14 DAY TRIAL // An interview with Valve Software's John Cook, director of Steam development, sheds more light on the recent announcement that the studio will be porting popular Steam games to the Mac. According to Cook, porting Steam to the Mac is “the biggest event in Steam's history since the service was first launched.”
Joystiq, the interviewer, asks Cook whether Apple was involved in this endeavor and, if so, “did they provide any programming resources or platform-level assistance?” In fact, Apple’s contribution to this project had already been confirmed, but Cook’s answer provides more details on the matter. “[…] Yes -- we've been working with them on this project and we're looking forward to expanding that relationship as we launch Steam for the Mac,” he tells the gaming site.
“How large of a project is this?,” Joystiq asks. “We consider this to be the biggest event in Steam's history since the service was first launched,” Cook is happy to answer. “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 asserts.
Asked whether the presence of Steam on Mac OS X could encourage development or porting efforts for other PC game publishers, the Steam director claims that this is one of their primary goals, adding that, “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.” Cook adds, “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.”
The site also asks the developer whether Telltale’s titles will also be available on Steam. Cook not only confirms such plans, but claims that Valve is talking to all of the publishers and developers currently offering their games on Steam (1,000 developers, he says) “and hope that many, if not all, eventually bring Mac versions of their games to market.” For the full interview, visit Joystiq.com.