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Feek
09-03-2010, 10:00
It's official!

Valve Software today officially announced that it is bringing its Steam game distribution platform, as well as its own library of games, to Mac OS X next month.

Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

"As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

Valve also confirmed reports (http://www.macrumors.com/2010/03/07/valves-portal-2-confirmed-for-mac/) that it will offer its forthcoming Portal 2 game as a simultaneous release for Mac and Windows.

Portal 2 will be Valve's first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. "Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac."

Also included in the announcement is the addition of a new "Steam Play" feature for Steam, allowing purchasers of either the Mac or PC versions of Valve's games to play on the other system free of charge. Third-party game developers distributing through Steam are also widely expected to take advantage of the feature.

Valve leaked (http://www.macrumors.com/2010/03/03/valve-teases-upcoming-half-life-release-for-mac/) a series of teaser images hinting at its move to the Mac platform last week.

This is really good news, it means I'll be able to play the few games I've bought over the years through Steam on my Mac. Steam is one of the few things I've booted into Windows for. I also understand that multiplayer games will be cross platform as well.

Goose
09-03-2010, 10:06
Woop! I was really starting to miss Team Fortress 2, huzzah! ;D

Burble
09-03-2010, 10:09
Excellent!

Will
09-03-2010, 17:38
Do you reckon they will support all other games?

divine
09-03-2010, 17:48
Very much doubtful, for other games Steam is little more than an online shop so providing OSX support will be down to the specific developer or publisher. A lot of stuff like PopCap games (Plants vs Zombies for example) already have OSX support so will probably make an appearance straight off.

With any luck it'll maybe push a few more devs into doing better OSX conversions with a decent platform like Steam to launch from. Only trouble being, publishers are already getting lazy enough with making games for Windows, nevermind an even smaller OSX market too.

Will
09-03-2010, 17:48
Ah so it's not an emulator like Scumm?

divine
09-03-2010, 18:24
No, Steam is just a download service really.

It's basically just the website at http://store.steampowered.com/ in the form of a program with a tab that lists your purchases and allows you to download and play them.

I think Valve have actually gone through their games and made a specific OSX build. You wouldn't stand a hope in hell of emulating games released within the last 3 years, especially given a Macs hardware (especially graphics) will be considerably slower than a PC anyway.

Will
09-03-2010, 18:34
I have a steam account and have a few games from it, but I just thought it was a platform from which to play games rather than just a device for downloading them and managing them!

iCraig
09-03-2010, 18:38
People on a real Mac will have crap graphics cards won't they? For games like Left 4 Dead 2 anyway?

Only Hackintoshes will really have the high end cards dropped in them, and those people will likely just boot into a Windows install to play games and play a full range rather than the selected ones that'll work on OSX natively.

It's good but only useful for a small market really.

divine
09-03-2010, 18:40
It depends on the game in a lot of cases, sometimes you can play the games without Steam even being open (I think you can do this with GTA IV). Steam does have a lot of benefits in the way it downloads and installs though, allowing your games to be completely portable and easily backed up but beyond the few games which use Steamworks for achievements and VAC, Steam doesn't really do much other than act as a download manager.

iCraig
09-03-2010, 18:41
I have a steam account and have a few games from it, but I just thought it was a platform from which to play games rather than just a device for downloading them and managing them!

It's good for having any game on it (you can import non-Steam games into the list as well) because you can use the steam overlay to chat to friends and browse the web by just pressing Shift-Tab. That's a godsend for people who hated having to keep alt-tabbing from a game as it can cause a game to stop responding, or literally take ages if the game resolution and desktop resolution are different.

divine
09-03-2010, 18:44
People on a real Mac will have crap graphics cards won't they? For games like Left 4 Dead 2 anyway?

Only Hackintoshes will really have the high end cards dropped in them, and those people will likely just boot into a Windows install to play games and play a full range rather than the selected ones that'll work on OSX natively.

It's good but only useful for a small market really.

Well, Left 4 Dead 2 rec spec is a 7600 or X1600, The 9400 or 4670 in most current iMac models would be just fine for that.

Also bear in mind that they'll probably be able to tweak a bit more, seeing as there is a much smaller range of hardware likely to be present, they can probably get a bit more out of a 4670 in a Mac than they would in a PC. Similar to a console but not on such an extreme scale.

I highly suspect their biggest Mac profits will be coming from stuff like PopCap games though, casual stuff that already works, they already sell and will be ultra easy to impulse buy, almost as if you were on an App Store :p