Valve confirms Steam for Mac, debuts in April
By Donald Melanson 
posted March 8th 2010 2:44PM
posted March 8th 2010 2:44PM
Eager gamers have no doubt already seen the teasers, but Valve has now finally confirmed that its Steam game distribution service and Source engine will at long last be headed to the Mac. According to Valve, the company's current line-up of games (including the Half-Life and Left 4 Dead series) will be available to Mac users in April, while Portal 2 will represent the company's first simultaneous release for PC and Mac later this year. Better still, Steamworks for Mac also boasts a new feature called "Steam Play," which will let you buy a game once and, for instance, start playing it on a PC at work and then pick up where you left off on your Mac at home (we'll give you a moment to let that sink in). Game publishers will have to enable that feature themselves, but Valve says it expects most to take advantage of it.
I'm starting to wonder if Valve may be wasting effort here. Not because Mac users don't care about games, but because virtualization is getting good enough that it won't be long before a virtual copy of Windows is going to be fast enough to run most anything (including games.) The most recent versions of Fusion and Parallels, while still not really capable of running games, are getting there.
Though virtualization may be Valve's endgame. If they license Cedega from TransGaming, they can cover 75% of the games sold on Steam. If they just outright buy TransGaming, they have the expertise to make Cedega really, really good and offer it up as a turnkey solution for Mac ports where they charge the developer a percentage of Mac sales (with certain minimums to cover the up-front configuration work, of course.) This is very attractive solution because it doesn't eat up an internal dev team's time, the time to market is relatively low and all they have to do is watch the money come in.
However, the comments in this thread regarding graphics power in OS X are pretty correct - Apple ships their machines with anemic graphics cards by gaming standards. I mean, their top of the line, badass Mac Pro (and yes, 2x Xeon 5520 is a badass machine) only ships with a GeForce 120. The iMac ships with a GF9400 or Radeon 4670 and the MBP ships with a GF 9400M. The low-end MBPs ship with integrated graphics. These cards are fine for most of what Mac users do with graphics now (think Aero + OpenCL + video encoding) but Apple at least offer an option of buying a bigger card (largest they offer is a 512MB Radeon 4870 as a $200 option on a $2500 Mac Pro.)
Currently; if gaming is important to you in OS X, you're better off building a Hackintosh with a Core i7 and a Radeon 5850. This is completely Apple's fault and it's the big, gaping hole in their lineup.
@Exelius
On the hardware end of your discussion: No doubt, Apple computers generally don't have the most powerful graphics cards... but I would argue that they aren't all that necessary anymore.
Speaking only from personal observations: My previous gaming desktop that I bought in 2006 cost me about $2000CAD. I went for a near top-of-the-line graphics card, which was about 700 bucks on its own. And of course cpu/ram to match. I felt the limitations of that setup within about a month. Games were already being released that pushed it beyond its limits. Man it pissed me off... that wasn't exactly chump change for a poor college student.
My current gaming desktop, which I purchased in 2008, equipped with an e8400, 2g of ram, and a radeon 4850 was dirt cheap in comparison (800 bucks, maybe). And yet, even now, I've yet to encounter a game I'm interested in playing that it can't handle. Granted, I've gravitated away from twitchy, run-of-the-mill shooters with insane graphics. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, Crysis is a pretty, but hugely boring, derivative, and generally unstimulating piece of crap. But, even then, the recent crop of Call of Duty games run admirably on my desktop. UT3 runs flawlessly... even though I never play it. And it probably goes without saying that Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect 2 run flawlessly.
Since buying my Macbook, I've realized this even more. Equipped with a lowly 9400m, integrated graphics card, it's still capable of running any of the source engine games decently well. Maximum settings just won't happen in L4D, but it's still entirely playable. So, personally, as my priorities shift gradually away from gaming performance, this is a pretty decent compromise.
