GameHub Will Give Mac Owners Another Imperfect Way To Play Windows Games (arstechnica.com)
(Wednesday February 18, 2026 @05:40PM (BeauHD)
from the coming-soon dept.)
- Reference: 0180824198
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/02/18/2059252/gamehub-will-give-mac-owners-another-imperfect-way-to-play-windows-games
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/02/gamehub-will-give-mac-owners-another-imperfect-way-to-play-windows-games/
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:
> For a while now, Mac owners have been able to use tools like CrossOver and Game Porting Toolkit to get many Windows games running on their operating system of choice. Now, GameSir plans to add its own potential solution to the mix, announcing that a version of its existing Windows emulation tool for Android will be coming to macOS. Hong Kong-based GameSir has primarily made a name for itself as a manufacturer of gaming peripherals -- the company's [1]social media profile includes a self-description as "the Anti-Stick Drift Experts." Early last year, though, GameSir rolled out the [2]Android GameHub app , which includes a GameFusion emulator that the company claims " [3]provides complete support for Windows games to run on Android through high-precision compatibility design ."
>
> In practice, GameHub and GameFusion for Android haven't quite lived up to that promise. Testers [4]on Reddit and [5]sites like EmuReady report hit-or-miss compatibility for popular Steam titles on various Android-based handhelds. At least one Reddit user suggests that "any Unity, Godot, or Game Maker game tends to just work" through the app, while another reports "terrible compatibility" across a wide range of games. With [6]Sunday's announcement , GameSir promises a similar opportunity to "unlock your entire Steam library" and "run Win games/Steam natively" on Mac will be "coming soon." GameSir is also [7]promising "proprietary AI frame interpolation" for the Mac, following the recent rollout of a " [8]native rendering mode " that improved frame rates on the Android version.
There are some "reasons to worry" though, based on the company's uneven track record. The Android version faced controversy for including invasive tracking components, which were later removed after criticism. There were also questions about the use of open-source code, as GameSir acknowledged referencing and using UI components from [9]Winlator , even while maintaining that its core compatibility layer was developed in-house.
[1] https://x.com/mygamesir/
[2] https://gamehub.xiaoji.com/
[3] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/02/gamehub-will-give-mac-owners-another-imperfect-way-to-play-windows-games/
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/retroid/comments/1poztuy/gamehub_lite_compatibility_chart_for_rp5_50_games/
[5] https://www.emuready.com/listings?deviceIds=%5B%22767ae07b-86c4-441d-8a72-fe8a5e625502%22%2C%226313f4b5-5a26-40c3-b223-2d2ddaa8386b%22%5D&page=1&emulatorIds=%5B%2209203574-33b7-4f56-85b1-851b51e0ab2a%22%2C%22062c86d7-d1a8-4e73-bb15-0f76f0e64610%22%5D
[6] https://x.com/mygamesir/status/2022959064632938560
[7] https://x.com/mygamesir/status/2022975646222496071
[8] https://www.androidauthority.com/gamehub-5-0-update-3596387/
[9] https://winlator.org/
> For a while now, Mac owners have been able to use tools like CrossOver and Game Porting Toolkit to get many Windows games running on their operating system of choice. Now, GameSir plans to add its own potential solution to the mix, announcing that a version of its existing Windows emulation tool for Android will be coming to macOS. Hong Kong-based GameSir has primarily made a name for itself as a manufacturer of gaming peripherals -- the company's [1]social media profile includes a self-description as "the Anti-Stick Drift Experts." Early last year, though, GameSir rolled out the [2]Android GameHub app , which includes a GameFusion emulator that the company claims " [3]provides complete support for Windows games to run on Android through high-precision compatibility design ."
>
> In practice, GameHub and GameFusion for Android haven't quite lived up to that promise. Testers [4]on Reddit and [5]sites like EmuReady report hit-or-miss compatibility for popular Steam titles on various Android-based handhelds. At least one Reddit user suggests that "any Unity, Godot, or Game Maker game tends to just work" through the app, while another reports "terrible compatibility" across a wide range of games. With [6]Sunday's announcement , GameSir promises a similar opportunity to "unlock your entire Steam library" and "run Win games/Steam natively" on Mac will be "coming soon." GameSir is also [7]promising "proprietary AI frame interpolation" for the Mac, following the recent rollout of a " [8]native rendering mode " that improved frame rates on the Android version.
There are some "reasons to worry" though, based on the company's uneven track record. The Android version faced controversy for including invasive tracking components, which were later removed after criticism. There were also questions about the use of open-source code, as GameSir acknowledged referencing and using UI components from [9]Winlator , even while maintaining that its core compatibility layer was developed in-house.
[1] https://x.com/mygamesir/
[2] https://gamehub.xiaoji.com/
[3] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/02/gamehub-will-give-mac-owners-another-imperfect-way-to-play-windows-games/
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/retroid/comments/1poztuy/gamehub_lite_compatibility_chart_for_rp5_50_games/
[5] https://www.emuready.com/listings?deviceIds=%5B%22767ae07b-86c4-441d-8a72-fe8a5e625502%22%2C%226313f4b5-5a26-40c3-b223-2d2ddaa8386b%22%5D&page=1&emulatorIds=%5B%2209203574-33b7-4f56-85b1-851b51e0ab2a%22%2C%22062c86d7-d1a8-4e73-bb15-0f76f0e64610%22%5D
[6] https://x.com/mygamesir/status/2022959064632938560
[7] https://x.com/mygamesir/status/2022975646222496071
[8] https://www.androidauthority.com/gamehub-5-0-update-3596387/
[9] https://winlator.org/
Hong Kong, sure (Score:1)
by br1984 ( 9617674 )
More China slop with big promises that will steal your data and biometrics. Cognitive warfare let's go. Tik Tik Tok Tok.
But Why? (Score:2)
Can we please just admit that MacOS is a phone OS and not designed for games? Stop trying to claim Mac is a games platform, it wasn't in original, it wasn't on PPC, it wasn't even on Intel unless you Bootcamped.
Re: (Score:3)
> Can we please just admit that MacOS is a phone OS and not designed for games?
No, because that sentence, while correct, is ridiculous.
Neither is Windows. Neither is linux.
> Stop trying to claim Mac is a games platform, it wasn't in original, it wasn't on PPC, it wasn't even on Intel unless you Bootcamped.
There aren't a lot of games written for Mac. Games that are written for Mac work just fine.
So- for people using a Mac, because games aren't their primary computer use case, the ability to emulate a game well is beneficial.
As a side note, 345 of my 1423 Steam games have Mac versions. That number increases every day.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually- I didn't even see the "phone OS" dumbfuckery.
No- that statement is just stupid.
Re: (Score:2)
Its no more a "Phone OS" than Linux is. Its as different to IOS as Android is to Linux. Sure it has some common posix kernel components, but its fundamentally different at the user land level.