Is it just me or does this news item imply that Steam Cloud is coming to HL2?
There's a lot of features Valve wants to add to HL2 (achievements, HDR lighting, now steam cloud.) Releasing the game on the mac would be as good of time as any to add that crap in.
“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,” Cook said. “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.”
Surprising, I didn't actually expect that the playerbases would be mixed. Ought to give the Mac playerbase a leg up, otherwise I can't imagine there would've been too many games available for TF2 or Left 4 Dead at the start.
I also have to wonder if gaming takes off on the Mac proper because of this, whether this might signal Apple actually being more inclined to support in on the platform now. Traditionally they've made promises on bringing mainstream gaming to the Mac, but never really did much to back that up.
I would have been very surprised if Mac and Windows users wouldn't have been able to play with each other. It's Steam on both.
Does anyone else think it's hilarious that Valve is supporting the Mac before the PS3?
Time to break out the sidewinder mouse & logitech headset next month. They've been living in a drawer ever since I uninstalled Boot Camp
Not the PS3 users I can tell you that much, it's pretty much raging about how Valve are lazy and hate them so much. You should see the user comments on places like Kotaku.*
*[tiny]Do NOT see the user comments section on places like Kotaku[/tiny]
EDIT: Also it looks like this won't be available until Portal 2 (or maybe a little before). So your sidewinder might have to remain in its place for now, at least until about the end of the year.
Well, assuming that Valve actually meets that date. LOLValveTime etc.
“If there’s anything like iTunes on the PC right now for games, it’s Steam,” Connors said. “So you’ve got two great leaders in digital distribution coming together.”
Man, comparing Steam to iTunes is a little insulting. Maybe if iTunes took a page out of Steam's book and let you redownload songs.
You can't? Dammit, now my brother can't get his crap off my laptop. Why would they do such a thing?
edit: Is there a way I could put those steam sigs on facebook? just asking
You could just copy the image location and use that.
Also it looks like this won't be available until Portal 2 (or maybe a little before). So your sidewinder might have to remain in its place for now, at least until about the end of the year.
Well, assuming that Valve actually meets that date. LOLValveTime etc.
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 in April.
Unless Valve does what Valve does so well, it'll be out within two months.
Also it looks like this won't be available until Portal 2 (or maybe a little before). So your sidewinder might have to remain in its place for now, at least until about the end of the year.
Well, assuming that Valve actually meets that date. LOLValveTime etc.
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 in April.
Unless Valve does what Valve does so well, it'll be out within two months.
Microsoft should seriously be a little scared. I think more people would jump on the Mac bandwagon if they could game on them.
I dunno, I think this is just going to pander to people who are already on the mac bandwagon. (Which is A-OK, as they deserve to be able to play games as well.) I mean, aren't macs still more expensive for the equivalent hardware in a PC?
Microsoft should seriously be a little scared. I think more people would jump on the Mac bandwagon if they could game on them.
I dunno, I think this is just going to pander to people who are already on the mac bandwagon. (Which is A-OK, as they deserve to be able to play games as well.) I mean, aren't macs still more expensive for the equivalent hardware in a PC?
Yeah, and as far as GPU's go (a large concern when talking about gaming), Apple tends to not supply the best cards for gaming. That said, I don't think this will have giant ramifications; many Mac users will be happy they have more games available to them, but I don't think there will be a giant shift from PC users to Mac -- also considering even though Steam and Source games are being ported, that doesn't necessarily mean all of the Steam games will be playable on Mac. I don't know for sure, but I think most games on Steam don't have a native Mac port.
I feel this is going to quickly spiral into a Mac v PC debate.
Does anyone else think it's hilarious that Valve is supporting the Mac before the PS3?
Time to break out the sidewinder mouse & logitech headset next month. They've been living in a drawer ever since I uninstalled Boot Camp
Not the PS3 users I can tell you that much, it's pretty much raging about how Valve are lazy and hate them so much. You should see the user comments on places like Kotaku.*
*[tiny]Do NOT see the user comments section on places like Kotaku[/tiny]
EDIT: Also it looks like this won't be available until Portal 2 (or maybe a little before). So your sidewinder might have to remain in its place for now, at least until about the end of the year.
