Valve's Mac Plans Announced

Valve announces plans to bring their Steam platform and Source engine to the Mac platform, confirming pretty obvious clues that this was in the works, saying Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available for Mac in April. Word is Portal 2 will be the first of their new titles to be simultaneously released on both platforms, and that developing in Source automates this: "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."

They say they explored emulation, but decided to go with native versions: "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." They are also adding a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge, and Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve, says: "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. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."
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55.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 9, 2010, 08:37
55.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 9, 2010, 08:37
Mar 9, 2010, 08:37
 
I could barely read that but you seem happy so I'll just assume that strange story ended well.
Avatar 51617
54.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 9, 2010, 03:01
54.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 9, 2010, 03:01
Mar 9, 2010, 03:01
 
My stinky two cents:

I've got a desktop PC (I totally over-engineered for gaming... 10 years ago), a laptop PC (Dell built for... some odd reason), an old G4 Mac that rocks Photoshop just fine (that Apple built ; ), a 2 year old MacBook Pro that my wife, daughter and I love and fight over (cuz "See? It just works!", an Xbox (... Halo machine), an Xbox 360 that I have a *blast* with (I LOVE that box!), and a Wii that is great for parties (only one broken overhead lamp so far.)

Anyway... my wife loved to play Half-Life on my zillion year old PC, back when we were dating. So when I told her it looked like she might soon be able to play "her game" on the MacBook... well... um... Valve got me layed. Thanks guys! Just the mention of cross platform Steam was enough to get this old Valve fan some nookie!
53.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 20:36
toT
53.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 20:36
Mar 8, 2010, 20:36
toT
 
Jay wrote on Mar 8, 2010, 20:17:

Actually I have a mac and develop using XCode.... etc

Fair enough Jay. Thanks for the clarification
52.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 20:17
Jay
52.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 20:17
Mar 8, 2010, 20:17
Jay
 
toT wrote on Mar 8, 2010, 16:35:
Mac OS X has world class development tools, in my opinion. XCode is great to work with, and is supplied by Apple, completely free. There is no fee to download the tools, start coding and releasing OS X applications. I have not used MSDN or the MS tools, and I am not commenting on the quality of them, but I know that they are not free to all developers. Likewise I suspect that you have never used XCode at all, because there are also tons of code samples, tutorial videos, and documentation available to all developers at the Apple website, once again at no charge.

Actually I have a mac and develop using XCode and use the developer connection site occasionally. You're right of course, let me re-phrase: MSDN offers a lot of game-development related help. For example, oh i don't know, real-time shadows. You can find no less than 3 different example code, not to mention explanation of different methods and theories, plus the industry trend and recommendations. There are a lot of valuable information geared specifically toward game developers, which, unfortunately, is sorely lacking in mac development docs (understandably, of course).
Avatar 54872
51.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 19:44
RaZ0r!
 
51.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 19:44
Mar 8, 2010, 19:44
 RaZ0r!
 
This is the biggest thing to happen to Mac gaming since the release of q3test for Mac. (And q3test was released on Mac before Windows and Linux hehe remember?)

WAY TO GO VALVE!!
I pwnz j00!
Avatar 8127
50.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 19:02
50.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 19:02
Mar 8, 2010, 19:02
 
Yeah, if Apple would license the OS so that one could buy it in the store and install it on a custom built machine (in other words, support non-Mac Hardware installs) then I think the user base might grow a little faster.


True, but Apple doesn't need / want that. They are very profitable right now. When they last worked with clone makers they nearly folded. Why would they want to risk a profitable business model just to grow faster? They are growing and profitable now.
”Not many people know I owned the first radio in Springfield. Weren’t much on the air then. Just Edison reciting the alphabet over and over. “A,” he’d say. Then “B.” “C” would usually follow."
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49.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 18:54
49.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 18:54
Mar 8, 2010, 18:54
 
