Valve to Bring Steam to Mac Platform
Posted 03/09/10 at 10:18:19 AM by Paul Lilly
We don't often post Mac-centric news (being primarily a Windows PC-based site and all), but every once in awhile, we can't help ourselves. This happens to be one of those times.
Valve yesterday announced plans to bring Steam, its gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac platform.
"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 said its library of games, including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series, will all be available next month, though the company didn't specify an exact date. And these won't be run through emulation, but natively.
"We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360."
In addition, Cook said that Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, so it will be entirely possible to settle the debate between PC vs Mac in head-to-head matchups.
Image Credit: levelselect.co.uk
This is one of the most
Submitted by JoeDavids on Mon, 07/19/2010 - 4:29am
This is one of the most incredible blogs Ive read in a very long time. The amount of information in here is stunning, like you practically wrote the book on the subject. Your blog is great for anyone who wants to understand this subject more. Great stuff; please keep it up!
web design | seo
Submitted by zzyship on Mon, 07/05/2010 - 10:21pm
ettled in the city of Haining China Leather city commerce industry is cheap nike air max BW for men a milestone, is a model of North-South cooperation and win-win. Our city will rely on cheap nike air max 180 for sale the city of Haining cheap nike air max shoes China Leather vast cheap nike air max 1 (87) for men market network and advanced management concept, a successful business operating cheap nike air max LTD for men model, based in Xinxiang, to create a radiation leather seven provinces in central distribution cheap nike air max 90 for men center. This discount nike air max 2010 shoes is our city and Commercial Industry to enhance the level mens nike air max plus (TN) on sale of modernization, to improve the city's urban function, quality and image, for the expansion of local employment cheap nike air max 360 for men and the promotion of product processing, logistics, real estate, dining, and entertainment industries, will play a cheap nike air max 91 for men positive impetus.
Xinji organize the vast tannery went to Turkey, Italy, Brazil and other cheap nike air max 93 shoes cheap nike air max 97 for men countries learn from the introduction of tanning equipment, tanning technology, the implementation cheap nike air max 2003 for sale of green cheap nike air max 95 for men in the city's powerful new technology. Up to now, the city has Dongming, Bai Litas, macro universal, per nike air max for men Henry nike air max uk and three other companies are allowed features a leather "Genuine Leather Mark Leather." Since then Xinji domestic market share of leather products increased steadily year by year. Has truly become a green leather Xinji flood the market permits.
Haining Pi City also announced intention to raise funds over 1.27 billion for the acquisition of Zhejiang Forest Bridge Industrial Group Co., Ltd. held by the Leather Trade & Commerce 51% stake in the acquisition Houhainingpi City will hold 100 Leather Trade & Commerce % stake, will help improve performance.
Notice shows that this would facilitate unified management of all leather City Market. Leather City is now 1-3 on market development and management by Haining Pi City alone, four projects, such as to wholly control, then for the training of management of the unified market is more favorable. Leather City four projects under the research project in the calculation of operating income of 573 million yuan during the period, net profit of 220 million yuan can be realized. Financial internal rate of return after tax 26.88%, investment recovery period is 3.6 years (after tax).
Submitted by BaileyjdlkJennifer on Sun, 05/23/2010 - 7:17am
Nice Post!
Regards
jenny
Submitted by Khaled on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 9:10am
Nice, and you don't need to pay again for it.
Macintosh+Windows user.
Submitted by logicmaster2003 on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 7:41pm
FPS game challenge : window's gamers vs mac graphic design artist
announcement: this is team deathmatch. get ready..
windows team : go go go soldier
mac team : oh shoot ! I can't find my lipsticks and nail polisher !
Submitted by Nyarlathotep on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 1:02pm
Windows team: Headshot!
Mac team: Doesn't the new skin I designed look cool?
Ha ha...
Seriously though, this will get more people playing games on their computers. I'm personally all for it. I wonder when we'll se an Apple console?
"Sheesh, It's just one man's opinion..." -Me
Submitted by Caboose on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 1:04pm
already happened back in 1994
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by Nyarlathotep on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 1:26pm
If you're talking about the Pippin, I think it was branded more as a computer for your tv that plays video games. I didn't own one so that's just an assumption on my part. How about if I revise my comment to "I wonder if Apple will release a competitive console?".
"Sheesh, It's just one man's opinion..." -Me
Submitted by Caboose on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 1:51pm
Thats the name of the device! I couldn't remember
When you think about it though, a video game console, is a speciality computer designed to play video games on your TV, so maybe the Pippin wasn't TOO far off...
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by Nyarlathotep on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 2:15pm
I think it was doomed just based on the name... lol.
"Sheesh, It's just one man's opinion..." -Me
yeah Frodo would have been
Submitted by nekollx on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 2:19pm
yeah Frodo would have been more effective
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Submitted by IFLATLINEI on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 7:15pm
Im very happy for Mac owners finally getting some real gaming support. This should open up a whole new world of gaming for them to take advantage of. What Im really happy about is not having to watch Apple owners pretend they are not missing out anymore. WHAT??? Its painfull watching them rationalize crippled machines they paid a premium for!
