Steam is Removing Support

[Plutonius]

Starting January 2024, Steam will stop support on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1
Starting February 2024, Steam will stop support on MacOS 10.13 and 10.14
In October 2025, Windows 10 will be end of life so Steam will support it at least until then.

When Steam stops support, the Steam app will stop going online once Steam updates the app to the point that the unsupported app will not run (i.e. there is no way to know when it will stop going online).

Steam should still be able to be run offline but will lose access to DLC that requires Steam to be online.

Note - Before Steam becomes unsupported and people eventually lose the ability to download the games they have bought (on the unsupported computer), people should probably install all the games they purchased.

-------------------

I recognize the fact that older software becomes unsupported. My only complaint is that Steam should allow you to run your DLC without requiring you to be online.

 

[kaioshade]

I'm honestly surprised Steam supported macOS 10 for so long. A lot of apps cut those versions off. Makes sense, especially as more machines start becoming Apple Silicon as well.

Windows 10 support being cut off in 2025 surprises me as well. I can see 10 being pretty evergreen, especially how long people like to use a single version of a Windows OS. Then again a decade of support is not unreasonable. I'm surprised 7 got 15 years before finally being cut off.

 

[chrfr]

I'm honestly surprised Steam supported macOS 10 for so long. A lot of apps cut those versions off. Makes sense, especially as more machines start becoming Apple Silicon as well.

Windows 10 support being cut off in 2025 surprises me as well. I can see 10 being pretty evergreen, especially how long people like to use a single version of a Windows OS. Then again a decade of support is not unreasonable. I'm surprised 7 got 15 years before finally being cut off.

October 2025 is also when Microsoft ends support for Windows 10, so it seems to make sense to keep with that timeline, IMO.

 

[kaioshade]

October 2025 is also when Microsoft ends support for Windows 10, so it seems to make sense to keep with that timeline, IMO.

You're right. I completely forgot 10/2025 was the official cutoff as well.

 

[fuchsdh]

I'm honestly surprised Steam supported macOS 10 for so long. A lot of apps cut those versions off. Makes sense, especially as more machines start becoming Apple Silicon as well.

Windows 10 support being cut off in 2025 surprises me as well. I can see 10 being pretty evergreen, especially how long people like to use a single version of a Windows OS. Then again a decade of support is not unreasonable. I'm surprised 7 got 15 years before finally being cut off.

As mentioned, Microsoft is cutting off support then too. It certainly feels a little faster than MS usually does, but looking at the timelines it's pretty comparable (Windows 7 got roughly 10 years and change with the basic support.) I guess it's more impressive Steam kept serving 10.14 for legacy 32bit games on Mac considering Apple has a much faster obsolescence timeline.

This definitely does make me consider my plans going forward. Might want to create a 10.14 partition on my Mac and dump all the games to it.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Starting January 2024, Steam will stop support on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1
Starting February 2024, Steam will stop support on MacOS 10.13 and 10.14
Starting October 2025, Steam plans to stop support on Windows 10

When Steam stops support, the Steam app will stop going online once Steam updates the app to the point that the unsupported app will not run (i.e. there is no way to know when it will stop going online).

Steam should still be able to be run offline but will lose access to DLC that requires Steam to be online.

Note - Before Steam becomes unsupported and people eventually lose the ability to download the games they have bought (on the unsupported computer), people should probably install all the games they purchased.

-------------------

I recognize the fact that older software becomes unsupported. My only complaint is that Steam should allow you to run your DLC without requiring you to be online.

I knew about Windows 7-8.1 and macOS 10.13-10.14, but Windows 10?!

Do you have a source on the Windows 10 bit because they only said in the news post that 7, 8, and 8.1 were losing support. Windows 10 is still extremely popular on Steam with 60% of all Windows users on Steam being Windows 10 and only 30% being Windows 11.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I'm honestly surprised Steam supported macOS 10 for so long. A lot of apps cut those versions off. Makes sense, especially as more machines start becoming Apple Silicon as well.

The reason they supported macOS 10 for so long was because of old legacy Mac games that are 32 bit. They'd keep supporting macOS 10, but the cutoff is happening because Chromium is losing support for these old versions of macOS, which is what Valve uses to power the Steam Client. Windows 7-8.1 are losing support for that exact reason too.

 

[Plutonius]

I knew about Windows 7-8.1 and macOS 10.13-10.14, but Windows 10?!

Do you have a source on the Windows 10 bit because they only said in the news post that 7, 8, and 8.1 were losing support. Windows 10 is still extremely popular on Steam with 60% of all Windows users on Steam being Windows 10 and only 30% being Windows 11.

Looking again through the Steam forums, I can't find anything official now on Steam ending Windows 10 support so I edited my initial post.

 

[Zest28]

I’m surprised Steam is going to drop Windows 10 support. Windows 11 doesn’t even offer a better gaming experience over Windows 10?

But since Microsoft is dropping Windows 10 support in 2025 officially, we could have seen this coming.

Steam will force alot of people to buy a new PC basically.

