Valve Bringing Games and Steam to Macs

[admin]

Valve Bringing Games and Steam to Macs
Monday, March 8, 2010
Posted by: Glenn

Valve has officially announced that they are bringing their Steam game distribution platform and library of games to the Mac in April. This includes popular titles like Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half Life series at launch.

"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge."

The company also announced that its upcoming Portal 2 game will be their first simultaneous release for the 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."

There isn't much else to say, but game on!



http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/1460.html

[epic_ed]

This is definitely the best gaming news I've heard since becoming a Mac user.

[Weee]

Wow, and you can play the games on both platforms. That's awesome!

[JayMax]

YYYEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

Team Fortress 2 rocks! I loved it on the Xbox 360, till M$ itself killed all interest in it, so I've missed being able to play the much better pc version. Now I can! BooYah! Time to re learn the game!

Great news!

I finally get to play a game on the mac besides Bejeweled 2!

[Signal2Noise]

It would be nice if the Steam client was optional. I prefer using the Impulse system which has a better DRM philosophy and no need for internet connections once a particular game is downloaded/installed.

However, the fact that Valve are bringing their impressive library games to the Mac audience is good news in itself.
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2.53GHz Mac Mini | 4GB DDR3 RAM | 320GB HDD | Apple Wireless KB | Magic Mouse
32GB iPhone 3GS
160GB iPod Classic | 20GB iPod U2 Edition | 1GB iPod Shuffle

[WheelSpinners]

This sounds awesome!

[Ben Tex]

This is the most exciting gaming news I've heard in a long time. Now watch, Apple will switch back to integrated Intel graphics on some of their systems.

[MaDDuck]

And let me guess, you will need at least 2.5GB of RAM and NO Intel GMA 950 support!

[curt]

I'm not much of a gamer anymore, but this is awesome news indeed.
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1.42GHz Mac mini
1.66GHz Intel Mac mini
2.0GHz 2009 Mac mini
46" Sony LCD
50" Sony KDS-50A2000
EyeTV 250 Plus
My Setup

[Yvan256]

Can't wait to see the minimum specs required. A lot of us have a Mac mini with intel GMA950, it would be a shame to not at least let us play at the lowest settings.
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Mac mini 2010 (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz/8 GiB)
12" PowerBook (G4 1.5 GHz/512 MiB)
1st gen. iPod touch (16 GiB)
2nd gen. iPod shuffle (1 GiB)

[devo]

I'm probably showing my age here, but I don't get what's so great about the Steam part. The other developers still have to decide if they want to port their games over or whatever. Am I missing something? I don't really follow the world of PC gaming.

[JayMax]

Steam itself isn't so hot, but from what I hear, this version is much better than the first iteration. What the arrival of Steam brings is Valve's games. Starting with Half Life 2, one of the greatest adventure games ever, to Counter Strike, which forever was the number one First Person Shooter. Valve's made a big comeback with Portal ( a must for puzzle fans ), to Team Fortress 2 ( a favorite FPS of mine on the Xbox 360 ), and the very popular Left 4 Dead 1 & 2. Valve though has cemented it's following by constantly updating their games for free. FREE!! ( Which is why Team Fortress 2 died a horrible death on the 360, since M$ doesn't like giving anything away for free ) Fans were upset about Left 4 Dead 2 coming out so soon behind the debut of Left 4 Dead, but they update the first still.

Cool touch, Left 4 Dead will across platforms. Yes, Mac players can play with and against PC players.

Some excellent options for the Mac now, especially IMac users. With Valve involved, others will soon follow.

Example, now DICE ( the makers of Battlefield Bad Co series is talking about looking into going Mac. Something considered because of Valve.

[scooper]

YYYEEESSSSSSSSSS is right!

TF2 is a ton of fun. I'm just glad that I upgraded Mac minis a couple months ago. None of this stuff is going to be a go with the GMA 950 or X3100. I know TF2 wasn't playable on my older Mac mini with Boot Camp. Even on the lowest resolution video setting it was well under 10 FPS.

[Mr.187]

So will all those titles I've purchased on Steam for the PC, be on my Mac version of steam without having to pay twice???
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Current: 20" iMac 2.4GHZ 2GB RAM 500GB HDD 10.6 using a 1TB Time Capsule, 2.4GHZ Macbook and 2G 16GB iPhone.

Had: Core Duo Mac Mini, 30GB Video iPod,ATV and the Apple Hi-Fi.

[kingv84]