The Significance of Steam and Valve's Games for Mac

[Pachang]

Big Deal

How the world changes...
Not long ago there was a time where you had to buy a separate computer to play games if you had a mac. Now people are complaining about how they have to do a restart if they want to play games.

I don't think this means very much in the grand scheme of things. What would be much more significant for mac gaming would be if apple updated their products with good graphics more often.

 

[The Final Cut]

So can I use my existing steam account and play them on the mac side now? I mean for this to work it needs to be cross platform... If its not, personally (and Im sure a lot of windows boot camp steam users, with games already purchased on steam), could care less about this.

 

[PacMookBro]

Earlier today, Valve Software released teaser images which indicated that their Steam platform as well as a number of their games would be coming to the Mac.

For those unfamiliar with this currently PC-only software, Steam is a digital distribution system for PC games. Essentially, a PC game App Store. The Steam storefront allows users to purchase from over 1000 titles and download them straight to their computer. Steam also provides digital rights management, auto-updates and community features for the games installed. Besides Valve's own games, major 3rd party developers including EA, Activision, SEGA and many more distribute their games on the system. Steam has been around since 2002, but in the past few years has really gained significant momentum and market share.

Part of Steam's popularity has been on the strength of Valve's own offerings which include Half Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal, and Left 4 Dead. Here's an old teaser trailer for their critically acclaimed title Portal game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TluRVBhmf8w

Based on the teaser images, it seems likely that all of these titles will also make their way to the Mac. This leads us to believe that Valve has ported their Source game engine over to the Mac, which would allow any future games based on this engine to be easily launched for the Mac. Coincidentally, Valve has been in the process of seeding information believed to be about Portal 2 over the past few days. In fact, they even changed the famous ending to the game, leaving it open to a sequel.

Now, given all this, it does not mean that other non-Valve Steam games will necessarily be coming to the Mac. It would be up to each developer to make that decision. iPhone and PC Steam developer NimbleBit, however, is already considering moving their kart racer Zero Gear to the Mac based solely on these announcements. It could also open the door up to existing Mac -specific developers to have a new digital distribution system to Mac gamers.


Article Link: The Significance of Steam and Valve's Games for Mac

Oh no! There is no longer be an excuse to abstain from Counter-Strike! It is long in the tooth to play it but whatever... Damn I'm old...

 

[jemo07]

Why would a company go through all the trouble of porting a game to the mac?

It is simple, economics will drive them, hence the fact that Apple will no doubt start an Itunes game and app store for the Mac. This could be revolutionary in terms of how us mac user consume anything mac....

It´s the same reason that iPhone and iPod and soon iPad have been such a success. There is nothing out there that could even compete with the user experience on a mac/iphone platform and buying an app. It´s all in a friendly user interface (no it´s not perfect) that my grandparent can use to send out gifts, buy music, movies, and soon Apps and Games. It´s the reason department stores are so successful, you pay a little more but save alot of time.

Steve has envisioned a very different computer experience moving forward... it´s going to be very interesting next year seen what happens...

 

[Stridder44]

There is just nothing bad that could come from this. God I hope this rumor is true.

 

[boomish]

I don't know if I should laugh or cry. Apple will never dominate the desktop gaming industry. All this talk about Steam and Valve being the "breakthrough" is laughable at best. In fact, I don't even understand the point of this article...

Then you have no idea what your talking about, it's obvious to me and others how huge this will be, I have a dedicated gaming PC and often sit there thinking why on earth isn't this on the Mac it's the perfect gaming machine, we are constantly configuring graphics cards, drivers, ports etc to get a game working for a whole clan of players, if I had it working on a Mac with known hardware it's easy for a game company to configure the software to work straight out of the box, just like an Xbox or a PS3 but given that I have a 8 core Mac Pro it could be way faster than any game boxes or my PC given the right development..

The killer question is given that so many people already have steam accounts will be allowed to just download the Mac versions of games we have already bought or are they going to make us buy them twice?
Of course I think to really launch the service well any games already purchased for PC should be free! they would have instant fans and a loyalty base for future games.

 

[4np]

The whole portal mystery is also great. They updated portal and hid radios in every game room. When you walk around you sometimes hear static and cryptic messages suggesting the Artificial Intelligence (your opponent in the game) has somehow gotten away through a transmission.

