News - Valve to bring Steam and Source to the Apple Mac

[Ross1]

The Apple mice have 4 buttons now I think.....plus you can always use 3rd party mice.

The old 1-button mouse got too embarrassing for them in the end I think

actually they got rid of buttons completely now its all 'multi-touch' and 'gestures'.

[shaithis]

actually they got rid of buttons completely now its all 'multi-touch' and 'gestures'.

It probably would not understand the few gestures I would use while using a Mac

[unreal]

Hah you guys do know you can buy a 3rd party mouse and it will work fine, just as you do with PC's? If you buy a standard ready built PC you usually have to replace that crappy mouse too.


This is great news esp as I have a lot of friends on Steam - I just hope the amount of games that will actually work on the Macs won't be too disappointing.

[McPhee]

Cross platform multiplayer sounds good to me Was the thing I was hoping for in these rumours, the more the merrier!

[Timmy!!!]

This is very interesting and seems very well executed by Valve. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of their games will be available at no extra cost - meaning you only pay for the game once and it's available on both Windows and Mac.

I can see the uptake on this by third party companies very slow at first, but it may get there. A lot of EA titles like Red Alert 3 are available on Mac so perhaps for once EA will lead with Valve!

I'm sure apple owners are happy about this, but it does make me wonder how many users will be on forums in a few months complaining about macbooks overheating

[this_is_gav]

If so what they going to use for Alt-fire/zoom ?

You use the wheel.

[scaryjim]

You use the wheel.

[Percy1983]

Is it just me thinking I will carry on using my cheaper but better none white case Windows PC?

[unreal]

Is it just me thinking I will carry on using my cheaper but better none white case Windows PC?

Windows PC's will always always be the better platform for gaming - no doubt about it whatsoever.

This movement by Valve is to bring wider compatibility and target audience to their service (as would making Steam compatible with Linux or something, for example) not as some sort of way to finally ditch Windows lol. It completely makes sense from a business perspective as well as keeping the consumers happy.

[watercooled]

Windows PC's will always always be the better platform for gaming - no doubt about it whatsoever.

What makes you think that? Windows is only the OS and if developers concentrated as much on releasing games for other platforms they could/would work just as well if not better...

[unreal]

What makes you think that? Windows is only the OS and if developers concentrated as much on releasing games for other platforms they could/would work just as well if not better...

Yeah, if. And it's never really happened. The Mac gaming scene isn't dead as some ports come out, but it's never quite thriving.

My point is really validated by the ability to put Windows on anything, including any sort of high-spec machine you build on whatever sort of budget. It's far more affordable to seek PC gaming than Mac gaming (in terms of aquiring performance) so no wonder I don't actually know any Mac gamers. Like I've never seen a Mac at a LAN party either, lol.

And I'm a Mac user! I know these machines aren't built to be that sort of thing though so it's not something I complain about, I knew what I was buying it for - my PS3 and 360 are already enough for me as it is, personally.

[Biscuit]

Do the mice on the Mac still have only the 1 button?

If so what they going to use for Alt-fire/zoom ?

Apple have had right click for years

[watercooled]

Steam being ported to Mac is a step in the right direction though, and it should encourage developers to start working with OpenGL, either directly or because they may lose market share if they don't. I don't own a Mac myself but porting to multiple platforms is good, it gives people more choice and for example, people who normally run another OS wouldn't have to go and buy a copy of Windows just to play games on. Macs seem to be increasingly popular in the last few years so maybe developers will realise they're missing out on a fairly big area of the market by releasing their games for a single PC platform.

[.havoc]

Yeah, if. And it's never really happened. The Mac gaming scene isn't dead as some ports come out, but it's never quite thriving.

My point is really validated by the ability to put Windows on anything, including any sort of high-spec machine you build on whatever sort of budget. It's far more affordable to seek PC gaming than Mac gaming (in terms of aquiring performance) so no wonder I don't actually know any Mac gamers. Like I've never seen a Mac at a LAN party either, lol.

And I'm a Mac user! I know these machines aren't built to be that sort of thing though so it's not something I complain about, I knew what I was buying it for - my PS3 and 360 are already enough for me as it is, personally.

Completely agree - unless your willing to chuck a good few thousand pound into a Mac that will have enough power to compete with a PC for graphical performance - its just going to be a huge disappointment to the Mac community. I have never been a fan of the pricing mark ups that go on Macs, but hopefully this may have an additional benefit in that Apple may step up the graphics power in their systems and make gaming a more viable option, but its Apple so im not holding my breath...and i imagine if they did do it, their systems would be even more stupidly expensive than what they already are! But here's to hoping eh?

How would other factors affect gaming on OSX anyways? We know GPU drivers are somewhat tailored based on the need of the card (gaming performance for GeForce, workstation for Tesla etc...), anyone know how drivers are setup for Macs?

Steam being ported to Mac is a step in the right direction though, and it should encourage developers to start working with OpenGL, either directly or because they may lose market share if they don't. I don't own a Mac myself but porting to multiple platforms is good, it gives people more choice and for example, people who normally run another OS wouldn't have to go and buy a copy of Windows just to play games on. Macs seem to be increasingly popular in the last few years so maybe developers will realise they're missing out on a fairly big area of the market by releasing their games for a single PC platform.

Macs market share is still not high enough to consider it a loss if they dont support it (around 7.4% of the market or something like that) and been doing pretty well without its support - i suppose its dependent on how much it costs to take this platform (steam and its games) onto a mac - which since they are doing it im guessing its a worthwhile investment. But you also have to consider who your target market is, and i dont see many mac users begging developers to let them play games on a mac...as has been mentioned before they do a pretty good job of making sure most games hit consoles anyways, and i imagine that if you are that desperate to run games on a mac, you would just run windows through a virtual machine.

I am slightly concerned that devs may now start using this as an excuse to skimp on quality through having to support too many platforms...but I agree its good that the choice is now being given which is always a plus!

[kalniel]

I am slightly concerned that devs may now start using this as an excuse to skimp on quality through having to support too many platforms...but I agree its good that the choice is now being given which is always a plus!

I think 'start' would be a bit optimistic - many PC games are only justified through shared development time with high revenue console versions.