Steam, which has around 25 million users, was launched in 2004, allowing PC owners to buy and download games to play on their computer. The library of games soon expanded, and there are now more than 1,000 titles available.
Game studios will be able to use the Steam suite of development tools on the Mac platform to add social-networking and antipiracy features. Steam users who own both a Mac and a PC will be able to download already purchased games to their Apple computer.

Valve's Steam platform is officially coming to the Mac, and it's bringing two of my favorite games along with it. Portal is the first one -- hopefully if you're a gamer you've already played it, but it was my absolute favorite game of 2007 and one of the best games I've played in the last five years. Runic Games' terrific Torchlight is also along for the ride. It's a Diablo-style hack and slash game (created by a few ex-Blizzard guys) that is another must-play. The best part is that both of these are "Steam Play" titles, which means that if you already own them on Steam for Windows, you own them on Steam for Mac as well.

Engadget posted a nice roundup recently of Steam for Mac impressions, but the bottom line is that it's exactly the same as the PC version, so if you've used it on Windows, you'll know what you're in for. And on the eve of the occasion, Wired has a funny little writeup of how these games will differ on Apple's platform. For instance, Portal's GLaDOS voiceover will actually replaced with Steve Jobs, and the portal guns available in the game will only create entrances, not exits. At first, Steve will tell you that exits aren't really necessary, but then they'll later be patched in via software in three to six months.





Tags: steam for mac, valve, steam mac