When one purchases a Mac, gaming is hopefully not top of mind. The platform has long been the red-headed stepchild when it comes to new releases, and save for a few companies Blizzard, Mac gamers are forced to wait months, and even years, before a title makes it over to their neck of the woods.
With Valve bringing Steam to Mac, though, there may be a sea change on the horizon. Shorter waits for new games, more compatibility, a unified community. The prospect is certainly exciting for those with fancy MacBook Pros but with nothing to play on them.
Valve's SteamPowered forums have started revealing a number of details regarding the upcoming Valve for Mac beta, so if this is something that concerns you, now would be the time to make sure you're compliant.
Current Details Based On Steam For Mac Closed Beta:
- It will require Mac OS X 10.5 or higher.
- Source games for Mac will require Mac OS X 10.5.8 or higher (Leopard), or 10.6.3 or higher (Snow Leopard).
- It will be Intel only, PowerPC will not be supported.
- Buying certain games for PC (or Mac) will include a free license for the other platform. These games will be labeled as such.
- Source will run natively on OpenGL.
- Mac OS X and Windows users will play on the same servers, join the same lobbies, etc.
The following games have been confirmed for Mac:
- Counter-Strike (presumably Source)
- "The Half-Life Series"
- Left 4 Dead
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Portal
- Portal 2 (upcoming)
- Team Fortress 2
There's currently no release date set for the Steam on Mac, but we've been told that an open beta take place before the actual launch, so expect that to happen first.