So, I'd argue that having super-mega hardware isn't all that necessary anymore to properly enjoy a game. At least not nearly to the degree it used to be necessary (like the days of the Geforce 3). There will always be a group of people who demand top-end hardware, and will pay thousands of dollars to get it. But, I'd wager that among PC gamers, that group is becoming more and more of a minority.
I'd also argue that most Mac gamers couldn't exactly be described as "hardcore". And I don't think Steam for Mac will change that, unless Macs change quite radically, and game development focuses a lot more on OSX. But, it will make the lives of casual gamers, such as myself, more pleasant.
@Exelius
While virtualization (in general) has been making decent leaps forward each year, the Mac side has felt pretty stagnant. I'd wager a beer that we won't see anything impressive for another 2-3 years in functionality that makes gaming worthwile, and I'm sure Valve has been inspired to move forward with the porting of their service/engine in order to reach out and touch the wallets of the ever increasing Mac user base (at least that's what the Apple sales figures have been saying over the last few years.. but I could be wrong on this part).
Also, I hate to nitpick on your post because I've seen it in a few others, but unless I'm misunderstanding a handful of posters here there's a misconception that current MBP's ship with a 9400M only. My 17" MBP comes standard, and the 15" model can be configured with a 9600M GT (up to 512MB video memory) as a secondary card. I understand that GMA and 9400M may be standard/only chipset for some of the older models, and the 9600M GT still won't let me run Crysis on High, but it's not bad and if this move by Valve causes Apple to consider shipping better cards across their product lines then I'm all for it.
Nice!
For the amount of gaming I do these days, my gaming PC has become completely obsolete. So has the bootcamp partition on my Macbook, for that matter.
I thoroughly approve. Especially of the fact that I don't need to repurchase all the games I've already bought on Steam over the years.
No more boot camp for me.
Now perhaps instead of gutting each other on Engadget blogs, you guys can duke it out on Steam...
I love you Valve. Now if only they had done this a year ago I wouldn't have bothered to install Windows.
sure this make sense, u need a MAC PRO for that :D I can see how there would be lineups at the apple store for those towers :D
or maybe fan-boys realize what are they running on ?
@(Unverified)
The newest Source games are pretty easy to run on mid settings with the 9400m gpu (macbook, mac mini etc) . Really, unless you talk about crysis or trying to get the resolution to the roof, apple computers are capable of handling gaming, not the high end of it, but CSS can run on a damn pentium 4 and is stil one of the most played online games on PC.
There are going to be a lot of butthurt Macbook (non-pro) owners who will finally have the option to play these great games... but not the processing capabilities.
If other devs go this direction, we might see a Mac gaming rig. While awesome, it would be be hard to convince anyone to buy... I paid $225 for each of my GTX 285's. Good luck find a Mac GTX 285 for much under it's $450 - $500 MSRP.
@Smurf
You can always play counter strike =D
besides, you don't need gtx285 to play a source game...
@Smurf
Source games will run fine on a 9400m. That's the lowest videocard the Mac has.
I'm happy. No need for Crossover or any other tools now. :)
It's a good thing. I'm a Apple Hater by religion, but it's a good move for future Mac products. This will probably lead to higher specs/options on Gfx cards on their systems. I'm still not going to get an Apple product, but my friends who do can now enjoy some of the same games on the PC side without having to jump through hoops.
finally... thank god, now i won't be bored as $#!T when I go home to visit rents and only have laptop
ITS ABOUT F***IN TIME! let the artists play video games other than bottomless pits called world of warcraft.
this is very close to the ipad launch i'm just saying
27" imac FTW!!
Haha... Valve doesn't make games for the ps3,but supports macs...
@Nimer55
Dont wake them up!
@Nimer55
"Valve doesn't make games for the ps3"
Orange box is on the PS3
@Liquidmark
no they didn't... They let Ea port it to the ps3, and that was a one time thing which they ended up regretting. They recently said they might make future games for the ps3, but won't make any more bad ports.
