Steam for Mac announced, detailed

By Tom Bramwell Published 8 March, 2010

Launching in April with all Valve's games.

Valve has confirmed its not entirely secret plans to bring Steam to the Mac, and revealed the extent to which the Apple platform now weighs on the studio's thinking.

Steam will launch on Mac in April, and Valve's games - including Counter-Strike, the Half-Life series, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 will be ready then too.

But Valve will also make its future games available simultaneously on Windows and Mac, starting with Portal 2 this Christmas.

Valve's biz dev director Jason Holtman said the firm had a new feature called "Steam Play", which allows you to buy a game once and then play on either Windows or Mac.

"For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac," he said. "We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."

Steam dev director John Cook said Valve had decided to reject emulation in favour of producing native versions of games.

"The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward," he said.

"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. 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 president Gabe Newell added his support: "As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," he said. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (73) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Burton2000 #1 2 years ago

    Good to hear especially cross play between people on mac and pc.

  • Toothball #2 2 years ago

    I don't really care much for Macs, but cross platform compatibility is a tremendous piece of work.

  • Shakey_Jake33 #3 2 years ago

    If more people get to play a game, then it is always a good thing.

  • soviet_ #4 2 years ago

    Can't wait to coop with a Mac gamer playing Portal 2 with that 1 button mouse

    Edit: Come on, it was a pretty good joke
    Edited by 2 at 08/03/10 @ 20:58

  • Cider-X #5 2 years ago

    Valve games.. available on all formats!! except PS3


    /runs

  • dominalien #6 2 years ago

    Linux would be nice. There have been rumours of Linux Steam and HL2 for a while now, but it seems nothing's coming my way just yet.

    Still, I played HL2Ep1 in Wine last year. Looking forward to playing through Ep2 on my Mac soon :-)

  • stuarty_2003 #7 2 years ago

    So I won't need to buy HL2 again? Is that right?

  • Shakey_Jake33 #8 2 years ago

    @stuarty_2003 - If you buy the game once, you get it on both formats.

  • Bravestinsane #9 2 years ago

    Im a PC, but damn thats a good deal, more people online the better!

  • Hermiod #10 2 years ago

    Source engine games are also very scaleable. Valve's games should play nicely on most Intel Macs with dedicated graphics.

    I've seen a few videos of their games running on MacBook Pros with nVidia 9400M graphics via Boot Camp and they run very nicely - and now you won't even need Boot Camp.

  • Tomo #11 2 years ago

    I still don't quite follow. Will I be able to play the games I already own on my PC, on my Mac, for no extra cost?!

    /confusion

  • Hunam #12 2 years ago

    Native engine, excellent work Valve!

  • Venkman90 #13 2 years ago

    Aye, I wonder if they will want to charge you for what you already bought if it was BEFORE "Steam Play"

    I have Torchlight on Steam, the dev is working on a mac version, will I be able to get that via Steam for nowt on OSX?

    /confused but sort of optimistic

  • derfs #14 2 years ago

    @tomo

    yes, if you have any of the above steam games, then doesnt matter how you purchased them.

    wherever you can run steam you can run the game at no extra cost.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #15 2 years ago

    The option to play on both Mac and Windows is fantastic. Next stop: 360 and PC. I have to admit I though about getting Orange Box for PC as well (already have it on the 360) more than just once.

  • bad09 #16 2 years ago

    Welcome to the wonderful world of Steam mac users!

    / hugs cuddly Gabe

  • StooMonster #17 2 years ago

    Mac versions of existing PC purchases for free demonstrate what an excellent company Valve is, and in the future buying "Portal 2" gives Mac and PC versions.

    Okay Blizzard have been doing that forever, but hey, brilliant that Valve are doing it now too.

  • General_Zod #18 2 years ago

    I wish every developer would use OpenGL so I didnt have to rely on Microsoft anymore :(

  • Shakey_Jake33 #19 2 years ago

    I wonder if the OpenGL renderer is going to become available for the Windows version too. That will make life easier for people using Linux+Wine.

  • arcam #20 2 years ago

    I wish every developer would use OpenGL so I didnt have to rely on Microsoft anymore

    Amen. I hope this is a sign of things to come. Mac and Linux have never been an option for me because of the games, but I'd drop MS in a heartbeat given the chance.

  • Eraysor #21 2 years ago

    Valve kicking ass yet again.

