As you probably know, there are no more supported intel macs and on modern macs WT client works through emulation layer called rosetta. Macos 27 comes out this fall and it will be the last version with rosetta support.
I personally buy premium time and vehicles regularly and I don’t want to buy separate pc just to play WT.
Idk how big is mac player base but with arm release it could expand massively since even lower tier macbooks can run wt even throug emulation just fine. PLEASE gaijin, PLEASE, it’s been 6 years since m1 release, I really hope you at least aware about it
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Adding to this because I hit a related problem on macOS 27 this week and it took a while to work out. It is not a Rosetta problem. Rosetta is installed and works fine on my M3 MacBook Pro. The Steam version of War Thunder simply cannot launch on macOS 27 any more, and the cause is Gaijin’s packaging, not the Mac.
What happens
- Launching from Steam shows: “WarThunderLauncher.app is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Bin. This file was downloaded on an unknown date.”
- There is no “Open Anyway” for it in Privacy & Security, right-click > Open does nothing, and Steam’s Verify integrity finds nothing to repair.
- xattr -cr, reinstalling, and deleting the launcher so Steam re-downloads it do not help either. I tried all of them.
Why it happens
Steam installs the whole game (about 84 GB) as an unsigned folder called WarThunder.app INSIDE the launcher bundle, at WarThunderLauncher.app/Contents/WarThunder.app. The launcher is properly signed and notarized by Gaijin, but its code seal only covers the launcher’s own files. macOS treats anything else at that level of the bundle as unlisted nested code, so “codesign --verify --deep --strict” fails with “file added: Contents/WarThunder.app”, and Gatekeeper on macOS 27 refuses to run it. If you move that WarThunder.app folder out of the bundle, the launcher validates and passes Apple’s own syspolicy_check. Put it back and it is “damaged” again. Older macOS versions did not check Steam-installed apps this strictly, which is why it used to work on the same machine.
How to play anyway
Use the standalone (non-Steam) launcher from warthunder.com/en/download. Download it with Safari or Chrome, drag WarThunderLauncher.app to Applications, double-click it and approve the normal “Open” prompt on first launch. Let it download the game (about 85 GB, so check free space), then log in with your Gaijin account, or with the Steam login option if your account is linked to Steam. That works for me on macOS 27.0. Once it runs, uninstall the Steam version to get the disk space back.
Gaijin, if you read this: the Steam build for macOS needs the game data outside the signed launcher bundle, or the launcher has to be signed with that folder accounted for. Until then the Steam version is unplayable on current macOS for everyone, regardless of Intel vs Apple Silicon. A native ARM build would be great, but this fix is much smaller and blocks people today.