I do wonder if this will be the rise of Linux. Gaming on Linux is gaining popularity these days and with Microsoft (and now Steam) actively trying to kill their most popular OS by far, Linux is starting to look more attractive for alot of people probably.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I’m surprised Steam is going to drop Windows 10 support. Windows 11 doesn’t even offer a better gaming experience over Windows 10?

But since Microsoft is dropping Windows 10 support in 2025 officially, we could have seen this coming.

Steam will force alot of people to buy a new PC basically.

I do wonder if this will be the rise of Linux. Gaming on Linux is gaining popularity these days and with Microsoft (and now Steam) actively trying to kill their most popular OS by far, Linux is starting to look more attractive for alot of people probably.

They're not dropping Windows 10. The OP got that info wrong and edited it out

Oh wait...it's still there? @Plutonius you forgot again!

 

[canadianreader]

If you bought a game you should be able to play that game for as long as you wish. It’s called ownership. I can understand that the game updates maybe become incompatible with older/unsupported systems but as long as you don’t want or need to update you should be able to play without restriction.

 

[Plutonius]

They're not dropping Windows 10. The OP got that info wrong and edited it out

Oh wait...it's still there? @Plutonius you forgot again!

eek, It didn't save my edits. I will try again .

 

[NEPOBABY]

If you bought a game you should be able to play that game for as long as you wish. It’s called ownership.

True, but that's why people keep old computers and old consoles and emulators around to play old titles. We can't expect new systems to be forever compatible with old software. It would be great if they could but the maintenance and bug fixing costs would be persistent.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

eek, It didn't save my edits. I will try again .

Still mentions Windows 10. What is going on with this site?

 

[MRMSFC]

If you bought a game you should be able to play that game for as long as you wish. It’s called ownership. I can understand that the game updates maybe become incompatible with older/unsupported systems but as long as you don’t want or need to update you should be able to play without restriction.

The concept of ownership is incompatible with modern software distribution.

Welcome to the future.

 

[Plutonius]

Still mentions Windows 10. What is going on with this site?

I had changed it to say in October, 2025 Windows 10 will be end of life and that it will be supported by Steam at least until then.

 

[toobravetosave]

If you bought a game you should be able to play that game for as long as you wish. It’s called ownership. I can understand that the game updates maybe become incompatible with older/unsupported systems but as long as you don’t want or need to update you should be able to play without restriction.

you do own it and can play it for as long as you wish if u have a compatible system. this is almost entirely a Mac problem because modern windows still lets you run legacy apps.

blame apple for creating new technologies that prevent you from running older programs (or yourself for relying on apple to keep such legacy support when old thinkpads on eBay exist)

 

[Homy]

For people who still want to use Mojave:

Steam Community :: Guide :: Steam Client Downgrades & Survival Kit

Whether the latest update broke something, or your OS is no longer supported, there are only a few things you need to do to be fully prepared for the worst!...

steamcommunity.com

 

[cbum]

Anyone tried to use VMWare Fusion or Parallels to run old MacOS versions on M-class Macs?

 

[salamanderjuice]

Anyone tried to use VMWare Fusion or Parallels to run old MacOS versions on M-class Macs?

You can do that but you can't run Mojave in Fusion or Parallels if that's what you're thinking. There's no ARM version of Mojave and VMs don't emulate CPUs. Your better off running Windows in a VM and using Windows' x86 to ARM translation layer to run old 32 bit games.

 

[chrfr]

Anyone tried to use VMWare Fusion or Parallels to run old MacOS versions on M-class Macs?

VMware Fusion does not support running macOS at all on Apple Silicon Macs. You cannot virtualize any of the old Intel-only OSes in Parallels on Apple Silicon, either.

 

[Nermal]

Windows 10 support being cut off in 2025 surprises me as well. I can see 10 being pretty evergreen, especially how long people like to use a single version of a Windows OS.

Yep, in fact Microsoft is now talking about extending support until 2028. More details are coming "soon", apparently.

 

[Queen6]

Mac Source Ports may be of help to a few, however is pretty much limited to games that are free or the developer's have open sourced the game engine.

Doom 3 - New game engine & updated graphics


Doom 3 The Lost Mission, patched over from Doom 3 BFG


Doom 3 - Hell Knight (originally Hell Baron) from the Macworld 2001 preview


Homeworld - Classic

All the games/engines on Mac Source Ports should run natively on Apple Silicon & Intel 64 Bit.

Q-6

 

[Nermal]

It's theoretically possible to "decompile" commercial games back into source (this was done with Super Mario 64) and then update/recompile to run on more modern platforms. I imagine that it's a huge amount of work at present, but I wonder whether the tools will get better over the next few years. There are likely to be legal question marks around such a thing though.

 

[nasmdhgf]

It doesn't matter, I don't plan to use OpenGL to develop games on the Mac platform on MacOS 10.13 and 10.14, let alone metal. Even though the UE4 I am using has a metal interface,
But I am still very unhappy. Steam's approach is just to reduce the number of games for Mac, usually only developers using Unity or UE engines have the ability to provide games for Mac. The exception is for those who can write their own metal renderer. I think it should be refrigerated in the refrigerator.