Well, assuming that Valve actually meets that date. LOLValveTime etc.
Do we have any word on what games will be available. Is the mac version just going to have the popcap and similar games that are already available for the mac?
Cronus on
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
Do we have any word on what games will be available. Is the mac version just going to have the popcap and similar games that are already available for the mac?
More than likely it will simply mean Steam will be supporting mac versions of the games they already have in their games list, plus Valves own games will be mac-happy as well which im sure will make mac users happy. Unless they intend to create some kind of emulator to make the windows games run on Mac. Though i honestly have no idea how Mac stuff works, i have zero interest in them.
It will most likely be just the actual steam software that will be available on the mac and each individual company will have to decide whether to port/make/distribute games to/for the mac.
I think the bigger question should be "How will this affect the weekly deals?" I mean, will they have specific mac centric deals that can potentially double the amount of midweek/weekend sales that exist? Imagine the savings!
If you own in on PC you own it on Mac, no rebuying.
This is actually enough for me to actually begin considering the possibility of thinking about perhaps switching to a Mac at some point in the future, maybe.
I reckon in a couple of years the notion of a "Mac gamer" will seem far less ridiculous than it does now. Although I expect Mac gamers will still have to wait eight-to-sixteen months for ports to come out, the availability of Steam on the platform will make the notion a lot more appealing to software developers. I can't speak for any companies out there, but I imagine this news has companies like Team17 wondering how long it would take to port their upcoming "Worms: Reloaded" and "Alien Breed: Evolution", both of which will be hitting Steam later this year, to the Mac.
Microsoft should seriously be a little scared. I think more people would jump on the Mac bandwagon if they could game on them.
I dunno, I think this is just going to pander to people who are already on the mac bandwagon. (Which is A-OK, as they deserve to be able to play games as well.) I mean, aren't macs still more expensive for the equivalent hardware in a PC?
If you treat them like people sooner or later they are going to begin to think they are people.
I've been a PC guy for about 12 years until I bought myself a Mac for this past Christmas.
The price disparity for hardware is only relevant at the extremely high ends of Mac hardware (namely their towers and monitors).
I have a relatively cheap Mac Mini and it is fairly decent considering the cost.
The news of Steam to Mac is the best thing ever, because there is nothing more annoying that bootcamping to Windows to use a single program.
This is important not because I get to play TF2, but because it will push other publishers to match Valve's efforts thus opening the flood gates for what was inevitable anyway, bringing gaming to the Mac desktop platform.
Microsoft should seriously be a little scared. I think more people would jump on the Mac bandwagon if they could game on them.
I dunno, I think this is just going to pander to people who are already on the mac bandwagon. (Which is A-OK, as they deserve to be able to play games as well.) I mean, aren't macs still more expensive for the equivalent hardware in a PC?
If you treat them like people sooner or later they are going to begin to think they are people.
and that would be bad.
It's funny, just a few years ago people on Mac forums were cussing out Gabe Newell something fierce as a lazy fat git. Largely because he had the gall to suggest that whilst they were interested in porting to Mac, Apple at the time wasn't interested in games and wasn't providing the assistance they needed to do so.
Kikizo: People keep asking you about a potential Macintosh version, and your stance is that this is a strictly Windows project...?
Gabe: Well, we tried to have a conversation with Apple for several years, and they never seemed to... well, we have this pattern with Apple, where we meet with them, people there go "wow, gaming is incredibly important, we should do something with gaming". And then we'll say, "OK, here are three things you could do to make that better", and then they say OK, and then we never see them again. And then a year later, a new group of people show up, who apparently have no idea that the last group of people were there, and never follow though on anything. So, they seem to think that they want to do gaming, but there's never any follow through on any of the things they say they're going to do. That makes it hard to be excited about doing games for their platforms.
Kikizo: So you think it's all because of staff turnaround in their gaming department?
Gabe: I just don't think they've ever taken gaming seriously. And none of the things developers ask them to do are done. And as a result, there's no gaming market there to speak of. We'd love it if they would get serious about it. But they never have, and can't even follow trough on any of their commitments for game developers.
Kikizo: So would you say that the rumour that crops up every couple of years that Apple is about to do a big plan and release a console box, is basically bullshit?
