After beating around the bush with a mysterious ad campaign, gamemaker Valve has made a very exciting announcement for anyone who owns a Mac and plays games: Steam is coming to the Mac.
Mac versions of the Steam service and Valve’s entire library of games will become available in April. Customers who have already bought games on Steam for the PC will be able to download the Mac version at no charge. The first Valve game to have a simultaneous release in both operating systems will be Portal 2.
“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.”
“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… “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. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth… The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows.”
Mac users may want to invest in some planned sick-leave come April!
Valve’s press statement can be read here.
