Portal 2 has broken cover after all those Portal secret messages and the new Portal ending. But even bigger news is that it and tonnes of other games including Half Life and Left 4 Dead are headed to Mac. Valve’s Steam gaming service will launch for Mac OS in April.
Steam has a library of over 1000 games including Valve games like Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike, the original Portal and Half Life. All those games will make the jump to Mac in April.
Portal 2 will be the first release Valve to hit Mac and Windows at the same time. Portal 2 project lead, Josh Weier, says Valve is producing the PC build and Mac build at the same time, “so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step.”
Valve is treating Mac as “a tier-1 platform” and plans to release all its future games (including the inevitable Half Life 2: Episode 2 sequel) on Windows, Mac and Xbox 360 simultaneously. Steam and game updates for Mac will also appear at the same time as ones for Windows.
Portal 2, Half Life and other Steam titles will also support multiplayer games across Mac and Windows. If you buy a Steam title like Portal 2 on Mac, you’ll also be able to play it on your Windows PC (or vice versa) for free.
Best of all, you’ll be able to continue your Portal 2 or Half Life game started on your work PC on your Mac at home from the point you left it at.
Are you looking forward to Portal 2? Will Steam for Mac mean you’ll take another look at Half Life? Let us know.
Due April | £varies | Valve
