Steam comes to Mac OS

Gaming which has been the domain of Microsoft Windows for far too long, has got a huge boost with the launch of the Stream client for Mac OS X.

Steam, a product by Value, the creators of the Half-Life series of games- is one of the most popular platforms of game distribution, and its availability on MacOS is a good sign of the future of cross-platform gaming.

With the launch just a while back, already a large number of games are being made available for Mac OS including those based on Valve's Source engine which powers their Half-Life series of games. For Mac OS X, the source engine uses Open GL instead of Direct X, and has made it possible for Mac Steam users to play games such as Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Counter Strike: Source, and Half-Life series games. Many games such as Civilization IV and World of Goo are also available.

Portal, a brilliant first person puzzle game which has been met with wide critical acclaim, was being offered for free till 24th of May 2010 in order to promote steam for this new platform.

Since Steam is a digital distribution platform, a user who has once paid for a copy of a game for Windows, can simply install Steam on Mac OS and download the Mac version of the game.

People poking into the engine have found traces of evidence in the Steam application install and the website that the platform might be heading to Linux soon, although Valve has not commented on this. It is highly likely considering that the OpenGL based Source engine and the similar Unix core of Mac OS and Linux.