  • DaemonSpawn #22 2 years ago

    That's some great news! Macs are becoming more popular these days, so if publishers will see OSX as viable platform for videogames (paired with Steam as distribution system), all PC gaming wins, because Windows + OSX as a potential market may give more incentive for developing PC version alonside console ones, than Windows alone.

  • the_mtfr #23 2 years ago

    Great news that it's a native engine! This hopefully means a much smaller effort left to port to Linux now.

    Valve, you are porting to Linux aren't you? There's free cake if you do ;)

    And as a side note, I hope Stardock is going to follow with their pretty good Impulse.
    Edited by 1 at 08/03/10 @ 20:02

  • GamesConnoisseur #24 2 years ago

    That is brilliant service from Valve, really well thought out and serving the loyal customers and the Marketing/Sales Dept must be non plussed by the possibility of lost extra revenues however big and small it could have been.

    Still think after all that, console(s) sales would be kept firmly separated from PC and thus no shared purchase between two, as PC and Mac market are big but consoles are too lucrative for them to consider the same package?

    Valve already said they would do PS3 at some point, probably the next project (they already recruited PS3 programming team? Correct?).

  • Distributor #25 2 years ago

    Valve really is pissing in Sonys sock. I like it :)

  • jambii267 #26 2 years ago

    Good news for Mac owners, The more competition against microsoft the better!

  • septimus #27 2 years ago

    Very useful, hopefully means I can stop using boot camp.

  • Colin8703 #28 2 years ago

    Sign me up for this.

    I'm sure they will but i'm hoping the pricing stays in line with the PC games. The Mac versions of games at retail are shocking unless they also contain the PC version.

  • EMarkM #29 2 years ago

    Excellent: I am very, very pleased :)

  • matrim83 #30 2 years ago

    Class act Valve.

    /Bow

  • Vin #31 2 years ago

    About bloody time.

  • AGBear #32 2 years ago

    I can't wait to play Left 4 Dead 2 on my Macbook Pro- means I can get rid of my Boot Camp partition. However, Mac games are often poorly optimised compared to the PC version (I'm looking at you, Sims 3) so I'll reserve judgement until I get to play it. Still, this is a major blow against Microsoft and a victory for gamers in general!

  • tiny_Eggy #33 2 years ago

    So we'll have to wait even longer on Episode 3.

  • SniperZoz #34 2 years ago

    This is good news for the Mac crowd ... not trying to taunt but you guys finally get some games from a class a developer/publisher - and it's about time too!

    But - to the the guy/s saying that this is a major blow for MS Windows ... heh think again ... this is but one (relatively very small) step in the right direction ... when it comes to a gaming OSes, MS is on the moon, and Apple just finally is horse riding!
    Edited by 2 at 08/03/10 @ 22:50

  • MikkyX #35 2 years ago

    Now to find out how many Steam publishers are happy for Mac owners to access native versions of games they bought on the PC...... Sega, I'm looking at you, and Football Manager, in particular!

  • IneptPercy #36 2 years ago

    I just think valve must be very cleaver, if there is only 10 games which work on Mac and most of them are Valve they are bound to get a few sales.

    I will stay with my cheaper yet better none white case Windows PC for gaming me thinks.

  • Jayke #37 2 years ago

    Good lord now microsoft is going to have to pay valve to make there computer games pc only! poor monopoly....

  • Atropos #38 2 years ago

    Mmm, yummy in my tummy... I can stop cadging the girlfriends PC whenever I feel the need for som King's Bounty or Counterstrike. Goody gumdrops.

  • AJGB #39 2 years ago

    I bet Justin Long sucks at L4D2.

  • MiniAmin #40 2 years ago

    I wish cross platform was available on consoles sometimes. It's a silly utopian wish I know, but still.

  • Buran #41 2 years ago

    PC gaming is alive, but for sure Mac gaming is a rotten corpse nowadays.

  • Les #42 2 years ago

    Very good. Guess this means I'll 'have' to buy HL2 again. Am hoping for some introductory deals.

    edit: To clarify: I don't already own the PC version of HL2. And as the game is so good and I want to support Mac gaming, I'll just 'have' to buy it for OS X once available. :)
    Edited by 1 at 09/03/10 @ 12:32

  • MikkyX #43 2 years ago

    Les, I think from what I've read if you have the PC versions of any Valve games then you get the Mac ones free - no need to re-buy!

