Steam coming to Mac?

[kaufmau]

So valve have advertised for a software engineer to port windows games to linux, does that mean steam may be coming to mac?
http://www.valvesoftware.com/job-SenSoftEngineer.html

an interesting article here

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=source_linux&num=1

[ZiggyPastorius]

I, for one, hope so. I enjoy playing Counter Strike, but nothing annoys me more than slow crossover and fusion gaming.

[Nathan Dailo]

I, for one, hope so. I enjoy playing Counter Strike, but nothing annoys me more than slow crossover and fusion gaming.

I just got my Macbook Pro a few days ago. Im a fresh Mac user, and just came off the Windows boat (yay). In what ways does Crossover slow down? I have Counter-Strike Source installed on Windows XP, but would like a better alternative than using Bootcamp just to play a game.

[Lord Blackadder]

Don't get your hopes up, though it's clearly possible. With both OS X and *nix using OpenGL, and both platforms growing, more games will be ported or even written for them. But it could take a while.

[PlaceofDis]

Don't get your hopes up, though it's clearly possible. With both OS X and *nix using OpenGL, and both platforms growing, more games will be ported or even written for them. But it could take a while.

indeed and there was an article awhile back in which one of the head guys at steam was a bit biased against OS X for various reasons, so it does seem unlikely, unless they're looking for new markets.

[Lord Blackadder]

I personally think we will see a day when all the major game releases make it to OpenGL platforms. But I also think that could be as long as 10+ years away. It mostly depends on the growth of OS X and *nix versus Windows. More marketshare equals more developers on board.

One interesting point is that Bootcamp doesn't seem to have hurt Apple software sales - in fact quite the opposite. So the future of gaming on the Mac does look bright in the long run.

[PlaceofDis]

I personally think we will see a day when all the major game releases make it to OpenGL platforms. But I also think that could be as long as 10+ years away. It mostly depends on the growth of OS X and *nix versus Windows. More marketshare equals more developers on board.

One interesting point is that Bootcamp doesn't seem to have hurt Apple software sales - in fact quite the opposite. So the future of gaming on the Mac does look bright in the long run.

yes bootcamp has actually only helped the mac platform.

OpenGL certainly has growth, but its also limited by the hardware that Apple uses at times, which is a shame.

i think we'll see more developers on board not only because of marketshare, but also because of declining gaming sales for the desktop market as more and more people switch to consoles; the desktop companies will have to expand their markets where they can to get more revenue, and that means Linux and Mac machines too.

it'll certainly take time though and won't happen overnight.

[Dagless]

I wonder what this will entail. There are hundreds of games on Steam, are they all going to be ported?
Will we be able to access our current Steam accounts on the Mac version? I've spent around £150 on Steam - I'm not prepared to spend that again.

[Vegabondsx]

It wouldn't be too hard to port steam over to Intel Macs. Pretty much of all EA's games use TransGaming's Cider to port games such as Battlefield 2142 and Command and Conquer 3. Steam already runs decently (As well as Steam Engine-Powered games) in Crossover/Crossover Games. With the help of Valve performance, integration, and quality could be greatly improved.

[kaufmau]

Well the article doesn't say all steam games, just source, as that was devolped by valve, and steam now has loads of other developers games available, so maybe not all you £150 will work.....

[Dagless]

Ah, well the title said Steam :D

Source alone would be good, just to be able to play TF2 without rebooting (which only takes about a minute anyways).

[ZiggyPastorius]

I just got my Macbook Pro a few days ago. Im a fresh Mac user, and just came off the Windows boat (yay). In what ways does Crossover slow down? I have Counter-Strike Source installed on Windows XP, but would like a better alternative than using Bootcamp just to play a game.

It's just slower than running it boot camp, because you're doing it through another program (crossover). I'd say give the trial of Crossover a try and play. It doesn't play horribly, so you shouldn't have any problems, but you might as well decide yourself whether it's acceptable.

And yeah, I understand where you're coming from. I desperately want to play Guild Wars and occasionally Steam games, but I won't pay for Crossover (it will only run Steam, not Guild Wars for me, and it's slower than just installing XP) or Fusion (way too slow), because I can't afford that just for two games, and I'm too lazy/I don't want XP on my computer for the boot camp method. It's completely my fault, but, oh well :)

[mgsfan18]

I have a steam account and I mainly use it on my PC.