People have ran the WAV files through programs to generate images of them, and -my favorite- one of the radios gives you some code. People have created an MD5 hash of that code, which in it's turn is a Landline somewhere near Valve headquarters. If you dial in on the number you reach an oldschool BBS (Aperture backup system) feeding ASCII art which is probably the number one clue that the AI managed to use the backup to save itself. It's really cool they went all this way with providing clues and hints...

Here are some of the feeds when dialing into the BBS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbl6IpLaf6o

But for the rest: great! Bring steam to OS X so I can erase my bootcamp partition I would hope that games you have in the windows client of steam would also just show up on the mac side, even though it's a different platform. I wouldn't want to have to buy all my games again for the Mac platform...

The killer question is given that so many people already have steam accounts will be allowed to just download the Mac versions of games we have already bought or are they going to make us buy them twice?
Of course I think to really launch the service well any games already purchased for PC should be free! they would have instant fans and a loyalty base for future games.

We think the same, although DirectX dependent games will not make it to the Mac very soon... only OpenGL based engines probably I also wonder what the performance difference will be between Mac OS X and Windows XP (or 7)

 

[giosaccone]

Games = One 3D environment and a firearm drawn in perspective.

I guess I don't like games.

I agree with You: I prefer making video instead of playing games

 

[doctoree]

Do I dare to say it? I do: this is the most significant thing to happen to the mac since the Intel switch.

your right, and thanksfully the last two iMac versions have been real gaming machines.

 

[MorphingDragon]

Games = One 3D environment and a firearm drawn in perspective.

I guess I don't like games.

Thanks for dissing the plethora of games that can actually be considered complex and an art form.

 

[huffhuff]

Wahoooo. By the time they pump out the games...i'll have my new MacBook Pro to play it on... [crosses fingers]

Ben

 

[tobyw7]

That's exactly why. Just baseless rumors. Nothing came of it.

Apple isn't spending its money buying anyone. It's using it to create new products and services, some of which may be a huge risk. That's what Steve Jobs was talking about.

In all fairness, Apple has been talking about entering the gaming industry before on several occasions.

Instead of entering the market with a games console to compete with Nintendo and Sony etc maybe they're looking to enter it with a buy-out of Valve.

I know, very unlikely but interesting.

 

[Mac Kiwi]

I wonder if Apples graphics card offerings will now keep up with the new demands of high end games, or Valve will have to wait for Apple to catch up to their new releases. I for one am hoping Apple broadens the options more as a result.

 

[MattInOz]

That's not an either/or question. If it's ported, then it is native OS X. The only thing that's not native is something like Cider, which isn't a port at all, it's the Windows app running through a translation layer.



Only if they're badly done. Look at nearly all of Feral's ports: not clunky at all.

--Eric

Isn't the other option is that Source is an OS so to speak in it's own right?
So the Game Engine run virtualized in either Mac OS X or Windows. The developer is writing Native for that System not the host system.

That way Valve are the only ones who have to worry about host OS interface issues.

 

[baryon]

Do I dare to say it? I do: this is the most significant thing to happen to the mac since the Intel switch.

I agree! The only thing that didn't run on Macs were games. Everything else that's useful or doesn't have a better Mac alternative already has its Mac version. Games are a BIG thing and Apple didn't admit this until the iPod Touch came along. They still don't like the feeling that people love games, but they can't ignore it. This means they're willing to collaborate when REAL games are developed and ported to Macs. Games are a big thing, they are one of the reasons "normal" people buy high-end machines. "Normal" people (I mean people who are considered as consumers and not artists or creators) mostly don't buy high-end machines for video editing, but for games, and this could be a big thing for Apple: more people wanting Apple computers, which are all kind of high-end.

Steam and Source for Mac would seriously be a revolution for the Mac.

 

[Wells]

Valve will never be bought out by anyone. They are independent and have a good culture and system for developing their games. They are happy where they are. What would they have to gain from being bought out by Apple? Nothing at all really.

And steam coming to the Mac is big. Games for Windows Live can suck it down! This really makes me think Valve are going to win on the game distribution front. Imagine getting a nice cheap copy of the Orange Box with your new Mac... oh yes, this is a very important development.