  • Les #44 2 years ago

    @ MikkyX

    If that's the case, that would be great! :)

    But I guess I would still 'need' to buy HL2 again as I only own it as part of the Orange box for PS3. Did buy the original HL with the HL2 source engine through Steam though.

    /edit: re-reading the article I see that indeed there is the possibility of buying once across Windows and Mac platforms, though it is an optional feature for the publishers. I guess all Valve games will make use of it though I wonder if games with the feature will be priced higher.
    Edited by 2 at 09/03/10 @ 10:22

  • Krusty #45 2 years ago

    Really good decision that you buy it once and can play it on either platform... bet some publishers will whine about though.

    Valve really are legends! Good on ya Gabe :)

  • KillerMonkey #46 2 years ago

    I'm no Mac user but this is still pretty cool of them.

  • mcbain23 #47 2 years ago

    valve_ftw++

  • username #48 2 years ago

    This is awesomely good news - now I can play TF2 in the office instead of working!

    Will EG be adding a Mac category for news and reviews?

  • paulf #49 2 years ago

    @AGBear iirc sims 3 runs under emulation on the mac, hence the poor optimisation, looks like valve arent doing this though so hopefully the mac versions should run fine

  • Grayvern #50 2 years ago

    Let's put this in perspective windows is making losses mac os is making smaller ones but it's still like 92% vs 5%. If apple payed valve then it makes sense.

    Although yes it is kind of a cool move if only for the advertising pics.

    @ username that would be pointless for Eurogamer all that would be needed would be slight adendums in the performance sector of the review. And perhaps the odd digital foundry.

  • makeamazing #51 2 years ago

    Will install this on my Mac rather than need to use Parallels and windows... cool :)

    Are we sure that we get Valve PC games that we already have free on Mac? This sounds more like the apple plus option... or whatever its called, are we sure its not when you buy you can spend alittle more to get it on multiple formats? Perhaps its just me, as thats what it sounded like

  • Grayvern #52 2 years ago

    No it's already purchased a valve game on steam able to download to mac too. They could not justify charging for it as in this sense it's esentially the same as downloading a steak game on another pc from your account, which valve happily pets you do as many time as you want.

  • Durandle #53 2 years ago

    Will be interesting to see if other publishers follow with Mac versions of existing/new games. What would be more interesting still is if for games that aren't re-made for Mac could just be given the Cider Wrapper treatment - I've played a few games like that and its pretty effective.

  • prometheus3k #54 2 years ago

    Well the fact they adopted OpenGL does show Valve are a step closer to a PS3 Source engine. PS3 uses PSGL, a PS version of OpenGL ES. Not that it matters a great deal to me as I play Valve games on PC.

    [link url=http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/PSGL
    ]http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/PSGL
    [/link]

    Just need to connect the dots, Valve :)

  • freakzilla #55 2 years ago

    So the lack of PS3 support... ackward hardware or fanboy dev?

  • Windypops #56 2 years ago

    This news has given me a semi.

    I've been a Mac user for just over three years now and, whilst I'm unbearably smug about its superiority over Windows in almost every conceivable way, it all feels rather hollow when something decent comes out for PC that I want to play.

    I can be that bit smugger!

  • Grayvern #57 2 years ago

    Windypops you and your other world logic scare me. I mean did you pay for the apple screen, if so why not an equally expensive but non in house and better Eizo, did you not think that the hardware prices were inflated.

    If apples stopped pushing the hardware with software then I would gladly consider Apples os's to be serious.

  • Les #58 2 years ago

    "If apples stopped pushing the hardware with software then I would gladly consider Apples os's to be serious."

    ?! IMHO separating hardware and OS was about as stupid as dualism (separation of mind and body popularized by Descartes and unfortunately heavily embedded in Western culture)...

  • IneptPercy #59 2 years ago

    How you can be smug to have paid more for lessor hardware with a limited OS?

  • devilmyarse #60 2 years ago

    @IneptPercy PC Fanboy logic at it's worst. OS X is superior to Windows in every single way apart from gaming, now even that isn't a problem.

  • IneptPercy #61 2 years ago

    That sounds more like Apple fanboyism in every way, unlike you I will admit both have there strengths.

    OSX is better 'out of the box' and has many great features, but is limited in software choices when you want to do something else.

    As for gaming on a Mac not being a problem now, a lot more people than valve make games...

    I will admit most of the advantages of windows are down to its effective monopoly, but if you can't beat them... join them.

    Call OSX the better OS when it can run on just about any hardware combination and you aren't forced to buy overpriced 'Apple' hardware which is no different inside.