Gabe: We've seen no evidence that they are able to follow through on even simple programs in the game space. It seems bizarre to me because it's like one of the biggest things holding them back in the consumer space. If you look at a Macintosh right now, it does a lot of things really well compared to a Vista PC, but there are no games. Why, I don't know. If I were a Macintosh product manager, it would be pretty high on my list, and a problem to get taken care of, as probably the number one thing holding them back with consumers.
Oh man, if you went to any Mac website at the time, the comments about how Gabe Newell didn't know crap about making games or programming were coming through the roof.
EDIT: Heck, even Macworld had what I have to say was actually a surprisingly foamy rant about that interview.
This is only really vaguely interesting, firstly, companies who knew how to code mac games could already make mac games and sell them. They didn't do so for two reasons, no simple way to sell them, and no large market. Why try to sell to the 1% of the potential game market who uses a mac? This might solve the first problem, but not the second. PCs are cheaper, more numerous and often much better for games. So why should a game company reinvent the wheel? Steam has no incentive not to, they have legions of coders and tonnes of cash, all the small companies though? Why would they want to rewrite their games, considering they could just use their coders and start making a new game.
I think this is really a big step just because the company that has kept PC gaming in large force has now casted their vote into supporting Macs. I don't think there will be a giant shift towards Macs because with PCs you get easier hardware control, which is pretty nice if you are really interested in gaming. I think no matter how big of an impact it has, it's a step up from the prior Mac gaming scene (see: almost nonexistent).
Microsoft should seriously be a little scared. I think more people would jump on the Mac bandwagon if they could game on them.
I dunno, I think this is just going to pander to people who are already on the mac bandwagon. (Which is A-OK, as they deserve to be able to play games as well.) I mean, aren't macs still more expensive for the equivalent hardware in a PC?
I'm a Mac fanboy and the answer to your question is YES. But remember that with a Mac it is impossible to just pay for the hardware as you always get software with it, and I can justify the price for that bundle with three simple words:
No fucking viruses.
Actually, that's fucking priceless as I've been the resident support geek for my family and friends, and after having successfully converted almost all of them to Macs, I've reduced the time needed for tech support to very close to zero.
eobet on
Heard the proposition that RIAA and MPAA should join forces and form "Music And Film Industry Association"?
This is all part of Valve's master plan to erase the PC gamer. Along with it, they erase the Mac gamer. Both are replaced with the Steam gamer.
Suds on
0
RoshinMy backlog can be seen from spaceSwedenRegistered Userregular
edited March 2010
Mac gaming is a largely untapped market. Small, yes, but it seems Valve are betting that it will expand and by then, they will have a strong position there. This is interesting. I wish Microsoft would pull their head out of their arse and treat the PC as a serious gaming platform again.
Eventually Valve will just rule the gaming world. It has been said that the best leadership is a benevolent dictatorship, so I think we'll be good.
I'm very surprised that Valve is porting their games over. I'm curious if Valve thinks that Macs are going to suddenly leave their 10% US share behind that they've had for a while or if Valve just thinks there are enough gamers there who don't like Windows to make a lot of money.
Cronus on
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
I don't think I've had a problem with virus's for years. (And even then, it was just because I was stupid and accidentally got something through Kazaa.) All my anti-virus does these days is point out tracking cookies.
Apple computers make up 11 or 12% of the US market.
The proportion of Apple computers to legitimate game-capable PC's is probably similar and if not, it's really not all that disparate.
You're just pulling "1%" out of your ass.
Sure, I just guessed it completely, but if you had a strong interest in gaming then why would you have bought a mac? Literally the worst platform for games on earth up until this point. Furthermore, even if you are correct, and an equal fraction of macs and PCs are gaming capable machines, owned by someone who wants to game then why would you waste significant development time developing for a machine which is owned by at most 1/10 of your potential client base. Unless making the mac port is so trivial as to be silly (in which case why didn't they just do it anyway and sell online on Direct to Drive or something) it doesn't make sense to make a port.
Microsoft should seriously be a little scared. I think more people would jump on the Mac bandwagon if they could game on them.
I dunno, I think this is just going to pander to people who are already on the mac bandwagon. (Which is A-OK, as they deserve to be able to play games as well.) I mean, aren't macs still more expensive for the equivalent hardware in a PC?
