How to run Windows games on a Mac without CrossOver

What CrossOver does, and what you need to replace it

CrossOver is CodeWeavers' commercial version of Wine. It costs $74 for 12 months of updates and support, or $494 for a lifetime licence, and the version you bought keeps working after support ends. There's a 14-day free trial.

Without it you need three things: a Wine build for macOS, a graphics layer that translates DirectX to Metal, and something that installs and launches your game stores. Doing this by hand in Terminal is possible but slow to maintain. Vermut packages all three in one app.

Your free options

• Vermut, free and open source. It installs Steam and Epic Games (beta) in their own Wine 11 bottles, uses DXMT by default for DirectX 10 and 11, and lets you switch to DXVK, WineD3D or D3DMetal.
• Apple's Game Porting Toolkit. Free with an Apple developer account, made for developers to evaluate their games. It contains D3DMetal, which runs many DirectX 12 games, but it isn't a game launcher, and apps aren't allowed to bundle it.
• Cloud gaming, such as GeForce NOW. Free tier available. The game runs on a remote PC, so anti-cheat isn't a problem, but you need a fast, stable connection and the game must be in the service's catalogue.
• A virtual machine such as Parallels Desktop isn't free, and Windows on Arm in a VM supports DirectX only up to 11.1 and blocks most anti-cheat.

Play a Windows game for free with Vermut

1. 1

   Check the game first

   Look it up in the CodeWeavers compatibility database and on Are We Anti-Cheat Yet?. If it needs kernel-level anti-cheat, use cloud gaming.

2. 2

   Install Vermut

   Download the DMG, drag Vermut to Applications and allow it once with the first-launch guide. You need an Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later.

3. 3

   Install your store

   Install Steam or sign in to Epic Games. Vermut downloads Wine and Rosetta 2 if needed.

4. 4

   For DirectX 12 games, add D3DMetal

   Download the Game Porting Toolkit from Apple. Vermut detects it and offers D3DMetal as a graphics backend.

5. 5

   Not on a store? Run the installer

   Use Run .exe to start any Windows installer inside a bottle. Results vary more here than with store games.

What to expect from performance

Wine doesn't emulate a PC, but Rosetta 2 and the DirectX-to-Metal layer both add work. A game that runs at a steady frame rate on a mid-range Windows PC may need lower settings on a base M-series chip. The first minutes of a new game often stutter while shaders compile; that usually settles down.

If a game starts but looks wrong or crashes, switching the graphics backend is the first thing to try. Memory matters too: the Game Porting Toolkit's published requirements recommend 16 GB, and big games benefit from it with any backend.

When CrossOver is still worth it

If you rely on one specific game, want someone to email when it breaks, or play titles that CodeWeavers has fixed by hand, CrossOver's trial is worth trying before you give up. Paying for it also funds the Wine work that every free Mac project uses.

Vermut is free, but it's a young project and doesn't promise every game. Its strength is a free, quick way to try your Steam and Epic library on a Mac.