  • devilmyarse #62 2 years ago

    @IneptPercy:
    What exactly are you limited in software wise? As far as productivity goes and creative suites, OS X has them all, and then some mac exclusive stuff that is easily worth the price of entry if you want to buy official Apple hardware [find me a better or similarly equipped laptop that costs less than a Macbook Pro, find a PC in the same form factor as the iMac with the same performance and aesthetic for the same price or less] such as Logic Studio, Ableton Live doesn't even come close to being as functional as Logic Studio. My gaming rig (Q6600 @ 3.5GHz, 4GB Ram, P5Q deluxe and HD4870) is used for gaming, there is nothing (aside from stuff that benefits from more horsepower) that I can't get done quicker on my mac and I have used windows daily for well over a decade and my Mac for 3+ years, it just makes more sense as an operating system.

    Steam coming to mac will be the beginning of more publishers supporting the platform, it will be inevitable. It was instrumental in the widespread adoption of digital distribution on Windows back when it launched, it will do the same for the Macintosh.

  • Les #63 2 years ago

    "I will admit most of the advantages of windows are down to its effective monopoly, but if you can't beat them... join them."

    No, if you can't beat them, find your own profitable niche. E.g. like Wii did (and its niche ended up being bigger than the established market it left)... Seems that Apple is doing pretty fine without adopting MS's way of doing business. Rather, history keeps repeating itself and MS keeps following Apple's lead (Zune, Pink and of course their tribute OSs).

    "Call OSX the better OS when it can run on just about any hardware combination and you aren't forced to buy overpriced 'Apple' hardware which is no different inside."

    Why? I don't think running on everything should be a defining feature of an OS. I'd like to think we're past that phase of computing's infancy by now. Letting the user operate his/her device as efficiently and effectively is much more important IMHO.

  • darth_paul #64 2 years ago

    my pc broke down late last year, so i bought a mac in january. have been forced to install Win7 on a 2nd partition, in order to play, so im happy that finally i can play my Steam games on the Mac OSX

    this a great news, because a lot of people are buying today Mac's instead of PC's :-)

  • IneptPercy #65 2 years ago

    At least none of you have said the no viruses thing, you know if everybody gets Macs the viruses will come.

    The point is I can open my PC and change things and not have to worry about my OS saying no, I can buy any hardware I want and it will work and can find as many programs as I like to do whatever task I like.

    Yes there is loads of great programs for the Mac but there is nothing close to the choice for a PC.

    What apple do best is make nice cases, but I am not paying more for my hardware so I can have a nice apple case.

    Just reminds me of a Linux machine I was trying to setup, the wireless card wouldn't work so I swapped it with one form my other PC and all is good, the PC will accept any card while the linux install won't... Macs are just the same.

  • Windypops #66 2 years ago

    @IneptPercy

    Depends what you want. If you want to mess around with different hardware configurations and tinker "under the bonnet", then it's PC all the way. I spend all day at work configuring and fixing PCs, and their versatility is not in dispute: they are infinitely superior for a vast array of applications, particularly in the workplace (Christ, trying to get a Mac to work on a Windows network with Active Directory is enough to make me shit blood. I had to consult Google just to create a desktop shortcut).

    However, when I get home, I want to surf the internet, get e-mail, fuck about on Twitter, Facebook, make blog posts, fuck with photos and do digital art, home movies and stuff, and buy crap for my iPhone. I know a PC will do all of that, too. But in the three-plus years I've had a Mac, I have never had to: delete a virus, reformat and reinstall the operating system, search for a driver, find out how to disable the stupid fucking UAC bastard that asks my bastard permission every time I want to do something, purchase anti-virus software that will have a huge impact on my system's performance, spend ages trawling through various services in MSConfig to see if I want them running at start-up; you get the picture.

    In short: at work, I often have to tinker with the Windows registry to fix things; I don't know if a Mac even has a registry. I have no clue how any of it works because I don't need to know.

    It depends how you value your free time. Fiddling with stuff: overclocking graphics cards, creating a dual-boot Linux-Windows environment, that sort of thing, whilst sipping a brew and listening to some tunes might be your idea of bliss. For me, not so much. And I'll happily pay a couple of hundred quid extra because I will get every penny of it back in terms of leisure time.

  • Les #67 2 years ago

    "The point is I can open my PC and change things"

    If that's important to you, don't get a Mac, true. Though for 99% of the people that buy Windows PCs it's not important at all.