I bought crossover and I tried running left for dead 2 on my mac from steam using crossover but when it installs it gets to 1% then fails. This is the only game I have had any problems with is it my mac or crossover?

[alam]

not gonna happen
not even in your dreams
even if it happened not many games will be released as in windows, so u might see only the most wanted games available only :o

[lucifiel]

not gonna happen
not even in your dreams
even if it happened not many games will be released as in windows, so u might see only the most wanted games available only :o

pretty much; all the indy games just won't have enough money to develop for mac and pc at the same time.

I also remember that there was speculation (which was not entirely unreasoned) that companies are throwing less money into developing PC (in the broad sense of that term) games, and more inclined to develop console games because PC games are much easier to pirate.

Thus it does not seem that steam will be ported to mac, or if it does, the majority of the titles on steam will not be released on Mac, rendering it useless and not worth Valve's resources.

I don't see the point in doing it anyways, considering that bootcamp works well enough, and I use steam on my Win 7 partition and it works really well. I'm not even really looking forward to (i'm not opposed to it i suppose...) steam being released on OS X

[Dont Hurt Me]

Steam sucks, sure I would like to see those valve games but having to run steams to get them just sucks sucks sucks. Did I say Steam sucks? because it does.

[Dagless]

Steam sucks, sure I would like to see those valve games but having to run steams to get them just sucks sucks sucks. Did I say Steam sucks? because it does.

I'd love to hear why you think Steam sucks. Please explain.

[MasterDev]

Steam sucks, sure I would like to see those valve games but having to run steams to get them just sucks sucks sucks. Did I say Steam sucks? because it does.

Steam is purely amazing. I loose my disks all the time or scratch them. With steam, I can re-download a game anywhere I am. Lurve it!

[donga]

love the newbs resurrecting threads from the dead

[Hcskaarup]

they hopefully will do steam on mac soon, they would earn 10x more money.

but the thing about mac is that it's hard to upgrade to follow up on new hard grafics and so on games, .. as i know it

[soldierblue]

they hopefully will do steam on mac soon, they would earn 10x more money.

They would certainly not "earn 10x more money".

[flopticalcube]

Maybe he meant 1/10th more. That would be accurate.

[Dagless]

Steam is purely amazing. I loose my disks all the time or scratch them. With steam, I can re-download a game anywhere I am. Lurve it!

For me it's all about preloading games, unified friends list, getting cheap games, being able to play both offline and online with the only DRM that seems to work and isn't restrictive, (legal) access to old games that I missed out on.

I bought Bioshock last year for £3.50 on Steam, L4D1 for £15 and recently loads of my friends bought up TF2 when it dropped to £2.50. It doesn't get much better than that!

[Dont Hurt Me]

I'd love to hear why you think Steam sucks. Please explain.Its protection schemes are horrible, its customer service even worse. Had several episodes where it wouldnt allow me to reopen my account on a new system or after reinstalling Windblows and then would only get automated responses to my requests. Steam sucks but Halflife2 is great go figure. Ill make do with Mac gaming as long as we get things like BioShock, ETQW, Flatout2 etc etc. Steam will Steam you sooner or later.

[Antares]

I, for one, would be interested in Steam for Mac. Make it happen, Valve.

[Dagless]

Its protection schemes are horrible, its customer service even worse. Had several episodes where it wouldnt allow me to reopen my account on a new system or after reinstalling Windblows and then would only get automated responses to my requests. Steam sucks but Halflife2 is great go figure. Ill make do with Mac gaming as long as we get things like BioShock, ETQW, Flatout2 etc etc. Steam will Steam you sooner or later.

How very odd. I've been a user since its beta days (my original account was back when they used email addresses for logging in) and I've never had that problem. I run my account off 3 computers at home (off a portable drive) and I used to use my girlfriends computer when she was at university... never had a problem logging in.
The protection scheme isn't horrible at all. If you haven't disabled offline mode it doesn't even exist, you just can't move the account to another computer until it goes online again.