Submitted by wolf17 on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 5:52pm
LOL
This is true, compared to the new mac users I'll be pretty good at online fps games :D
Mac User: How do I throw a grenade???
Windows User: Hit the right mouse button!
Mac User: What right mouse button?!
Windows User: *aims and clicks right mouse button*
"Life is about living, not stressing" - a very smart girl :)
Submitted by WindowsXP on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 5:52pm
Wasnt a fan of mac, but I think it was a great idea to finally move to the mac platform.
"In addition, Cook said that Mac and Windows players will be part of the
same multiplayer universe, so it will be entirely possible to settle the
debate between PC vs Mac in head-to-head matchups."This will be fun!
After Mac can we then work on Linux? If Steam goes to Linux with great support, I will have no reason to stay on Windows. (I dont wish to use Cadega on Linux for now)
Submitted by Hg Dragon on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 2:53pm
This means I won't be the worst player whenver I log into TF2 anymore...
Submitted by logicmaster2003 on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 2:45pm
so much for valve for windows / mac / linux...
valve should also support DOS platform :) i wonder if some evil genius will revive DOS and make it run in 64 bit !
And then all you would be
Submitted by gendoikari1 on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 2:51pm
And then all you would be able to play is Gang Garrison 2.
Honorary Family Member:
Phenom II x4 925 2.8 GHz
XFX Radeon HD 5870
8GB G.Skill DDR2-800 RAM
ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe
Seagate Barracuda 750GB HDD
Submitted by BAMT on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 2:29pm
According to the Valve announcement they are able to port it to the Mac natively because they now (can) use WebKit and OpenGL, which are also available on Linux. Port to Linux pl0x
Edit: And as for distro incompatibility, they could use a binary like Uplink or NVidia does (maybe a self extracting .sh?).
Submitted by Guillermo_De_Gaulle on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 2:08pm
I hate macs (they're for doodoo heads) but I love steam (half-life 2 saved my life... before L4D destroyed it). even though I am an avid pc user, I do think this is a good move for valve because it allows them to compete with "games for windows" more aggressively as a service. I hate games for windows because I'ts just xbox live doing a really crappy imitation of steam. I don't have to tell you guys that Valve several orders of magnitude less evil than microsoft and therefore less likely to try to exploit you. I would love nothing more than seeing games for windows eradicated from this plane of existence (I've had some bad experiences) but this represents an opportunity for steam to expand into a market that microsoft can't enter. This could make valve tons of money which they would hopefully use to
make more/better games. And if it's anything to allay the fears of other pc gamers, I'm certain Steam for mac won't start a gaming exodus from pc, while there is money to be made on mac, PC still has still has more gamers and an established market and no one is going to abandon that!
Submitted by snapple00 on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 1:43pm
Fake. Mactards don't game. They left the PC platform because with a Mac, you can be much more "productive".
Now that the "lack of gaming" feature has been removed, does this make the Mac more shitty? (The answer is yes)
Submitted by Peanut Fox on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 12:59pm
This could be good for PC gaming. An expanded player base will make the platform seem all the more appetizing to publishers and developers alike.
Submitted by patrickmaher on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 3:08pm
How does Steam on Macs expand the player base of PC gaming? If game developers wanted to make games for Macs they could have been doing so without Steam.
Mac is a different platform from Windows, just like Xbox 360 is a different platform from Windows. The reason some games are console only or made into crappy delayed PC ports is because there are more sales from consoles. Why would developers even bother with the small Mac sales potential when they barely care about Windows these days.
Submitted by Caboose on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 3:19pm
The XBox 360 and MS Windows have a lot more in common than you think. A slightly better comparison would have been 360 to PS3.
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by ryantmer on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:28am
Aside from the obvious right-click issue, what about GPUs? Very few Macs come with any sort of real GPU, and those that do are usually using last-gen parts. 640x480 anyone?
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 12:28pm
i don't know if that is true, i'm on a Mac right now (with a logitech mouse) i have right click and scroll wheel, even the mighty mouse can right click, they just hid it inside a unibody but the function IS there.
And looking at apple.com the top tier card in their own Tower
http://store.apple.com/us_smb_78313/configure/MB871LL/A?mco=MTM3NDc3ODQ
is a ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB, not to shabby
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
That is not very good
Submitted by Digital-Storm on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 1:11pm
That is not very good considering that is TOP tier.
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 1:13pm
but the only thing higher (as i understand it) is the JUST RELEASED 58xxs. Seems to me then that having the Current Leading edge is pretty competitive.
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Submitted by gendoikari1 on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 1:32pm
There is such thing as a GTX 285 for Mac. It's an EVGA card, and is ungodly expensive (up here its ~$530 CAD, or $100 more than my 5870). If you so prefer, you can get a $3000 (CAD) Quadro FX 4800, from PNY.
Honorary Family Member:
Phenom II x4 925 2.8 GHz
XFX Radeon HD 5870
8GB G.Skill DDR2-800 RAM
ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe
Seagate Barracuda 750GB HDD
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 1:38pm
Oh i never said they weren't hideously over priced but the idea their is no right mouse or curent gen GPU's for Apple is a fallacy i wanted to correct.
