Valve: Mac Launch Is Steam's "Biggest Event"

Valve’s director of Steam development, John Cook, has said the platform’s upcoming debut on Mac this April is the “biggest event” in its history.

Cook explained that the project to make not only Steam but all Source Engine games compatible with Macs is a priority for the company – with boss Gabe Newell personally pitching in on a “daily basis”. He said that the company hopes it can prove Mac has a “thriving” gaming community, just like it did with PCs back when Steam first launched.

“We consider this to be the biggest event in Steam's history since the service was first launched,” he told Joystiq. “There are several people involved, from the UI team working on Mac support in the Steam client to graphics engineers working on the native version of Source and our games. It's a big effort.”

He continued: “Steam has proven to publishers and developers that the PC games is still thriving, it just needs to be attacked from more directions than retail. And like Steam on the PC, it took some proving with Valve titles to get third parties interest. We believe Steam for the Mac will be a similar, but much shorter, process.”

Valve recently announced that Steam would be launching on Mac this april, following a prolonged teaser marketing campaign, and has said as part of the package it will offer all Mac compatible Source Engine games for all pre-existing copies in a scheme it calls Steam Play.

“We are using this feature to provide cross-platform access to all Valve games to those who already own the PC version. We hope other developers and publishers will use it in the same way,” he said.