[CylonGlitch]

How very odd. I've been a user since its beta days (my original account was back when they used email addresses for logging in) and I've never had that problem. I run my account off 3 computers at home (off a portable drive) and I used to use my girlfriends computer when she was at university... never had a problem logging in.
The protection scheme isn't horrible at all. If you haven't disabled offline mode it doesn't even exist, you just can't move the account to another computer until it goes online again.

I agree with you 100%. Been using it since about the same time and have had absolutely no problems. Never had a problem, the early days were a little slow and the interface took a while to stabilize but overall it has been very good and now I buy everything through it because it's just easier. Some of their sales are great too; I picked up Overlord the other day for $1.99 (normally $9.99). Been a blast to play, but if it wasn't, no big deal. :D

[Winni]

yes bootcamp has actually only helped the mac platform.

No, it hasn't. Apple is selling more hardware nowadays because of the Windows compatibility, but that compatibility certainly has not helped the Mac (OS X) platform. What incentive is there for software developers to port their software - and games - to OS X when OS X is still a niche platform, but running on regular PC hardware that can also run Windows? Right: There's ZERO incentive.

Since Apple still is not willing to make OS X a mass product - one that also runs on PCs of other OEMs - we will rather see the day when Apple starts shipping Macs with Windows pre-intalled before we see the day that all big software houses also publish their software for OS X.

Why should somebody double their development costs to reach five to ten percent of the market?

[Huntn]

One interesting point is that Bootcamp doesn't seem to have hurt Apple software sales - in fact quite the opposite. So the future of gaming on the Mac does look bright in the long run.

Mac users want to use Mac native software if they can. There are tons of casual Mac native games being created. The hard core Mac gamers using bootcamp or other emulation for the AAA titles are probably the nitch players of the group. ;)

[cantthinkofone]

Steam has said time and time again they they will not make a mac version. Shame really.

[macfanboy]

if steam came to mac natively, they would have to rewrite all source games in openGL because right now they run in DirectX, a windows-only game API

[Aegelward]

if steam came to mac natively, they would have to rewrite all source games in openGL because right now they run in DirectX, a windows-only game API

Steam itself is simply a sales and distribution platform, they can simply sell ported or native titles. They don't HAVE to convert every title in it's library

[Rodus]

Sadly I doubt we'll ever see Mac Steam (iSteam?). The number of games ported to OpenGL vs DX is tiny so it would be a pretty miniature store anyway and not worth the time and effort, Valve aren't about to start porting their Source based games any time soon, almost definitely never. Bootcamp aside, Crossover Games is the nearest we'll get to Steam on the Mac.

[Dagless]

Sadly I doubt we'll ever see Mac Steam (iSteam?). The number of games ported to OpenGL vs DX is tiny so it would be a pretty miniature store anyway and not worth the time and effort, Valve aren't about to start porting their Source based games any time soon, almost definitely never. Bootcamp aside, Crossover Games is the nearest we'll get to Steam on the Mac.

Plus the price difference between Win/OSX would be even more exposed. Can you imagine booting up Steam on OSX and seeing Bioshock as a full priced AAA title at £30, then rebooting to Windows where it only costs £5. It would be a laughing stock.

[Aegelward]

Plus the price difference between Win/OSX would be even more exposed. Can you imagine booting up Steam on OSX and seeing Bioshock as a full priced AAA title at £30, then rebooting to Windows where it only costs £5. It would be a laughing stock.

I wonder how willing mac publishers will be to have weekend specials.

Macgamestore have a steam-like app, but its very basic, and has a poor store layout. It tries to duplicate the app iphone store unfortunately only having the bad points about it.

Maybe a new company can attempt to create a robust and useful steam-like program?

[erifneerg]

Plus the price difference between Win/OSX would be even more exposed. Can you imagine booting up Steam on OSX and seeing Bioshock as a full priced AAA title at £30, then rebooting to Windows where it only costs £5. It would be a laughing stock.

that idea of lisensing a game for the pc/mac side of things is what i realized might be stop valve from releasing a mac client of steam. The disappointments of OpenGL 3.0 might be another reason. Having the steam client w/o Valve main games that run on the Source Engine doesn't look good on their part. I heard something about Postal running on Source and porting it for the mac.
I have no doubt that alot more gamers would by a mac if steam did get a mac client.

