third-aprty tool so it’s to them you have to adress the complain currently if you really want to.
I’ve posted on Feralinteractive X page about the mac player wanting cross-play, yet they answered me that mac cross-play is only possible with other mac user, I wait for their reply on my next question on if it’s a technical limitation or a “todo” feature.
And once more just be patient, cross-play may come sooner or later.
Fellow Mac user here! I’ve been playing this game for 16 years now. When I heard of the official Mac release I got excited really quickly, only to realize that it didn’t have cross-play. I’m still very grateful to the developers because the game runs like a dream and I mostly play single-player anyway. But cross-play is absolutely necessary. Even for people like me who mostly play against AI, it’s a completely different feeling knowing that you can hop on to a multi-player game anytime you want. Otherwise, it feels like a ghost town. The lobby screen looks depressing with one or two games going on.
I don’t know why isn’t it possible but I hope they will solve it somehow.
Just be patient, they will add it someday, it’s obvious they will. The best you can do is push the feedback to FeralInteractive directly. The more people drive their attentiuon towards that missing feature, the more they will give it priority. But be respectful.