I'm a Mac fanboy and the answer to your question is YES. But remember that with a Mac it is impossible to just pay for the hardware as you always get software with it, and I can justify the price for that bundle with three simple words:
No fucking viruses.
Actually, that's fucking priceless as I've been the resident support geek for my family and friends, and after having successfully converted almost all of them to Macs, I've reduced the time needed for tech support to very close to zero.
I don't think I've had a virus in maybe 3 years now. And for the first 1.5 I don't think I even had a virus scanner.
I love this news, if for no other reason than convenience. I love to jump into a game, play a little bit, and jump out. For some older games I own on Steam (Max Payne, for example) I can get away with that in a Windows VM. But for any newer games it requires a full reboot into Windows, via Bootcamp. That's a PITA if I just want to do something fun to pass a little time.
Being able to jump in and play some TF2, L4D 1/2, Portal 2 co-op without a full reboot into Windows? HOTNESS. Since I already own all of the above (except Portal 2, but that is a day 0 purchase) on Steam for PC means I don't have to re-buy them for the Mac. DOUBLE HOTNESS.
Fatty McBeardo on
0
KalTorakOne way or another, they all end up inthe Undercity.Registered Userregular
Apple computers make up 11 or 12% of the US market.
The proportion of Apple computers to legitimate game-capable PC's is probably similar and if not, it's really not all that disparate.
You're just pulling "1%" out of your ass.
Sure, I just guessed it completely, but if you had a strong interest in gaming then why would you have bought a mac?
If their interest in gaming didn't blot out all the normal reasons to get a Mac (not to mention the fact that they can run Windows now).
I'm interested in gaming, but I like using Macs a lot more than using PCs. I've gotten games on my Mac (Blizzard games, Civ4, CoD4 etc.), and for the games that aren't available I use Boot Camp or my Xbox. This just means I don't have to do that extra step of rebooting in Windows or opening VMWare/Parallels.
Posts
There's a lot of features Valve wants to add to HL2 (achievements, HDR lighting, now steam cloud.) Releasing the game on the mac would be as good of time as any to add that crap in.
I would have been very surprised if Mac and Windows users wouldn't have been able to play with each other. It's Steam on both.
Time to break out the sidewinder mouse & logitech headset next month. They've been living in a drawer ever since I uninstalled Boot Camp
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Not the PS3 users I can tell you that much, it's pretty much raging about how Valve are lazy and hate them so much. You should see the user comments on places like Kotaku.*
*[tiny]Do NOT see the user comments section on places like Kotaku[/tiny]
EDIT: Also it looks like this won't be available until Portal 2 (or maybe a little before). So your sidewinder might have to remain in its place for now, at least until about the end of the year.
Well, assuming that Valve actually meets that date. LOLValveTime etc.
You could just copy the image location and use that.
Unless Valve does what Valve does so well, it'll be out within two months.
Well nevermind then.
Microsoft should seriously be a little scared. I think more people would jump on the Mac bandwagon if they could game on them.
I dunno, I think this is just going to pander to people who are already on the mac bandwagon. (Which is A-OK, as they deserve to be able to play games as well.) I mean, aren't macs still more expensive for the equivalent hardware in a PC?
Hey! I refuse to become some sort of snooty Mac elitist. I'm quite happy being a snooty PC elitist thank-you-very-much.
Yeah, and as far as GPU's go (a large concern when talking about gaming), Apple tends to not supply the best cards for gaming. That said, I don't think this will have giant ramifications; many Mac users will be happy they have more games available to them, but I don't think there will be a giant shift from PC users to Mac -- also considering even though Steam and Source games are being ported, that doesn't necessarily mean all of the Steam games will be playable on Mac. I don't know for sure, but I think most games on Steam don't have a native Mac port.
PortsCenter • Jump Leads • The Life Toyetic with Ben and Molly
Yep, that was noticed back on Friday shortly after it got put up.
I'm reading April, as in next month.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
More than likely it will simply mean Steam will be supporting mac versions of the games they already have in their games list, plus Valves own games will be mac-happy as well which im sure will make mac users happy. Unless they intend to create some kind of emulator to make the windows games run on Mac. Though i honestly have no idea how Mac stuff works, i have zero interest in them.