[chiefroastbeef]

they hopefully will do steam on mac soon, they would earn 10x more money.



wow... :confused:

[Xexis]

You ever read what the Valve articles say when they talk to apple? Apple is like yeah sure sounds great we'll get back to you. Makes me wonder why Vavle just doesn't get off their Arses and buy an Apple SDK for Mac and just port the dang games. I mean seriously they don't need to ask apple.

[CylonGlitch]

You ever read what the Valve articles say when they talk to apple? Apple is like yeah sure sounds great we'll get back to you. Makes me wonder why Vavle just doesn't get off their Arses and buy an Apple SDK for Mac and just port the dang games. I mean seriously they don't need to ask apple.

When Valve says, "Ask Apple" it is because there is a reason that they cannot port the games. We, the users, do not know what this reason is; and it seems that Valve is under some agreement to not disclose the details, so they say, ask Apple because that is all they can say and Apple is the only ones allowed to release that information. If I was to speculate what the problem is, there is something in the SDK that they found that was hindering their development; something major. Maybe the way the Mac never goes to true full screen (full screen, with full control over the writing to the display); this means a significant performance decrease (try playing any windows game in a window instead of full screen, it takes a large performance penalty as well; just windows allows for full control over the screen when in full screen mode, OSX doesn't, it is just like a maximized window)

We could guess all day what the issues could be; but only Valve and Apple know, and obviously Valve isn't allowed to say or won't say. And Apple isn't saying anything at all.

[Xavier]

If every game was in OpenGL.

I believe that DirectX is to blame not only for why steam isn't on Mac, but why most games do not come to Mac.

No one wants to take the time to port games (except Aspyer,MacSoft, and few others. Not like we have heard from them in awhile. (Bioshock.. forgot. but still))

[Xexis]

When Valve says, "Ask Apple" it is because there is a reason that they cannot port the games. We, the users, do not know what this reason is; and it seems that Valve is under some agreement to not disclose the details, so they say, ask Apple because that is all they can say and Apple is the only ones allowed to release that information. If I was to speculate what the problem is, there is something in the SDK that they found that was hindering their development; something major. Maybe the way the Mac never goes to true full screen (full screen, with full control over the writing to the display); this means a significant performance decrease (try playing any windows game in a window instead of full screen, it takes a large performance penalty as well; just windows allows for full control over the screen when in full screen mode, OSX doesn't, it is just like a maximized window)

We could guess all day what the issues could be; but only Valve and Apple know, and obviously Valve isn't allowed to say or won't say. And Apple isn't saying anything at all.
and also the fact that the source code was brought from the ground up in DX9 but original HL and CS were OpenGL I'm kinda tired right now to think about C# and ++ I'll see what I can dig up after I get some rest.

[CylonGlitch]

and also the fact that the source code was brought from the ground up in DX9 but original HL and CS were OpenGL I'm kinda tired right now to think about C# and ++ I'll see what I can dig up after I get some rest.

The conversion from DX to OpenGL is not that difficult, it is tedious yes, but it isn't that hard to change the graphical calls and the setup routines to work with OpenGL. The easiest way to do this is plan it from the beginning but in the scope of games that already exist, it just requires some replanning. A company with funds such as Valve has the money and the resources to put behind updating their engine to work in OSX if they want to; but as I said earlier, there has to be a technical reason they won't. I know that at one time, they did plan to move ahead with OSX versions of their apps, but then after some time of development they stopped. Since then it has been the, "Ask Apple" response. Something happened, what, I donno, and no one is talking.

[palebluedot]

The conversion from DX to OpenGL is not that difficult, it is tedious yes, but it isn't that hard to change the graphical calls and the setup routines to work with OpenGL. The easiest way to do this is plan it from the beginning but in the scope of games that already exist, it just requires some replanning. A company with funds such as Valve has the money and the resources to put behind updating their engine to work in OSX if they want to; but as I said earlier, there has to be a technical reason they won't. I know that at one time, they did plan to move ahead with OSX versions of their apps, but then after some time of development they stopped. Since then it has been the, "Ask Apple" response. Something happened, what, I donno, and no one is talking.