One final thing. Valve's DRM is the least restrictive and best implemented of them all. All it means is that you have to have steam to run the game. You can still play offline, and you can re-download your games from any location. It doesn't get in your face at all unlike other DRM systems that limit you to 5 activations etc.

I'm pretty sure if you have bought games on Windows then you will be able to download mac versions. It just makes sense and Valve are very generous when it comes to their games (again, Orange Box was a fantastic deal).

 

[baryon]

Screw the Source I want the originals! Do you think the Half Life 1 engine be supported, or is it just too old and no body cares enough to make it compatible...

The only game I play is the original DOD, great and simple game play

I think they should support Half Life 1, but they might not... However, with Crossover Games, you can run Half Life 1 PERFECTLY smoothly, just like on Windows, I mean EXACTLY! It's amazing. So if you want Half Life 1, get Crossover now and you can already play it today.

 

[c-Row]

I wonder if Apples graphics card offerings will now keep up with the new demands of high end games, or Valve will have to wait for Apple to catch up to their new releases. I for one am hoping Apple broadens the options more as a result.

Well, Far Cry 2 and Mass Effect 2 ran smoothly on last year's iMac through BootCamp, so the performance is there.

 

[HAL-00]

Nothing but trouble

This possibility of Steam on Mac is bad, bad news. Since I bought an iMac I have dropped gaming completely. Closing all my apps and booting to Windows is just too much hassle. So I have saved a huge amount of money and time, and all is well.

And now there will be Valve's games to tempt me... on my iMac? God I hope this Steam-on-Mac thing will never see the light of day.

 

[Kiddle]

This is just beyond awesome. It would totally make my windows partition useless and I would get back 50 gigs!

I also only use my partition for steam, it will be gone, as long as i dont have to buy all my games again, i have lots!

 

[craigijohno]

Why would a company go through all the trouble of porting a game to the mac?

It is simple, economics will drive them, hence the fact that Apple will no doubt start an Itunes game and app store for the Mac. This could be revolutionary in terms of how us mac user consume anything mac....

It´s the same reason that iPhone and iPod and soon iPad have been such a success. There is nothing out there that could even compete with the user experience on a mac/iphone platform and buying an app. It´s all in a friendly user interface (no it´s not perfect) that my grandparent can use to send out gifts, buy music, movies, and soon Apps and Games. It´s the reason department stores are so successful, you pay a little more but save alot of time.

Steve has envisioned a very different computer experience moving forward... it´s going to be very interesting next year seen what happens...

As long as they don't let ASPYR touch any of the porting it should be fine. They recently ported The Force Unleashed to the PC and it was terrible, around 25GB of hard drive space and most of the time it didn't even start. They claim to be working on porting that game to Mac but I'd doubt it. The last time I checked their Technical Support webpage was down and has been for a couple of weeks. ASPYR is selling their games through Steam as well which is probably how Valve will be planning on releasing games for the Mac.

 

[craigijohno]

Well, Far Cry 2 and Mass Effect 2 ran smoothly on last year's iMac through BootCamp, so the performance is there.

I'm playing Assassin's Creed 2 and Modern Warfare 2 on my 2008 MBP without any hassles, sp the performance is there as long as you have at least 4GB of RAM

 

[IlluminatedSage]

The Mac’s share of personal computing is growing, with a mindshare especially high among younger people. That’s not likely to reverse and trend back in Windows’ favor!

So however small the Mac gaming market may be compared to Windows (and consoles) it is definitely a growing one.

Any developer willing to cash in on that gets my support

well, to me i'd support if on a real game basis, not those shareware type games that show off 3d processing power.

Bring us more Half-Life, id, other type big games from pc to the mac. i dont want to have to run windows to play.

so... this is great news, it means more publishers like EA would support even more mac games. finally a mac game platform which makes sense.

 

[kirky29]

I think this is pretty good, because I see Mac users as the more casual gamers... I like to have a game here and there, but I wont buy a gaming mouse/keyboard etc. And I certainly wont loose 50GB for Bootcamp!
The only game I have on my Mac is Age of Empires 3. Just for 40mins everyone once in a while, it's good!

 

[ValSalva]

Ho hum. One of the things I like about the Mac and its community is that there is a paucity of games.

On the Windows side it seems like the only enthusiasts left are gamers. It would be a shame if that were to happen on the Mac.