If you own in on PC you own it on Mac, no rebuying.
Seriously; I'm going to have to clear off a ton of space on my OSX partition. Right now it's a bit crowded with um, documentaries.
This is actually enough for me to actually begin considering the possibility of thinking about perhaps switching to a Mac at some point in the future, maybe.
I reckon in a couple of years the notion of a "Mac gamer" will seem far less ridiculous than it does now. Although I expect Mac gamers will still have to wait eight-to-sixteen months for ports to come out, the availability of Steam on the platform will make the notion a lot more appealing to software developers. I can't speak for any companies out there, but I imagine this news has companies like Team17 wondering how long it would take to port their upcoming "Worms: Reloaded" and "Alien Breed: Evolution", both of which will be hitting Steam later this year, to the Mac.
PortsCenter • Jump Leads • The Life Toyetic with Ben and Molly
If you treat them like people sooner or later they are going to begin to think they are people.
and that would be bad.
The price disparity for hardware is only relevant at the extremely high ends of Mac hardware (namely their towers and monitors).
I have a relatively cheap Mac Mini and it is fairly decent considering the cost.
The news of Steam to Mac is the best thing ever, because there is nothing more annoying that bootcamping to Windows to use a single program.
This is important not because I get to play TF2, but because it will push other publishers to match Valve's efforts thus opening the flood gates for what was inevitable anyway, bringing gaming to the Mac desktop platform.
It's funny, just a few years ago people on Mac forums were cussing out Gabe Newell something fierce as a lazy fat git. Largely because he had the gall to suggest that whilst they were interested in porting to Mac, Apple at the time wasn't interested in games and wasn't providing the assistance they needed to do so.
http://archive.videogamesdaily.com/features/gabenewell_valve_iv_sep07_p1.asp
Oh man, if you went to any Mac website at the time, the comments about how Gabe Newell didn't know crap about making games or programming were coming through the roof.
EDIT: Heck, even Macworld had what I have to say was actually a surprisingly foamy rant about that interview.
The proportion of Apple computers to legitimate game-capable PC's is probably similar and if not, it's really not all that disparate.
You're just pulling "1%" out of your ass.
I'm a Mac fanboy and the answer to your question is YES. But remember that with a Mac it is impossible to just pay for the hardware as you always get software with it, and I can justify the price for that bundle with three simple words:
No fucking viruses.
Actually, that's fucking priceless as I've been the resident support geek for my family and friends, and after having successfully converted almost all of them to Macs, I've reduced the time needed for tech support to very close to zero.
I'm very surprised that Valve is porting their games over. I'm curious if Valve thinks that Macs are going to suddenly leave their 10% US share behind that they've had for a while or if Valve just thinks there are enough gamers there who don't like Windows to make a lot of money.
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
Sure, I just guessed it completely, but if you had a strong interest in gaming then why would you have bought a mac? Literally the worst platform for games on earth up until this point. Furthermore, even if you are correct, and an equal fraction of macs and PCs are gaming capable machines, owned by someone who wants to game then why would you waste significant development time developing for a machine which is owned by at most 1/10 of your potential client base. Unless making the mac port is so trivial as to be silly (in which case why didn't they just do it anyway and sell online on Direct to Drive or something) it doesn't make sense to make a port.
I don't think I've had a virus in maybe 3 years now. And for the first 1.5 I don't think I even had a virus scanner.
Robots Will Be Our Superiors (Blog)
http://michaelhermes.com
Being able to jump in and play some TF2, L4D 1/2, Portal 2 co-op without a full reboot into Windows? HOTNESS. Since I already own all of the above (except Portal 2, but that is a day 0 purchase) on Steam for PC means I don't have to re-buy them for the Mac. DOUBLE HOTNESS.
If their interest in gaming didn't blot out all the normal reasons to get a Mac (not to mention the fact that they can run Windows now).
I'm interested in gaming, but I like using Macs a lot more than using PCs. I've gotten games on my Mac (Blizzard games, Civ4, CoD4 etc.), and for the games that aren't available I use Boot Camp or my Xbox. This just means I don't have to do that extra step of rebooting in Windows or opening VMWare/Parallels.