Steam on OS X?

[l0cke]

There's some speculation that the source engine is going to be ported.

That would explain the long time for EP3.


Even if steam for mac had 10 games those games would sell like crazy. Add achievements and all of a sudden steam has a monopoly on mac gaming.

 

[mfenn]

What graphics library would these OS X steam games use?

OpenGL

 

[Oil]

Even if steam for mac had 10 games those games would sell like crazy. Add achievements and all of a sudden steam has a monopoly on mac gaming.

I agree, if the only Mac games on Steam were the ones made by Valve it would still be major hit

 

[manimal]

I agree, if the only Mac games on Steam were the ones made by Valve it would still be major hit

Remember when bungie was a mac only house, Original halo was developed for the mac. In some alternate universe gaming on a mac with halo as its centerpiece is going apeshit right now...

 

[sourceninja]

Yeah, that's more of a job for the game devs rather than the Steam devs. I can't see most devs letting anyone let Valve look at their code let alone muck around with it.

You don't need the code to use cider. It's really just a commercial wine container.

 

[Lonyo]

Lets take a look at two developers, Blizzard and EA, and some of their OSX games.

WoW.
Sims 3.
Spore.

These aren't hardcore gamers games, but they are all available on OSX, and they are the sort of game a "typical" person might play (rather than a hardcore gamer).
They would also all run fairly well on a 9400M integrated GPU, and run (barely) on Intel integrated graphics.
If you consider the type of person who might buy a Mac laptop (not a hardcore gamer) then the sorts of games they might play (speaking in general terms) are the sort of games where a 9400M is powerful enough for them.

I wouldn't see Steam on OSX for "hardcore" games, but it allows market expansion for more casual/broad appeal games, smaller indie devs etc.
The sorts of games people might want to play on a laptop anyway, and the extra power offered by the baseline of Macs being a 9400M is going to be beneficial for the overall experience.

 

[minmaster]

i don't see the point really when all you have to do is use bootcamp to boot into windows on all the intel macs.
if i had a mac, i wouldn't even consider mac specific versions of the games which often cost more when i can natively play them on windows. it'll probably perform better too. i don't think many of the multiplayer fps games are cross-platform anyways so you might be limited to the tiny # of mac players.

 

[MStele]

i don't see the point really when all you have to do is use bootcamp to boot into windows on all the intel macs.
if i had a mac, i wouldn't even consider mac specific versions of the games which often cost more when i can play natively play them on windows. it'll probably perform better too. i don't think many of the multiplayer fps games are cross-platform anyways so you might be limited to the tiny # of mac players.

Your right, but only in regards to power users. There are many apple users who don't want to pay for a license of Windows just to game on. If you read through most of the posts in this thread, you'll find that most of the benefits of OSX getting Steam are directed toward core Apple users who have no interest in Windows at all. Since many core gamers would already be using Windows in some capacity, it is likely that the largest group to use Steam in OSX would be casual gamers.

The fact that we are having this discussion in the first place shows that you have more knowledge in regards to gaming availability than most of the Apple users that would ultimately use OSX Steam. I also wouldn't be surprised if developers use Steam to distribute applications in addition to games. It would be a bad idea to assume Steam would only provide games.

 

[Oil]

Well it is official, Steam is coming to OS X in April.

VALVE TO DELIVER STEAM & SOURCE ON MAC
Leading Gaming Service Expands to Mac Platform
March 8, 2010 - Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve's gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac.
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.
"As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."
"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."
"We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. 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. 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."
Portal 2 will be Valve's first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. "Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac.
​

 

[VashHT]

Remember when bungie was a mac only house, Original halo was developed for the mac. In some alternate universe gaming on a mac with halo as its centerpiece is going apeshit right now...

Pretty sure Halo was being developed for multiple platforms including PC and ps2 before MS bought them up. Bungie was Mac only way back in the day with marathon, but the Myth series was multi-platform, and that was the last thing they did before halo I think.

 

[Lonyo]

Well it is official, Steam is coming to OS X in April.

Haha, love the Gizmodo article.

Both versions of these games come bundled in one price—which is completely, totally, unbelievably forward-thinking and awesome

So, um, like EA games?
Examples: Sims 3, Spore (the only two EA games I know are on OSX).

