Well, it’s official now. Mac users will be able to play all those wonderful PC games that we have been dangling in front of their face for ages. Steam is officially coming to Macs, because apparently Macs are “a great platform for entertainment services.” Great, just when I thought my only badge of honor as a PC user was my extensive game library, Valve has to go and take that away from me.

Anyway, the Mac launch of Valve’s Steam service will occur in early April and will coincide with the release of Portal 2. Along with this recently announced sequel, Mac users will also gain access to Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, all of the Half-Life series, and of course the original Portal, all at launch. This is the beginning of a push to convert the whole of Steam’s extensive game library for Mac use. Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve said “Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac.”

Valve will also be debuting a new system called Steam Play, which will allow content purchased on Steam to work with any computer Steam could possibly run on. Much like Microsoft’s new Live Anywhere model, Steam Play will allow players to begin playing a game on a Mac, pause or save the game, and resume playing on another PC. Much more than simple cross-console support, this will allow active games to completely transfer over from one computer to another, totally free of charge. Combining this with Microsoft’s new Live Anywhere policy, means that it is quite possible that in the near future you will be able to purchase one game and be able to play it on your Xbox, PC, Mac, iPhone, and Seven Phone, without losing any data in the process.

Portal 2 will be Valve’s first simultaneous release for both Mac and Windows platforms. Along with the Mac version of the steam client, the Steam Play feature will help to synchronize PC and Mac versions of a game, keeping the amount of differing code to a minimum. This will make it easy for software developers using the Source engine to develop for both platforms, as conversion work will also be kept to a minimum. Unlike what was originally theorized, the Mac version of Steam will not in fact be acting as a PC emulator, and will instead run native Mac software versions of every Steam game.

Listed among the “excited partners” that will be bringing content to the Mac platform are EA, Activision, and Capcom. This means that it is very possible to see popular AAA franchises such as Bioshock, Resident Evil, and Modern Warfare make their way over the the Mac platform. Originally, Mac gaming was sparse due to the fact that few Macs had the power to handle current generation software. However, now that Macs have been running on par with PCs for a while, their growing popularity makes it only natural for them to become another viable gaming platform.

Related posts on 30ninjas.com:

• Valve Delivers on PS3 Steam Promise With Portal 2
• Steam Slows Down Development Times
• Steam Getting Game Trade Ins?
• DOTA Coming to Steam?
• Portal 2 — Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
• Portal 2 Will Require Fewer FPS Skills, More Thinking