Surf wrote on Mar 8, 2010, 18:38:
The Virus/Hacking debate between Windows/Linux and Mac has already been settled and all are open to attacks, nothing is safe. The reason for the viruses is maximum effect.
Say a virus causes a buffer overflow in Firefox on Windows. It now has access to the Windows folder and can install whatever it wants. Same virus in Firefox on Linux causes a buffer overflow. At best it can trash the users home folder. Unixes were built from the ground up with 40 years of history of being multi-user on the same machines: from early mainframes to now desktops. All along the way users have been hostile to each other and the Unix defenses grew to accommodate that. Now if you mean it is not impossible to infect a Linux or a Mac machine then sure, but in the real world Linux and Mac defenses are not made of toilet paper like Windows. Which is too bad, the NT core (all modern Windows) actually has a great security model: but it is crippled because of backwards-compatibility - it would break too many existing programs to actually use it to provide security.
48.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 18:38
48.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 18:38
Mar 8, 2010, 18:38
 
The Virus/Hacking debate between Windows/Linux and Mac has already been settled and all are open to attacks, nothing is safe. The reason for the viruses is maximum effect.

Since there are Mac users here, arrogance is a given.

4% of the world market uses Mac
4% of the world market uses Linux/Unix
90% of the world market uses Windows
2% other

Who do you want to nab money from? For the smart folks it would be the 90%, for Mac users, the 2%.

It really comes down to that folks. More bang for the virus and it works or else I wouldn't get daily spam from Aji Ambumtu the Nigerian Banker with 10 million to give me. Sucker born every minute.
47.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 18:36
47.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 18:36
Mar 8, 2010, 18:36
 
Bring on the mac support! It's about time that the lean goes the other way for gamers. Steve Jobs needs to smarten up and realize that Mac OS X is a great platform for games.
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46.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 18:08
46.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 18:08
Mar 8, 2010, 18:08
 
Overon wrote on Mar 8, 2010, 17:59:
However this is an overall positive thing for game consumers everywhere. This is an incremental step in the right direction. I won't make gaming as big on MAC as it is on Windows, but it will make it a little bigger. And hopefully it will grow.

Yeah, if Apple would license the OS so that one could buy it in the store and install it on a custom built machine (in other words, support non-Mac Hardware installs) then I think the user base might grow a little faster.
--
Tigger
Vic Fontaine for President
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45.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 18:03
45.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 18:03
Mar 8, 2010, 18:03
 
I have to guess MAC gamers (if there is such a thing)know what to expect if they purchase both PC and MAC games. If they only purchase MAC games, they certainly aren't going to see a long list

Initially, yes, but if they can write once and build on both platforms, then that list will grow - providing they can convince people to use Source.

Of course, I don't think this is the magic bullet - sometimes we end up doing things on one platform one way but find that when we try to do the same thing on a different platform, it doesn't perform or behave in exactly the same way.

I think this is great though - I've got a steam catalog full of games (almost all the Source-based titles) that I haven't touched in ages that I'd like to be able to play in OS X.
--
Tigger
Vic Fontaine for President
Avatar 7252
44.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 17:59
44.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 17:59
Mar 8, 2010, 17:59
 
I'm going to make a not so bold prediction. Besides the Valve Source titles, some of the indie games and "casual" games that don't use Source, will probably appear on MAC Steam quickly when the client goes live. However I seriously doubt that the next Battlefield game will. I don't think the user base is there to justify the added development costs.

However this is an overall positive thing for game consumers everywhere. This is an incremental step in the right direction. I won't make gaming as big on MAC as it is on Windows, but it will make it a little bigger. And hopefully it will grow.
43.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 17:35
43.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 17:35
Mar 8, 2010, 17:35
 
MMORPGHoD wrote on Mar 8, 2010, 16:30:
Possibly, or there could be a grayed out list similar to 'Not installed' for the PC only games. Since they're letting you log in with the same login id for both, I was thinking they'd list everything purchased for that account rather than hide them. There are actually some options for those games (View Forum, View Store page) that might still be useful in some cases

Yah that's a good point I suppose. For usability they'll want to make it possible to purchase for either platform no matter which platform is currently being used. But (to put it extreme) I cannot imagine, by default upon logging into Steam on a MAC, that they would show thousands of games, and only 3 or 4 can run on a MAC. Regarding your list of purchased games, I have to guess MAC gamers (if there is such a thing)know what to expect if they purchase both PC and MAC games. If they only purchase MAC games, they certainly aren't going to see a long list
42.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 17:35
Dev
42.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 17:35
Mar 8, 2010, 17:35
Dev
 