    "What apple do best is make nice cases, but I am not paying more for my hardware so I can have a nice apple case."

    If form factor is not important to you, of course you don't pay extra for it. Though it's a bit of an oversimplification (and one you must be aware of) to state that Apple just creates a nice box. They create systems that are well-tuned and the limited number of hardware specs that they have to support are an important factor in the overall stability of their systems.

    "the PC will accept any card while the linux install won't... Macs are just the same."

    That in itself has very little to do with the OS but with hardware manufacturers producing drivers.

    "And I'll happily pay a couple of hundred quid extra because I will get every penny of it back in terms of leisure time."

    + a lot :)

    I've configured my own PCs and have gotten pretty much all Linux distros working with my set of hardware (quitting is for losers ;) ). And I enjoyed it quite a bit. But in the end getting things to work became a sort of addictive puzzle and I kept on installing new (alpha / beta) versions of distros without actually using the PC in itself anymore. So I went back to my Mac roots and while I still run the occasional Linux distro in virtualization, everything just works and it works in a way that makes sense to me. Now I can spend my time effectively, writing in comments sections like this... ;)

  • IneptPercy #68 2 years ago

    I think what windypops is saying is what I mean by they are great out of the box, by all means I would get my mum can dad a Mac if they weren't so overpriced as much like yourself its a it will do xyz with no issues.

    I do agree that my wireless card not working id more down to the makers not making a driver, but the poitnb is everything gets a windows driver where not everything will get a linux or Mac driver.

    But for similar reasons to the advantages of a Mac I have put ubuntu on my other halfs PC and now it runs great and does all the basic things she wants to do with no fuss, but I know instantly it wouldn't work for me even if I wasn't gaming.

    Really OSX needs to be opened up as an OS which you can install on anything but then it will suffer from the same problems as windows. Somebody installs Vista on a Pentium 3 machine and decides Vista is rubbish but I am sure OSX would suffer the same. And as mentioned the more popular it gets the more likely the Viruses will start to appear.

    Basically if Macs weren't so over priced then I wouldn't have a problem as I will admit that some of the things which make me think OSX is limited other people are grateful for and so on, but the fact they charge more for the same hardware with a tweaked Bios underneth really gets at me and i just can't recommend them to anybody when you can buy a same spec windows machine for less.

  • darth_paul #69 2 years ago

    about the virus thing... a pc deals with executable files in a different way than the MAC OSX does, so its easier for the virus to spread in Windows than mac. i suppose you guys have never installed anything on mac

  • Les #70 2 years ago

    "and i just can't recommend them to anybody when you can buy a same spec windows machine for less."

    IMHO it's rather simplistic (and a bit 2009) to look at PCs purely from a hardware spec point of view. Fact is there is no true alternative to a Mac, unfortunately.

    I tend to recommend a machine based on what the users want to do with it and their level of experience/interest in computers. For just browsing the web, a cheap PC with Ubuntu will do. If they're experienced computer users and want to use commercial programs, a Windows machine is an option. If they're inexperienced users (or just don't care much about computers and just want them to work) but want a bit more sophistication to their software than Linux can offer, go for a Mac.

  • Bulbatron #71 2 years ago

    Somebody really needs to create a 'Which is better? PC or Mac?' thread.

    Anyway...

    Been a Mac user for about a year. I've never been a PC gamer, (apart from Doom and Heretic, years ago). Steam for Mac seems like good news to me, though I can imagine I will probably continue to buy the Xbox 360 versions of games and use Steam for Mac if anything comes out (from any other developers that use Steam on the Mac) that I can't buy on Xbox 360, to save my Mac HDD space.

    Though perhaps I'll get one of the Half-Life games on Mac, just to see what's so good about playing with mouse and keyboard.

  • Jelly_Head #72 2 years ago

    This is good news for the Mac crowd ... not trying to taunt but you guys finally get some games from a class a developer/publisher - and it's about time too!

    Yeah, it's been a real bugger having to play shite like Modern Warfare, World of Warcraft and all those EA Sports games.

  • Jelly_Head #73 2 years ago

    In short: at work, I often have to tinker with the Windows registry to fix things; I don't know if a Mac even has a registry. I have no clue how any of it works because I don't need to know.

    Lol... no, only Windows has a "registry" (thank fuck). For reference, program and OS settings on a Mac are stored in .plist files that can be edited with Property List Editor, if you want to tinker about.