Steam IS coming to OS X

[JonB]

Is Steam coming to OS X?

Some interesting things have been dug up in the new Steam Client Beta.

There's a line in Steam\Public\steamui_english.txt that says:

"steam_welcomeaction_platformwrong" "%gamename% is not available on your current platform."

Bear in mind, though, that file also contains about a million references to the P2P system that never arrived. While it looks certain they've at least experimented with moving to OSX, it still might not see the light of day.

However Postal 3, which is being developed on the Source Engine, is billed as coming to OS X in a number of different interviews and on wikipedia.

A lot of Mac games from EA are ported using cider. I guess its not out of question for valve to do the same for their newer games (or even their back catalogues). Guess it would be wishing too much for a native port of the source engine though? Maybe it's just the developers of Postal 3 porting their work using Cider. Read more in this steam forums thread.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Valve couldn't give a toss about developing for OS X. They barely support the 360.

Maybe they'll change Steam to allow third parties to sell games on OS X, but I can't see them porting any of their own current titles (HL2 etc) to support OS X in the near future.

Not unless OS X gets Direct X

 

[Marky]

I think it would be a good move! Infact, I opened a topic up this morning asking about the possibility of Steam on a mac. Valve may not make their games support the operating system, however other games are available on a mac and they may make them available through Steam

 

[JonB]

Valve couldn't give a toss about developing for OS X. They barely support the 360.

Maybe they'll change Steam to allow third parties to sell games on OS X, but I can't see them porting any of their own current titles (HL2 etc) to support OS X in the near future.

Not unless OS X gets Direct X

Didn't realise you and Gabe were drinking buddies

 

[Spyhop]

Who says they have to start porting their own games?

If they had a few OS X compatible titles to launch it with, extending their distribution empire to OS X wouldn't hurt.

 

[Vonhelmet]

A lot of OS X ports are massively half arsed and randomly crash or whatever. It might not be worth the bother, when you can just Bootcamp it.

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

Crossover already supports Direct X on OS X, admittedly just DX8 for now but DX9 is in beta testing last time I checked. This coupled with a native OSX client could really open up gaming on the OS.

I for one welcome our new Infinite Loop stroking overlords.

 

[HarryPainful]

OSX is in a better position than its ever been for getting games on it because of the half decent gfx cards 99% of range has now.

 

[regulus]

I'm starting to like my Apple for gaming more and more every time I have a go.

 

[JonB]

Valve couldn't give a toss about developing for OS X. They barely support the 360.

Maybe they'll change Steam to allow third parties to sell games on OS X, but I can't see them porting any of their own current titles (HL2 etc) to support OS X in the near future.

Not unless OS X gets Direct X

Oh Hai.... http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/03/valve-teases-apple-announcement-of-something

 

[Kainz]

Yays

 

[Rameses]

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Thanks for the link JonB.

I based my statement on the fact that Valve outsourced development for The Orange Box on PS3 to a third party. Gabe has gone on record to say he hates the PS3, and only really did a 360 port themselves as he's buddies with Microsoft.

This does change things. I'll be keeping an eye on it

 

[Logsi]

If this is as good as i think it'd be, it's going to be pretty ******* special!

There has always been talks with Apple, gabe and the people at valve about getting source on the Mac but nothing has ever been done as Apple has never been serious about gaming until now. The iPad, iPod touch and iPhone platforms have really shown to Apple that gaming does matter and hopefully now Apple has implemented those features that valve wanted many moons ago!

The opengl certification in the next 10.6.3 update may be the first signs that Apple is getting serious about gaming on the Mac platform. Who knows, time will tell! It would be so cool if the rumours are true! I just hope that if they were being developed on the mac that they were native ports. Source being a directX engine and the mac being opengl it may be cider...but Valve being awesome they may do it properly!

I think there is definitely something going on between Apple and Valve if true. Valve wouldn't just do this out of the blue. There is more to this. Maybe those cash reserves are being put to good use eh?

 

[Burnsy2023]

I think both Apple and Valve are going to throw a huge curve ball here. Bringing Steam to Mac is one thing, have decent content to deliver is another, but I think there's much more going on behind the scenes then we realise and it's raise some eyebrows for sure.

 

[mr.sly]

Source engine ported to work with OpenGL? I can't see them coming across without bringing everything from the Orange Box at least.

 

[geekyEd]

Steam app store collaboration for gaming on OSX?

 

[Feek]

I would love to have CS on my Mac. It's not a game I'm very good at but I do enjoy it from time to time.

 

[Spyhop]

Steam app store collaboration for gaming on OSX?

God, if anything else gets bolted on to iTunes.app, it needs to be put out of its misery

 

[Westyfield2]

Saw this online yesterday, great news

A higher version of this, spread across two 17"s, is my background at work now .