Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 11, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Game developer Valve has announced that it will also make its internet distribution platform Steam available for Mac. At the same time, the Source game engine will be ported to OS X. The company is therefore setting out to establish Apple computers as a gaming platform. Beginning in April, titles and spin-offs from the “Half-Life” shooter series will be offered, among others.
Valve aims to make the offer attractive to users partly by allowing them to play a purchased title on both Windows and Mac. The developer also relies on cross-platform game saves stored online. It remains to be seen to what extent other developers and publishers will increasingly make the move to OS X.
Cross-Platform Games Service
“In the transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality internet clients,” says Valve president Gabe Newell. Mac is an attractive platform for such entertainment services. According to the company, various options for establishing OS X as a gaming platform were examined. Native ports ultimately won out over emulation solutions.
Through “Steam Play”, Valve promises customers that they can play a purchased title on both Windows and Mac. “In conjunction with Steam Cloud, this allows gamers playing on a PC to switch to a Mac elsewhere and continue the game there at exactly the same point,” says Jason Holtman, Valve Director of Business Development. The company assumes that most developers and publishers will use Steam Play.
Mac Launch with In-House Developments
The first titles for OS X will be offered through Steam as early as April, but initially Valve can refer only to titles developed in-house. These primarily include shooters such as “Team Fortress 2” and “Left 4 Dead 2”, but also the action adventure “Portal”. Its successor, “Portal 2”, is intended to appear simultaneously for Mac and Windows during the Christmas season as the first Valve title to do so. It remains to be seen whether the availability of the online distribution platform for Mac can truly revitalise Apple computers as a gaming platform. To achieve that, Valve would probably also have to convince other publishers to offer titles for OS X through Steam.