About as forward thinking as 2.5 years in the past, so not very at all.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Eh....so now valve is going to have to update an OpenGL renderer as well as their D3D one?

 

[sourceninja]

It is great news.

 

[Highmodulus]

Nope, Apple detests the gaming market. Steve Jobs' vision is a place where computers empower ordinary people to do things they couldn't before.

Like pay $1000 for an entry level laptop?

 

[Ichigo]

Haha, love the Gizmodo article.



So, um, like EA games?
Examples: Sims 3, Spore (the only two EA games I know are on OSX).

About as forward thinking as 2.5 years in the past, so not very at all.

Command and Conquer? Quake Wars?

I mean, even if it's the right thing to do, they are doing it. I don't understand why you have a problem with it.

 

[Pia]

This makes all kinds of sense. When your goal is to develop a quality game whose key draw is not the rendering engine, why would you not make your stuff cross-platform? Blizzard already understood this a decade ago. Writing system independent code generally just means writing good code and picking open libraries over system-dependent ones. As long as you've got competent devs, the extra cost can be minuscule.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

This is bad news. In order to keep games playable on the Xbox 360 and OSX, Valve will keep making games off of the source engine.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

there's going to be a lot of mac users surprised to find they need to buy a mac pro to get much game on. at over $3000, apple is laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[Attic]

I like the source engine. HL2 Ep2 looked and played great IMO.

 

[sourceninja]

there's going to be a lot of mac users surprised to find they need to buy a mac pro to get much game on. at over $3000, apple is laughing all the way to the bank.

I game just fine with both my 9600m and my 8600m macbook pro's. I would think a macbook with the 9400m should be fine.

 

[PingSpike]

Great news for Mac users and a smart move on Valve's part with the OpenGL renderer. I know after Vista came out with the DX10 schism and Microsoft launched their half-assed GFWL there were a few news items with Gabe Newell where he sounded uncomfortable that Microsoft was sort of putting them in their crosshairs. Looks like Valve has been proactive and will hopefully build on their momentum they have with steam.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

I game just fine with both my 9600m and my 8600m macbook pro's. I would think a macbook with the 9400m should be fine.

if you're happy with that level of performance, fine. i, and a lot of other gamers, upgraded from there a long time ago.

 

[Lonyo]

Command and Conquer? Quake Wars?

I mean, even if it's the right thing to do, they are doing it. I don't understand why you have a problem with it.

I don't have a problem with them doing it.
I have a problem with Gizmodo calling it forward thinking.

 

[sourceninja]

if you're happy with that level of performance, fine. i, and a lot of other gamers, upgraded from there a long time ago.

The post made it seem like you NEED a high end video card to game. I played dragon age just fine on my notebook. Sure it wasn't highest graphics. But it looked good, played great and there was no lag. I also play quite a few games off steam without issue.

There is no need for a high end video card and 100% no need for a mac pro. The new imacs have ATI Radeon HD 4850s. Is that really a sucky gaming card? Gaming should be just fine on any of the non-intel graphics computers offered by apple.

Sure it won't meet a gamer nerds dream system, but it will work just fine. Besides, the market obviously isn't hard core gamers, the market is people like me who want to play games now and then and have a shit load of disposable income and a distaste for windows.

 

[Ichigo]

I don't have a problem with them doing it.
I have a problem with Gizmodo calling it forward thinking.

Because it is. In lieu of short-term profits by making a lot of people repurchase games on the new platform, they're looking long-term by building a large user-base now by allowing them to migrate free of charge. That's probably what the article meant by "forward-thinking". You seem like you have a chip on your shoulder at Apple and have to harp on every little point. And now you're wrong.

if you're happy with that level of performance, fine. i, and a lot of other gamers, upgraded from there a long time ago.

Obviously it's not fine if you have to troll like this. That level of performance is fine for Source games. Having fun doesn't necessarily have to do with e-peen.

I mean, there's a lot of reasons why Apple sucks, but Steam coming onto OS X is not one of them. It's a good thing for everyone. A larger gaming community for core PC games is *good* if you want to see more of them.