Valve Brings Steam to Mac
Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 1:34PM | Print Article There have been rumours circulating for months now that Valve Software are preparing to bring their Steam platform to the Mac. Steam is a digital distribution system for PC games, that was launched in 2002 for Windows. It allows users to purchase and download games from all the major developers and then play them straight from the Steam Client. Steam also provides consistent digital rights management, auto-updates and community features for all games installed. Due to the simplicity of use for the user and piracy protection for developers, Steam has grown increasingly popular.
Yesterday to fuel the rumours further, Valve released a set of teaser images that seem to confirm that Steam will be coming to the Mac.
When investigating the images it becomes clear that not only will the Steam platform be coming to the Mac, but also some of Valves flagship games, such as the Half Life 2 series. This would imply that Valve have successfully ported their Source engine which powers the majority of their modern games.
The introduction of Steam on the Mac platform is a huge deal, as it provides a gaming "App Store" which makes it easier and more feasible for developers to sell their games for the Mac. Also with the possibility that all future games using the Source engine will be made available, it should ensure that many more award winning games series (such as Left4Dead) make their way to the Mac.
Expect to find at more about Steam on the Mac at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, set to kick off on March 9th.
Matt (LifeinTECH)
As expected, today Valve officially announced Steam and their range of first party games will be coming to the Mac in April. One nice surprise as part of the announcement was the addition of a new "Steam Play" feature, which allows purchasers of either the Mac or PC versions of Valve's games to play on either platform free of charge. This means that if you already own Half Life 2 on the PC, there is no need to re-buy it for the Mac.