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Submitted by gendoikari1 on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 2:46pm
But the 4870 isn't the best of the best for Apple. That's what I was trying to say.
Honorary Family Member:
Phenom II x4 925 2.8 GHz
XFX Radeon HD 5870
8GB G.Skill DDR2-800 RAM
ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe
Seagate Barracuda 750GB HDD
Submitted by Caboose on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 3:07pm
From what my brother's told me (he has a Mac for his film and television course in school), he's had to find and flash a special "apple" firmware on to the video card for them to work properly in his Mac (I don't remember what it is. It's a giant tower, dual Xeon, yadda yadda yadda)
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by habuza on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:10am
I smell a mac fanboy.
Submitted by Caboose on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:57am
rriigghhtt...
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by RtDK on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:10am
So does this mean Macboys will be able to say, "Mac's can game too, so STFU"?
Well, no fault of Valve's I guess. Though, I have to question whether or not this decision is economically-sound. Seems to me that such a small market can't be that profitable for so much work put into making it adaptable.
Has Steve Jobs approved of this?
Submitted by Bender2000 on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 3:07pm
Valve has to ammortize the porting costs, and will probably add a little to the cost of all their games. Which would make it another Apple Tax on stuff not made by Apple! That Jobs is taxing worse than King George and the tea tax!
Submitted by Caboose on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:17am
Financially, you're right. In fact, Valve is setting it up so that if you've purchased a specific Valve produced game on the PC Steam, you get it automatically on the Mac Steam(and vic-versa). Now, this is good for consumers. Why buy 2 copies of TF2, or L4D just to play on your Mac instead of booting in to Win7 via Bootcamp.
But with the small group of "Mac Gamers", I don't really see this to be much of an issue.
I wonder how L4D, Portal, TF2, or Half-Life series will work with that single button mouse, or the "Gesture mouse" or w/e it was called... (yes, I know that they have the "mighty mouse" and you can use a real PC mouse on a Mac)
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:12am
good point, Valve could go to al lthe troube just of Steve to say that steam is a unapproved app ;)
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Submitted by Caboose on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:14am
That would be quite funny!
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:18am
and i'm not talking just about the iMaxiPad, i have a Pro Tower and now i can't even run non iPods to sync with iTunes. They could do the same with steam making only first part Apple games *snort* run on it
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Submitted by Caboose on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:26am
iMovie and iLife aren't games though... So... there'd be nothing for them to sell!
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by zepontiff on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 10:42am
99% of the Steam catalog still won't work on a mac.
Submitted by AntiHero on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 10:32am
This isn't a bad idea really. Wrld of Warcraft has tons of Mac users. One concern I see with this is if someone buys a non Valve game, will it work? Also, older valve games on Mac? And even their newer ones, are they going to need 2 versions?
I can run Steam in Linux just fine, however I do think they should do Linux next. I don't see it happening soon because they need to make one for all different distribution bases.
Submitted by Caboose on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:02am
From what I read on Kotaku and here, it's JUST the Valve produced games. So, as someone else pointed out, 99% of the library won't work. But that won't stop all the Mactards from gloating that "th3y t00 kan play TF2! n00b".
But, with increased focus on gaming, comes increased adoption, and as we all know how insecure and full of holes MacOS X is, comes increased exploitation! And once that happens, the world will know how truely crappy an OS MacOS X is!
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by K0BALT on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 10:20am
Fail
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i7 920@4.4GHz,Heatkiller 3.0, (2X)GTX295 Quad-SLI, EVGA X58 3X SLI, 6GB DDR3 OCZ Gold
Submitted by BioBandit on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 12:37pm
They could go for the most popular version of linux OR make their own distro
Submitted by gendoikari1 on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 2:48pm
Yes, in order to play about 10 or so games you need to wipe Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora/Gentoo/etc. and install Valve OS. </sarcasm>
Honorary Family Member:
Phenom II x4 925 2.8 GHz
XFX Radeon HD 5870
8GB G.Skill DDR2-800 RAM
ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe
Seagate Barracuda 750GB HDD
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 4:00pm
not Valve OS...Steam EXtended
Take a minute to get the joke....
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:07am
cause their is 40 billion Linux Distros? They may have the same base but you first got to figure out that base in a way it works with Distor 48112 - 56907 without breaking distro 49631 and 53302.
and that doesn't even take into account the other 39,890 distros.
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Submitted by K0BALT on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 10:21am
for the same reason it's just as retarded to do so on a Mac
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i7 920@4.4GHz,Heatkiller 3.0, (2X)GTX295 Quad-SLI, EVGA X58 3X SLI, 6GB DDR3 OCZ Gold
Connect with Maximum PC
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Must Read Articles
-
Feature -
Feature -
How-To -
Feature -
Feature
This Month's Issue
FEATURE29 Essential PC SkillsFEATUREAndroid Power Users GuideHOW TOGet Linux Power of Your Windows PCFEATUREMotherboard ManiaWHITE PAPERIntel's Light Peak
Maximum PC on Facebook
© 2010 Future US, Inc. All rights reserved.