I read somewhere that Valve asked Apple for development monies (about a million USD I believe) to port their entire library and system to OS X. I don't know if it was a loan, investment, or what.

Apple refused and Valve said OK cya. Gabe (the chief guy behind Valve/Steam) also noted that Apple was horrible about responding to technical issues and changes that needed to be made in the OS for it to be a legitimate development platform for gaming companies. Apple would make promises but never respond or go anywhere.

I don't remember where I read this and it could be all fake but it makes sense. Apple is so hostile towards gamers, game development, and making OS X a legitimate game platform. Throw on top of that the substandard Open GL 3 platform (Killed by Arc and Adobe by forcing compliance with old standards DX doesn't deal with), and limited Mac market share and you can see why Valve wouldn't come to OS X. If anything they should have asked for 2 million from Apple (chump change for Apple with all its cash in the bank). But we all know that Apple's "vision" doesn't include any game that isn't on your tiny iPhone screen. :mad:

[Rodus]

^^I think you're spot on there. I too remember Gabe Newell asking for about $1 mill from Apple for porting but the truth of the matter is, as you say, Apple couldn't give a damn about gaming on any platform except the touch/iphone. I love Valve games so will continue to use Bootcamp and Steam, I just wish I could play them natively.

[CylonGlitch]

^^I think you're spot on there. I too remember Gabe Newell asking for about $1 mill from Apple for porting but the truth of the matter is, as you say, Apple couldn't give a damn about gaming on any platform except the touch/iphone. I love Valve games so will continue to use Bootcamp and Steam, I just wish I could play them natively.

I agree, I do recall now reading about this some time ago. At the time Valve was doing OK but not who they are today. Interesting that Apple should have jumped on this then; but so much has changed but it seems like Gabe is a bit bitter about it. LOL. Oh well, I would love to see come to Mac, but it's not going to happen.

[Huntn]

What games does Steve Jobs play anyway, any? :p

[CylonGlitch]

What games does Steve Jobs play anyway, any? :p

Count 'da Billions.

[Consultant]

No, it hasn't. Apple is selling more hardware nowadays because of the Windows compatibility, but that compatibility certainly has not helped the Mac (OS X) platform. What incentive is there for software developers to port their software - and games - to OS X when OS X is still a niche platform, but running on regular PC hardware that can also run Windows? Right: There's ZERO incentive.

Since Apple still is not willing to make OS X a mass product - one that also runs on PCs of other OEMs - we will rather see the day when Apple starts shipping Macs with Windows pre-intalled before we see the day that all big software houses also publish their software for OS X.

Why should somebody double their development costs to reach five to ten percent of the market?

First, it's not double the development cost.

Second, Mac users are usually better educated, better paid, and have higher disposable income, thus are better customers.

To bad a certain person on the failboat doesn't know that.

[Striker-UMB]

Well Steam is coming to OS X now and it is confirmed so ha.

[Mackilroy]

Well Steam is coming to OS X now and it is confirmed so ha.

I guess you didn't realize this topic is from 2009, did you?

[rloechner]

I guess you didn't realize this topic is from 2009, did you?

2008! love that the OP called this out 2 years before it happened

[killer54291]

if anyone didnt know already, steam is coming for mac and you will be able to transfer any of your pc purchases to mac. it seems like they are remaking the source, it wont be cider ports. it will have any of the valve games including left 4 dead 2 and portal 2 and half life counter strike etc.

[Dagless]

if anyone didnt know already, steam is coming for mac and you will be able to transfer any of your pc purchases to mac. it seems like they are remaking the source, it wont be cider ports. it will have any of the valve games including left 4 dead 2 and portal 2 and half life counter strike etc.

Thank you, we didn't know this :eek:.
Despite it being posted on the frontpage and having many threads about it.

[killer54291]

lol if you didnt notice i just registered to post that. didnt look at anything else. so i guess i am helping people because i searched "when is steam coming out for mac" on google and this was the first thing...