Surf:
Mac owners have shown by merely using a mac that they have more income they are willing to spend on computers. There's probably less pirate percentage on mac than on PC too.
Plus, this isn't just for the marketplace share of macs. If you are a developer and you see a multi platform online setup from steam, and then a single platform from someone else, who would you more likely use? And of course there's also the draw for source engine, developing using source engine now means automatic multiplatform.
Macs are something like 10% of computer market, and if a dev can tap into a higher disposable income market segment that could be more than 10% of his customer base, with ZERO extra effort if they use source engine, why the heck would they not (ceteris paribus)
41.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 17:24
Ant
 
41.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 17:24
Mar 8, 2010, 17:24
 Ant
 
Riker wrote on Mar 8, 2010, 14:56:
I thought Mac gamers would typically fall under the "casual gaming" category. Don't serious gamers already have PCs?
And video game consoles?
Avatar 1957
40.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 17:24
40.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 17:24
Mar 8, 2010, 17:24
 
Surf wrote on Mar 8, 2010, 17:12:
Wow, I guess I really am talking to a Mac user. Are you going to tell me your Macs don't get viruses too?
Windows has taught you that getting a virus is normal. It's not.
39.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 17:22
Ant
 
39.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 17:22
Mar 8, 2010, 17:22
 Ant
 
Surf wrote on Mar 8, 2010, 17:12:
If a fucking Mac can dual boot into Windows XP/Vista/7, why the FUCK should anyone build games for the Mac? Just FUCKING boot into FUCKING Windows and FUCKING play your game.

DO
YOU
FUCKING
UNDERSTAND? The time wasted coding/porting/waiting to make a game for the Mac is POINTLESS when they can dual boot into a Gaming OS that has been a Gaming OS for 20+ years?

Wow, I guess I really am talking to a Mac user. Are you going to tell me your Macs don't get viruses too?
Why would they want to use boot camp/dual boot? Dual boot is annoying. I hate shutting down and rebooting!
Avatar 1957
38.
 
Another Discussion on this topic
Mar 8, 2010, 17:22
38.
Another Discussion on this topic Mar 8, 2010, 17:22
Mar 8, 2010, 17:22
37.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 17:17
37.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 17:17
Mar 8, 2010, 17:17
 
More choice is great. Maybe it will encourage MS to do more than pay lip service to PC gaming.
Avatar 23266
36.
 
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced
Mar 8, 2010, 17:12
36.
Re: Valve's Mac Plans Announced Mar 8, 2010, 17:12
Mar 8, 2010, 17:12
 
@Joe Napalm: Might want to brush up on your computer history. Apple did NOT INVENT THE GUI NOR THE MOUSE, Xerox did, which was then bought by Apple.

"The OS X kernel is BSD based and OS X is a certified UNIX. It is not Linux. "

My point exactly. Linux/Unix has some 400 different iterations and not all use the same command lines. That, my friend is too much choice, too much confusion. Next thing you're going to say is that Linux will rule the desktop someday....

Still waiting on that one...


As for OpenGl if I remember correctly Carmack wrote a scathing open letter about how slow OpenGL development was and how featureless new versions are when they come out.



"Who cares if you like OS X or not? If you don't like it, don't use it. "
My point once again numbskulls: (AND PLEASE READ THIS)

If a fucking Mac can dual boot into Windows XP/Vista/7, why the FUCK should anyone build games for the Mac? Just FUCKING boot into FUCKING Windows and FUCKING play your game.

DO
YOU
FUCKING
UNDERSTAND? The time wasted coding/porting/waiting to make a game for the Mac is POINTLESS when they can dual boot into a Gaming OS that has been a Gaming OS for 20+ years?

Wow, I guess I really am talking to a Mac user. Are you going to tell me your Macs don't get viruses too?

This comment was edited on Mar 8, 2010, 17:17.
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