These announcements are surely music to Mac gamers' ears. 'We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients.' Players on all platforms will be able to play each other in online multiplayer setups, as well. '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,' Cook said. All future games, beginning with Portal 2, will be available for the Mac the same day as the Windows version.

The Mac compatibility extends beyond Steam Play, however. Playing games on either platform won't cost extra. Progress on one platform is automatically updated and synced when using the other, meaning all the fragging you do on your work PC (on your lunch break, of course) will be reflected when you log in from your Mac at home. That version includes a new Steam Play API that will allow users to access and play games from either a Windows PC or a Mac. The Mac Steam client is based on the latest version for Windows that is currently in beta, which is where the first hints of Mac OS X compatibility were discovered. 'The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward.'īeginning in April, Mac users will be able to access games via Steam, including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series. '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,' John Cook, Director of Steam Development, said in a statement. Valve has developed a Mac-native version of its Source engine, using the cross-platform OpenGL.

As a bonus, the company also plans to make the Mac a 'tier-1' platform, promising simultaneous release of games on Mac OS X, Windows, and Xbox 360. Valve has stopped with the teasing and has officially announced that its online gaming service Steam is coming to the Mac.

Steam mac os x