14 DAY TRIAL // Valve has published the results from its latest hardware survey acknowledging that there are more users of its Steam gaming service running Mac OS X than those running the 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista combined. The service has just hit its first month of availability on Apple platforms.
“Each month, Steam collects data about what kinds of computer hardware our customers are using,” Valve states on its steampowered.com website. “The survey is incredibly helpful for us as game developers in that it ensures that we're making good decisions about what kinds of technology investments to make. Making these survey results public also allows people to compare their own current hardware setup to that of the community as a whole,” the creators of Half Life say. Reproduced below are Valve’s stats for the OS version employed by Steam users worldwide:
Windows XP 32 bit - (-4.70%) 32.89%; Windows 7 64 bit - (-1.01%) 24.77%; Windows Vista 32 bit - (-1.36%) 14.66%; Windows 7 - (-0.54%) 11.15%; Windows Vista 64 bit - (-0.71%) 6.95%; MacOS 10.6.3 64 bit - (+6.73%) 6.73%; MacOS 10.5.8 64 bit - (+1.40%) 1.40%; Windows XP 64 bit - (-0.11%) 0.55%; Windows 2003 64 bit - (-0.07%) 0.35%; MacOS 10.6 64 bit - (+0.33%) 0.33%; Other - (+0.04%) 0.21%.
The hardware survey also delves deep into aspects like RAM, processor vendor, CPU speeds and more.
When Valve confirmed Steam’s upcoming availability earlier this year, the company said that the first collection of Mac titles would demonstrate “Steam Play.” The service allows customers to purchase a game once and play it on all Steam-supported platforms, which now include the Mac. Those who’ve previously purchased games via Steam will find their Mac versions available in their account as they are released. Valve also said it would treat Mac OS X as a “first-tier” platform, confirming that all new major titles developed for the PC would be released on the same date for the Mac as well.