I guess this explains why Microsoft tried to kill steam with the Games for Windows service
This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS
IT'S HARD TO OVERSTATE MY SATISFACTION
@AaronX Aperture Science, We do what we must, because we can. For the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead. but there's no sense crying over every mistake, you just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake.
Hopefully they'll somehow optimize all the games so that they run well on Macs. Probably won't though. Mac users will have to have Mac Pros in order to play games from 5 years ago on Mac OS X.
Damn you, game developers!
Anyhow, I hate this.
Valve can eat static as far as I'm concerned.
PC image is all wrong...
http://files.turbosquid.com/Preview/Content_2009_07_14__06_17_07/phalanx_rgb1.jpg6c3a31d3-0e26-47f6-ba5c-56b6549a3d71Large.jpg
As soon as i can play Team Fortress 2 on Snow Leopard , i am formatting my windows partition. As long as the performance is the same
Macs are superior.
This just shows that they are becoming the best.
No need for Faildows 7 anymore.
I WANT LINUX!!!
FAKE.
I doubt that bringing steam will be bringing even 9% of the games along with it :P
Probably only valve games will work... cause COD:MW2 is a game for windows...
This'll be nice if I want to catch a few games of TF2 or something when away from home, but this is why I keep a gaming rig around. Regardless of game support for mac, you still face the problem of upgrading. It's a relatively cheap (and incremental) thing on a windows-based desktop; Macs are a trickier proposition.
This is most certainly a triumph. Please observe that I am making a note here: huge success.
Does this mean Gordon Freeman will be sporting skinny jeans?
Today, I believe Satan has been seen skating to work...
I can't believe since when steam is around like 5 years ? and I just noticed it isn't available on Mac ? how did you Apple fans manage gaming without steam ???
steam has been around like forever... if Valve develops tomorow some new soft, it will surely be available anyways for Windows for 5 years before porting it to Mac...
YAY! Finally i can do some mapping for CS:S on my MacBook! :D
I sware this is all the ammo a pc user has. "I can play loads of games" congrats geek. How old are you ??? Some people past the age of 10 like to use there computer for other things too. Like big stuff at work. Nice one meatballs enjoy your gaming. Oh but wait ? In fact if we want to be a child too then we now can. Oh well cancel my last.
Ah, you poor deluded Mac users, thinking you'll get Steam in April. They've all never experienced Valve Time apparently.
@Amnesiasoft
So April is one month away, so that'll be.. 2012 at the earliest?
Every time I see one of those Portal gun turrets, I think of it saying "Are you still there" over and over again. Glad it is coming to Mac. I'll be getting Portal 2 later this year for sure.
Steam for the Mac + Iron Man 2 Trailer in one day = so much win.
Awesome, lets hope this isn't like the native support for linux rumors that never materialized.
Hi I just want to clarify some stuff and hope I don't get hated for it.
In terms of operating system I've used Linux, Window, and OS x. and about that all i can say is that no OS is the best every OS is like a pill they all have side effects the question is which one are you willing to put up with. About hardware yes u can upgrade a pc, but many time when building a computer stuff have been know to just go wrong something not compatible, the watt is wrong or what not and then your self either buying it new or warranty/rma. or linux it may/or may not work, and on OS X very limited. but all this things have pro and con's. the fact that Valve is making this move i think is great cause. cause at the end of the day all gamer want is to play their games with other people, and this will provide more people to join this great games. The War between Mac and PC need's to stop because no of them are perfect. i speak from experience not just out my head i've build 13 machine to use either win or linux, and now all i have it my mac pro and mac book and it's suits my life style and what I do. Fanboys or fanboy's haters need to chill out and let it go. It's like a guy with a truck vs a guy with a mustang fighting over who's the best. they both are good for different reason's that appeal to only to it's owner. "I hope i made the point i was trying to get across with out insulting no one"
Sorry about my spelling found out the hard way I can't go back to fix them lol.
What kind of GPU setup would be needed to play something like Crisis or Crisis2 level games on max settings on a Mac Desktop ?