Valve Confirms Games, Steam for Macs in April
Valve Software going after the aluminum-clad computer crowd. Officially.
It was painfully hinted at last week, but Valve today makes it official with its announcement that it is bringing Steam and the Source engine to the Mac.
The Source engine porting over will bring to Mac OS X users Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series – all of which will be available in April.
"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.
Cook pointed to the recent beta version of Steam that eschewed the Internet Explorer rendering engine in favor of WebKit, which is used in Apple's Safari, Google Chrome and a number of mobile browsers, and the OpenGL support given to Source as added flexibility to move to the Mac.
"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," added Cook. "We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows."
Valve also confirmed that the recently announced Portal 2 is also slated for a Mac release alongside the PC and Xbox 360 versions. Those concerned that a Mac version may take away from PC development time shouldn't worry.
"Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac."
Now with Valve and Blizzard-Activision jumping on simultaneous PC/Mac releases, other publishers may follow, and possibly nudge Apple into producing Macs that are more catered to gamers.
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I'm hoping that
a) this doesn't slow down valve development too much (it's already pretty slow...)
and
b) this means that linux binaries may be coming... They've already done OpenGL...
This might just be what convinces me to get a Mac for when I go to college next semester.
This is great news for Apple fans but what are they going to play the games on?
The iMac maxes out with the 4850 and the cheapest model with the 4850 costs $1850. If you want anything faster than a 4850 you'll have to purchase a Mac Pro with a 4870 which will run you $2700.
In the end this is going to be moot if Apple doesn't get rolling with some serious GPU updates. There aren't going to be any gamers buying Apple with that lineup. Not a single legitimate gaming machine to be had.
This might just be what convinces me to get a Mac for when I go to college next semester.
So you can pay a premium for outdated hardware? Good plan.
Ya know, I've always wanted to pay $1000 more to do the exact same thing I do now........hmm.
...this means that linux binaries may be coming... They've already done OpenGL...
Oh man I hope so...
They'll say this after a while -
Man this game is running like crap... I guess I oughta buy a pc with some real power.
LINUX SUPPORT, NOW!
Please please steam support linux please
I agree that the only positive thing I hear is future Linux support. Other than that this is a fail any way you look at it. This Only opens up the rebuttal "macs can play games just like windows can" to the inevitable argument many of us have. Woot spend $2700 dollars on a status symbol that can now play Valve games. No thanks. I can build 5 computers and have a lan party with friends for that much money. The best part is.. they would all be proud of my frugal-ness and impressed with ME because of what I can do. Not the shiney-ness of my white or aluminum computer. Ranting now , sorry.
How would the laptops 9600m run these games? or the upcoming Starcraft 2 or diablo 3? speculations?
I do not think this will be a bad thing. The source engine is very hardware friendly. Hell even with a 4350(that is slower then a 8600GT) you CAN play many source games as long as you can play with lowered settings(it does not look that bad).
Yup Linux support please so it's another step to ditch Microsoft for me
.
.
Also, now I'm wondering if what I bought makes it available for me on the Mac since I do have a Mac laptop. This'll definitely mean I can game on the go as well
Anyone who games does it on a PC.
Valve will monitor how many Macs are currently online at any given time.
The sound that they hear is crickets.
The new macs are barely fast enough for L4D. Then again, since most games are currently lousy console ports, maybe a mac can game.... if you can find a mac owner who games..... I hear crickets again.
I'm actually hopeful that this will encourage some more PC game development in general. Having more systems to possible sell titles on means that publishers would be more willing to put a big game out there. Apple will still need to remedy their terrible graphics card selection however.
I'm hoping that a) this doesn't slow down valve development too much (it's already pretty slow...)andb) this means that linux binaries may be coming... They've already done OpenGL...
well hopefully the slowness over the last year or so has been because they have done this. from what I can see, they have just made the engine multi platform, hopefully, with a directX branch and an openGL branch, meaning they just develop games like normal on windows, and it just works on Macs as a bonus.
This is great news for Apple fans but what are they going to play the games on? The iMac maxes out with the 4850 and the cheapest model with the 4850 costs $1850. If you want anything faster than a 4850 you'll have to purchase a Mac Pro with a 4870 which will run you $2700.In the end this is going to be moot if Apple doesn't get rolling with some serious GPU updates. There aren't going to be any gamers buying Apple with that lineup. Not a single legitimate gaming machine to be had.
Valve games are well known for being light on the system, their games don't exactly push the envelope in terms of graphics and almost anyone's computer can run a Valve title with decent frame rates.
