Wow, Blizzard 
Iām not buying a new imac because HOTS wonāt start nowā¦ Please consider support for older Macās, this is ridiculousā¦ 
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Devastating news. HOTS has been my favourite game for over 2 years now, to learn out of the blue that I probably wonāt ever be able to play it again is very sad indeed. Man this sucks.
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Modern OS just want to steal our money ;i have 27ā imac Mid2011 with max config have zero need for new computer but! I need an upgrade to play 2005 based game wow and sc2 based game hots. Thats mean dude ! Not userfriendly either!
MacOS has been 64bit for over a decade, HotS moving to a 64bit build is not an issue. The reason people cannot play is because the metal API feature level being used is not supported by their hardware. Why Blizzard is targeting such a high feature level given the age of the SC2 engine I am not sure, but it might have to do with optimization opportunities for newer Macs.
Hey, Noctgar,
Same here. I just finished upgrading my computer to Sierra because thatās what Blizzard said it would now support when playing HoTS, but itās not working due to the game now ārequiring a Metal-capable graphics device.ā
How did they miss this?
My iMac has these specs:
MacOS Sierra 10.12.6
21.5", Mid 2010
3.06 GHz Intel Core i3
4GB 1333 MHz DDR3
ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB
I play HoTS every night 2-4 games. Itās my go-to game to de-stress and has helped me while grieving. The fact that Blizzard said it would work w/older Macs as long as they had Sierra and it DOESNāT, isnāt right.
My son nor I can afford a new computer, especially because both of ours still work just fine! Like most people here, we are extremely disappointed in Blizzard.
To Zuvykree: āAs a result, the minimum required version of macOS to run Heroes of the Storm is being increased to macOS 10.12 Sierra.ā
We are telling you , no, we canāt run HoTS w/Sierra on older Macs.
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Please see my post regarding my computerās specs. Maybe that will help Blizzardās team to fix this issue for those of us on older Macs who cannot afford to buy newer ones (especially since our older computers STILL work just fine).
By the sounds of it, though, Iām not holding out much hope of being accommodated.
Which everyone should now know given the sticky explains this exactlyā¦ Why they did not mention the new minimum requirements table in the patch notes I am not sure.
NVIDIAĀ® GeForceĀ® GT 640 or AMD Radeonā¢ R9 M290X or better - Metal capable GPU
That is a desktop GPU from 2012 or a Laptop GPU from 2014. The fact there is such a large difference in required age points towards it being a feature level problem rather than metal itself. Especially seeing how people are reporting they can play Diablo III via Metal just fine on these systems which cannot play HotS now.
These older GPUs still support playing HotS via Windows. Which is the really nonsensical thingā¦
Not all of us have another computer to switch to. Use your other computer is such a callous response to a thread containing many other affected users, including his wife he likes to play with. Itās one thing to release a new game with new system requirements, itās another to switch the core of a game after it being out for years and then tell dozens or hundreds of users that they have to buy a new computer in order to play the game. Shame on all yāall for not considering your loyal user base.
Iām having the same issue 2011 iMac 10.13.6
Radeon 6970 2048 MB
Iāve been playing blizzard games since WC1 and Heroes has been my favorite game for over 2 years now, so to have my computer suddenly become unsupported for a game already out for years seems ludicrous to me. Please fix this Blizzard!
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So, is there any chance they add an option to play on lower specs for us or it is officially dead forever?
So for reference, you need at least a late 2016 Macbook Pro with 4GB of graphics memory. Thatās about $1,500 just to relaunch the game. Iām currently running the 2011 Macbook Pro with a 1GB dedicated graphics card, so my only other option I have is buying a 1TB SSD and partitioning half of it for bootcamp.
I really thought Blizzard couldnāt go any lower with the elimination of HGC without any notice after having people buy newly designed year boost packs. And now theyāre saying all these Mac users need to shell out another $1,500 just to relaunch the game. Unreal. I know half the problem is Apple here too. But this is just ridiculous. Isnāt there some sort of half measure they could work out with Apple here? I feel like there is never any communication between Apple and gaming companies in general. The end result is just going to be a loss of nearly all Mac users by making the minimum requirements that extreme. Or maybe thatās Blizzardās plan? Because we all know Overwatch is never headed to Macs. I think this is the first step towards Blizzardās complete break with the Mac community in general to make way for Diablo 4 and whatever else is in the pipeline.
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I think you just need a total system memory of at least 8GB. One likely can get away with only 1-2 GB of graphic memory for Ultra.
With older MacBooks one could upgrade the memory. However Apple had the ācleverā idea of soldering the memory to the motherboard instead of using normal SODIMMs meaning the only way to get decent memory amounts was to pay for it up front.
Their system requirements list AMD Radeon R9 M395X or better. Thatās a 4GB card, so I donāt think itās a total system memory issue. It has more to do with compatibility with Metal and less to do with running hots.
Believe me, I despise the soldered on memory. Thatās why Iām still running a 2011 Macbook Pro. Itās one of the last Macbook Pro models that has user-upgradable ram, hard drive and battery. But my next machine is likely a Hackintosh. I refuse to buy any of the soldered together models. I just donāt understand why they canāt make a paired-down version of the new Mac Pro thatās more reasonably priced.
I think it is more to do with the Metal feature level of that card than its dedicated graphic memory. Metal itself should not need 4GB of dedicated graphic memory, it is just an API and has to support phones. Even to this day very few games require 4 GB of dedicated graphic memory to just run, and the only example I know of is X4 which will still work with 2 GB but be prone to buggy/broken graphics.
I know a person who still uses the old 2011 MacBook Pro as a daily driver. He even later brought 2 extra ones in case of failure. Of course the discrete GPUs of them are all dead now (soldering issueā¦) but on integrated graphics they still perform as perfectly as one can expect for their age. Apple made good machines back then around the time of Steve Jobs.
Now it is too much fashion nonsense with their impractically thin or small laptops or crazy custom built desktops where the metal screen stand costs as much as a reasonable computer.
I have a MacBook Pro late 2013 model, I can still go into the game but the scree often flashes and heroes would just be jumpy/invisible. I donāt know much about the technical stuff on hardware requirements, itās just frustrating.
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So dissaooonted, my MacBook Pro 2011-
16gb ram
i7 processor will not longer run hots.
Think itās time to quit again because this is wrong. The never pcs would never struggle running the old version of the game so why change it.
Blizzard you suck!! Where are my refunds since I cannot utilise my purchases
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Ya same. I have the 2011 with a 1GB dedicated AMD card, i7 processor, a 500GB SSD, and 16GB of ram. I mean I still canāt upgrade to Mojave, but I should still be able to run hots. Itās especially crappy, because I had the year boost from last year and Iām going to miss the last few months I had left without any notice. The only way I can play the game is installing a larger SSD, partitioning it, installing Windows and running it through boot camp. It blows my mind Windows can still run the game on my Mac, but macOS canāt. Lovely. Iāve basically headed back to LoL and TFT exclusively and hope that Blizzard will maybe come around, but I doubt it.