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Apr 12, 2001
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Valve, the company behind the popular gaming platform Steam, has released a new companion app for iPhone called Steam Mobile as a closed beta. The app allows Steam users to view their Steam friends list, see what games their friends are playing, and chat with players in-game.

Gamers can also browse -- and apparently purchase, though the app descriptions are a little fuzzy on that point -- the Steam library of titles from the iPhone. However, there is no purchasing of iOS games through the app, something that, aside from the fact that Steam doesn't support any iOS games, Apple would surely frown upon.

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"The Steam app comes from many direct requests from our customers," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "Seeing which of your friends are online and playing a game, sending quick messages, looking at screenshots for an upcoming game, or catching a sale - these are all features customers have requested. Mobile is changing way people interact, play games and consume media, and the Steam app is part of our commitment to meet customer demands and expand the service functionality of Steam to make it richer and more accessible for everyone."
While it has been released as a "closed beta", users sign up to be included via the app itself.

Steam Mobile for iPhone is available free on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Valve Releases Steam Companion App for iPhone
 
Cool. So next holiday season I can spend a thousand dollars on all their sales while sitting on my toilet.

It's like Gabe read my mind!
 
Pretty cool. I would prefer that they just open up their chat protocol so I can chat with my steam Friends in Verbs / Adium, but this is the next best thing.
 
You can already buy games using the web browser on iOS devices. But this is great.

I've got software on Steam but no beta access yet! Must be ultra ultra exclusive.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Awesome! I'll just get in line..
 
Seems weird that Apple would allow a beta app into the app store when their policy states it isn't allowed.

Apple does seem to make some exceptions to their rules for bigger companies, at least for a little while... download it while its still up.
 
Nice one Valve!

Only the other day as I was at work trying to add a colleague to my friends list through safari I was bemoaning that they "still haven't brought out an iOS app"!! :D
 
You can already buy games using the web browser on iOS devices. But this is great.

I've got software on Steam but no beta access yet! Must be ultra ultra exclusive.

I hoped that turning on beta access in the steam app on the mac would let me in.

Nope.

Not sure where these activation codes are supposed to come from.
 
Possibly the first step to a full Steam for iOS? Gaming on iOS could seriously improve if backed by Valve.
 
Possibly the first step to a full Steam for iOS? Gaming on iOS could seriously improve if backed by Valve.

How? The App Store and Game Centre achieve the same goal. It's down to developers if they choose to support iOS as a platform, not Valve.
 
Why are the last two posts downvoted? It's pretty obvious that there's not going to be a separate independent game store for iOS.

Best case scenario would be app-within-an-app rubbish. But why would Steam want to go down that route anyway?
 
I hoped that turning on beta access in the steam app on the mac would let me in.

Nope.

Not sure where these activation codes are supposed to come from.

You get in by expressing interest. You can do this by attempting to log in on the mobile app. They're slowly adding people.
 
d/l the app but when i try to log-in it says it's still in beta and that i'm not signed up for it... ???
 
I always thought this would have come out sooner if only for the steam chat side of things.

Be good if you could buy the games and they download on a linked client direct to your machine.

Eg, Buy a game via app on phone at work in the morning, arrive home in the evening to it already downloaded
 
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