Valve's launches whisper campaign for new Mac version of Steam
Valve Software has all but confirmed rumors that it plans to bring its Steam gaming system to the Mac desktop in a teaser campaign that mimics generations of Apple advertisements.
Valve began seeding a variety of gamer blogs like Joystiq with ad images featuring characters from its video game titles and presented in the style of current and past Mac ad campaigns run by Apple.
Steam's teaser ads paid homage to Apple's 1984 "Introducing Macintosh. For the rest of us." print ad; the "1984" television spot where a woman runs to destroy the Big Brother screen representing IBM; the "Think Different" ad campaign that Steve Jobs ran after returning to the helm of Apple in 1997; the shadow ads on a bright backdrop Apple ran for iPods; and the company's current "Get a Mac" campaign.
Last week, users reported the discovery of resource files that appeared to be created for Mac OS X within the updated version of Steam for Windows PCs.
Valve's latest software update for Steam introduced a new user interface (below) and dropped Microsoft's Trident rendering engine from Internet Explorer in preference for the open source WebKit engine Apple uses in Safari.
John Cook, the Director of Steam Development at Valve said this move "gives us a bunch of size, stability and performance benefits. This release of Steam leaves us well prepared for another year of strong growth."
Valve began seeding a variety of gamer blogs like Joystiq with ad images featuring characters from its video game titles and presented in the style of current and past Mac ad campaigns run by Apple.
Steam's teaser ads paid homage to Apple's 1984 "Introducing Macintosh. For the rest of us." print ad; the "1984" television spot where a woman runs to destroy the Big Brother screen representing IBM; the "Think Different" ad campaign that Steve Jobs ran after returning to the helm of Apple in 1997; the shadow ads on a bright backdrop Apple ran for iPods; and the company's current "Get a Mac" campaign.
Last week, users reported the discovery of resource files that appeared to be created for Mac OS X within the updated version of Steam for Windows PCs.
Valve's latest software update for Steam introduced a new user interface (below) and dropped Microsoft's Trident rendering engine from Internet Explorer in preference for the open source WebKit engine Apple uses in Safari.
John Cook, the Director of Steam Development at Valve said this move "gives us a bunch of size, stability and performance benefits. This release of Steam leaves us well prepared for another year of strong growth."
Comments
Are there to be multiple launches?
A4 is here and Apple needs a way to lock OS X to hardware again.
Perhaps they are coming out with it now due to some OpenCL support in the engine? It is possible, and may resolve some of the performance issues with games on OS X. Would be cool at any rate.
If Mac games were anything but Cider wrapped windows ports they wouldn't have "performance issues" at all.
Perhaps they are coming out with it now due to some OpenCL support in the engine? It is possible, and may resolve some of the performance issues with games on OS X. Would be cool at any rate.
Highly unlikely. OpenCL might be useful for games, but it's not going to be very helpful for porting old games - as I understand it, OpenCL is something you need to design in from the start to make best use of. I also doubt OpenCL is that useful for games, at least not the way they're currently programmed. Games generally have exclusive use of the GPU, so having something like OpenCL to distribute tasks between CPUs and GPUs is not that useful.
The reason they're doing it now is that Apple have enough market share and probably there's a fair number of Apple fans at Valve who have been pushing for this for a long time.
I wouldn't expect a terribly Mac friendly GUI though - Valve have their own GUI framework, and I very much expect them to produce a version visually very similar to the Windows verison, with a few Mac touches.
I have a TON of games on Steam, but have to dual boot to play them. I wonder if any of those games will now be playable in OSX, and if so, how many, and will I have to re-purchase the Mac versions.
My thoughts, too. Last week I finally replaced my old PC with a Mac Mini and went Windows-free at home. As I was going through the hard drive for important files, my only small regret was that I had a few unfinished Steam games.
I have no intention of using the Mini for heavy gaming; that's what the Xbox is for. But it will be nice if I can just re-download my purchased games for OSX!
Looks like the naysayers can eat some tasty crow
If by naysayers you mean people who hated on Apple for not having this sort of thing, then guess what: Those are the people you should be thanking. You think Apple and Valve are doing this for everyone who was content with what they had, or do you think they are trying to bring something that was demanded by people?
