RMath

@David. While it seems like you can install Java 17 without issue, the system doesn't recognize it. Checking in terminal (./java_home -V) I can see a list of different versions of Java installed. While java 17 was installed without error or issue it does not come up on the list of installed versions. Though version 16 does show up which wasn't installed prior and is of no real help in this circumstance.

I'm pretty certain you need macOS 10.12+

@John can you source that? I've had a very hard time actually finding the system requirements for Java 17. The 10.8+ requirement seems to be for Java 8.

As per Oracle : "Oracle does not certify on Operating System versions that are no longer supported by the Operating System provider. Older versions remain listed only for archival purposes."

I do not believe that El Capitan is still supported by Apple.

It would seem that unless Mojang/MS make some changes, if that's even something they can do, then it would not be possible to play MC 1.18 with a Mac that uses El Capitan (10.11) or older.

Same issue. Macbook Pro. macOS 10.11.6. MC 1.18. No crash report created. Will look for the launcher log.

@Daniel In Terminal just type "java -version" and hit Enter. I've been trying to find clarification for what  versions of macOS Java 17 supports. That is if it is actually a Java issue.

@John. I don't think this counts as a Launcher issue but something that affects the next step of loading the game itself. I too installed Java 17 and the installation went smoothly but when I check the Java version via Terminal it says I'm at version 16. I did the install twice just to confirm.

Yeah, I called it in  MCL-19840 .

I had a strong feeling that they wouldn't support older systems but I wish that they'd have given us a heads up before hand. I'm not sure if there's a way to play older versions or at least a way to do so conveniently. While some who are more computer savvy and may have been able to see this coming there was no official notification from Mojang beforehand. It's sad and disappointing.

I have the same issue. macOS 10.11.6. Updated to MC 1.18 Click PLAY then the game crashes with an error code: 0.