The PC gaming community was shaken and stirred earlier this month, when it was confirmed that game developer and digital distribution powerhouse Valve was going to release its Steam client for the Mac platform. In fact, Valve itself is calling this new development “the biggest event in Steam’s history,” according to this short interview with director of Steam development John Cook.
So not only will Portal 2 be coming out for both PC and Mac simultaneously, but users who have purchased Valve games on Steam on the PC can expect the Mac versions of these games to be available for free. Furthermore, Cook mentions that Valve is ” … having discussions with all the 1,000 publishers and developers currently offering their games on Steam and hope that many, if not all, eventually bring Mac versions of their games to market.”
Obviously, this is huge for Mac users (like myself). Mac gamers are used to receiving ports of only the best-selling PC games, and those arrive mere years after initial release. The idea not only of simultaneous release (see what I did there?) for new games, but also past games being ported over is nearly too much goodness for me to handle. As the saying goes, it doesn’t matter how old a game is, if you haven’t played it, it’s new to you. I can’t even count on all four limbs’ digits how many games I’m looking forward to playing — if they get ported.
That raises the question: will developers go for this? The typical argument against game development for the Mac usually revolves around the smaller market share, and thus, fewer sales. That idea might need updating; the Mac’s sales have been stronger than ever in its history, with so many “switchers” coming to the platform from the PC. But specifically, the idea of porting over a game that’s already had the majority of the work done has to be an attractive one. There are studios that only do port jobs; a dev house could just hire one of these and reap the benefits.
This is also a boon for indie game houses, whose budgets are typically low, so any success makes the time spent worthwhile. And really, we’ve got 3 of the Big Guys doing simultaneous releases now: Electronic Arts, Blizzard, and now Valve. If these companies can make it work, surely anyone can. This is exciting … I can’t wait to lose hours of precious work playing old PC games on my Mac!
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