It seems funny that mac prides itself on being inventive, cutting edge, and whatever else they seem to think thats along those lines yet only now can they play such mediocre games that a mediocre pc can do and has done for years... odd...
Most would be Mac gamers are in the same category as most of the PC users, the ones that buy a "superior gaming performance" market PC with a 2GB GeForce GT210 or something similar. GPU-wise, what you get from a mac is never high end, but at least it's not Intel GMA anymore. At least the stuff in Orange box should be light enough to give a satisfactory performance from a Core2 Duo machine with a GF9400.
as long as games don't go exclusive to Mac I'm fine
I don't want that console war crap on the PC
Linux - so you can have the same hardware as windows in a cheaper system! Please!
So Valve would choose to spend their resources on the Mac over the PlayStation 3. They must truly despise working on the PlayStation 3.
In the same tradition of Apple offering a CDROM for the Powerbook ...years after it is available on a PC laptop.
This might just be what convinces me to get a Mac for when I go to college next semester.
It's funny because a lot of people choose mac because they want to be "different" or feel like they are a part of some sort of elite. But EVERYONE in college has a mac. What I have noticed is that most of the engineering majors use pc's while all of the other majors use macs. So if you are begging to be different in college, get a pc.
If you are trying to scratch a gaming itch in college while still having mobility, get a pc laptop. Don't get a mac. Gaming performance/price will not be satisfactory on a mac.
And that's my final word.
How would the laptops 9600m run these games? or the upcoming Starcraft 2 or diablo 3? speculations?
I've got a laptop with the 9600M GT, but it's Gddr2. It runs a lot of the source-engine games well (at 1680x1050), but the source-engine games are kinda light on hardware...
Wouldn't know anything about starcraft 2 or diablo 3 though
Oh I am Loving this =]
It's funny to read all the "Gamers" talk about systems being outdated etc. But the truth of the matter is the vast majority of PC Gamers play WoW, the Sims, Farmville, Flash games and MSN titles. The number of PC users that play MW2 and Bad Company 2 type games that need really good graphics and CPU's is rather small in comparison.
Being the owner of a SLi system for myself and one for my teenage son we are the only two out of a group of 30+ friends and family PC users that even have high end GPU's at all. Almost all the rest have integrated graphics be it Intel, Nvidia or ATI and two have 8400gs cards.
And at least 10 people we know play MW, COD:WOW or MW2 on those systems.
While I'm waiting for HL2 ep.3 or HL3, this is what Valve has been doing - porting their games to Mac?
Oh goody, I can play Counterstrike Source on a Mac! Hope the hardware can handle it...They getting Bad Company 2 anytime soon? I can't stop playing that now, except to harass people on Toms Forums...hopefully by the time its available on the mac people are still playing it
This is great news for Apple fans but what are they going to play the games on? The iMac maxes out with the 4850 and the cheapest model with the 4850 costs $1850. If you want anything faster than a 4850 you'll have to purchase a Mac Pro with a 4870 which will run you $2700.In the end this is going to be moot if Apple doesn't get rolling with some serious GPU updates. There aren't going to be any gamers buying Apple with that lineup. Not a single legitimate gaming machine to be had.
I totally agree.
Mac may have the fan base, but they don't have the tech (in their computers).
This is great news for Apple fans but what are they going to play the games on? The iMac maxes out with the 4850 and the cheapest model with the 4850 costs $1850. If you want anything faster than a 4850 you'll have to purchase a Mac Pro with a 4870 which will run you $2700.In the end this is going to be moot if Apple doesn't get rolling with some serious GPU updates. There aren't going to be any gamers buying Apple with that lineup. Not a single legitimate gaming machine to be had.
that's a 4850m in the iMac, and a 4870 512MB in the tower.
Sad, very sad. =(
It's funny to read all the "Gamers" talk about systems being outdated etc. But the truth of the matter is the vast majority of PC Gamers play WoW, the Sims, Farmville, Flash games and MSN titles. The number of PC users that play MW2 and Bad Company 2 type games that need really good graphics and CPU's is rather small in comparison. Being the owner of a SLi system for myself and one for my teenage son we are the only two out of a group of 30+ friends and family PC users that even have high end GPU's at all. Almost all the rest have integrated graphics be it Intel, Nvidia or ATI and two have 8400gs cards. And at least 10 people we know play MW, COD:WOW or MW2 on those systems.
I wish Farmville would die. >=(
I also wish you were lying...