Just a thought...
Valve's launches...? from the headline.
Are there to be multiple launches?
Well the source engine is used in multiple games. If the source engine can run in osx, it means you'll have access to Half life 2, team fortress 2, left4dead, as well as a whole bunch of other games that use the engine.
I have a TON of games on Steam, but have to dual boot to play them. I wonder if any of those games will now be playable in OSX, and if so, how many, and will I have to re-purchase the Mac versions.
VERY good question. My best guess is that they won't make you buy a second version, but I've seen companies try and pull worse shit (like coming out with a "sequel" to a game that's little more than an expansion pack at best, and making people pay the full price of a game.)
The difference in the games should be negligible though, so it would be a bitch for them to charge people twice.
Damn this could be pretty awesome for mac gaming. Obviously not gonna be liked by Steve, but if Apple sticks to Intel I think that this is inevitable. I would love to be able to play steam on a mac, even though I haven't played a PC game in a while. Will definitely be one of the first to download the client once it comes out.
Why wouldn't Steve Jobs like it if gamers started to seriously consider osx?
If you're going to try a game that runs on the source engine, I HIGHLY suggest Left4Dead. Something about that game is very addictive lol
I personally can't wait to listen to some of the cheap shots back and forth between mac and pc gamers in these games :P
edit:
Please disregard my mixing up steam and source. I blame cold meds :P
That said, the teaser ads are effin' brilliant, especially (a) Heavy dancing as if with an iPod; and (b) Alyx a la "1984".
Well the steam engine is used in multiple games. If the steam engine can run in osx, it means you'll have access to Half life 2, team fortress 2, left4dead, as well as a whole bunch of other games that use the engine.
Steam is a distribution and social networking platform. Valve's games are built on the Source engine.
Nice job Valve.
I just hope yet ANOTHER processor switch doesn't throw a monkey wrench in the works.
A4 is here and Apple needs a way to lock OS X to hardware again.
Not exactly... There is a huge leap building something like A4 to a full fledged desktop CPU. It would take years of research to catch up to where intel is now, and by then intel would be ahead again.
Really, Apple opened the doors to gaming when they dropped intel GPU's in favour of nVidia and started offering decent graphics options in iMacs. I think this is a good thing and would help justify Apples claim that macs are somewhat good for gaming.
I use steam a lot on my iMac and I think its great I won't have to reboot all the time.
1. Apple beefs up the graphics in iMac's and stops with the nonsense about having a super expensive display
2. Apple releases something like a G4 cube or Mac Mini on steroids with a nice graphics adapter. not something super expensive, but better than the default integrated one they ship
Nice AI.
I just hope yet ANOTHER processor switch doesn't throw a monkey wrench in the works.
A4 is here and Apple needs a way to lock OS X to hardware again.
Dude what is wrong with you ? Seriously, I can't decide if you are trying to troll, or have an irrational fear that Apple is going to force everyone over to the iphone os tomorrow.
1) While very power efficient, the arm platform is not really suitable to be a desktop replacement.
2) Apple has given no indication that in the short to medium term that they consider the mobile os and the related device's as anything more than an accessory to your computer not as a replacement for your computer.
3) Apple does not need to lock their os down to a particular piece of hardware. If a company tries to sell an OS X computer on non Apple hardware then they are sued out of existence. And so far Apple has turned a blind eye to the efforts of the Hacintosh community. If they wanted to stop this it would take very little effort on their part to brick most of these installs.
Please stop with the sky is falling antics.
Well the steam engine is used in multiple games. If the steam engine can run in osx, it means you'll have access to Half life 2, team fortress 2, left4dead, as well as a whole bunch of other games that use the engine.
Um, hold on. Valve's actual game engine is called Source, and is used to run Half Life 2, Team Fortress 2 and number of 3rd party games.
Steam is just Valve's on-line games distribution service - sort of iTunes Store for gaming.
I think that Valve is just getting ready to distribute games for OSX, but that does not necessarily mean they will develop/port games to OSX (though they might and it would be great fun).
I'd expect at first smaller titles like XBOX Arcade or PS3 Minis... remakes of famous classics etc.
But we'll see.
EDIT: I've just noticed someone has already mentioned Steam/Source equation...