A few thoughts on this:<p>1) Cross platform availability is amazing. There's been a number of times when I've wished I had a game on PC that I bought on a console instead, and it's awesome to see this available now. I would have never predicted they'd offer something this nice, but they have. I'll probably purchase more PS3 games if they offer this, because it means I can play it on my choice of platform.<p>2) What about saves? It's nice to have it available to play for both, but if I can't continue where I left off, then this is somewhat less useful.<p>3) This is going to cause some issues in competitive FPSes if from cross platform play is enabled. Keyboard and mouse have been shown to general outperform controls (not to mention bots and hacks being easier to get on PC), and I wouldn't be surprised to see some outrage from console gamers.<p>4) And last, holy crap this is awesome I love Valve and Steam is just completely wonderful. </fanboy>
This is amazing news, and I hope that someday we will be able to buy a game itself, instead of buying a game tied to a platform.<p>In an even more amazing world, Steam is a protocol, not a service, and anyone can run their own digital game distribution service with all the convenience of Steam. Alas, I can only hope. :P
To me, it seems that Valve probably sees this as a great opportunity to try to steal some of the PS3s userbase for their PC/Mac steam platform. Anyone who has played an fps with a mouse/keyboard combo knows how superior it is to console controllers, and once all the regular ps3 gamers start getting thrashed by PC gamers on the cross-platform multiplayer they'll know it too.<p>Now that they can switch to the PC, install steam, and improve their own game without having to buy another copy, valve has given them a serious incentive to give steam a chance.<p>The only problem is that, based on what I've seen so far, the portal 2 multiplayer doesn't seem that competitive or that dependent on twitchy control responses. If Valve were to do this with the next Call of Duty (a difficult deal to negotiate to say the least) or perhaps a Counterstrike sequel, they'd probably get a lot more switchers.
When this was first mentioned at E3 last June Tycho from Penny Arcade had this to say about it:<p>For people who game primarily on consoles, you might not know what it means to have Steamworks integration. It varies depending on the implementation, it's sort of a la carte, and the PSN itself delivers some features by default. But you wont be paying for DLC on Valve games, ever. That is not a thing that will happen. And since Microsoft won't allow you to charge for something that is free on another system (recall R6: Vegas, or Burnout Paradise) it's an end run that's given Valve a lot of leverage. To sum up, Portal 2 isn't the surprise - Steamworks is the surprise. The porous nature of the PSN's functionality is an amazing opportunity for a company whose platform practically defines "platforms." Plus, there's no license associated with its use. Think about what this means for other developers, up to and including first parties. Why Sony would cede this kind of power to a third party I couldn't say, and why they would undermine the Playstation Store as a venue for premium content I couldn't tell you. This is important; we should be paying attention.<p><a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/6/16/" rel="nofollow">http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/6/16/</a>
Wow. I don't have a PS3, but this news is gigantic! I hope this is a real trend.<p>This would mean you can continue your game while travelling.<p>Microsoft is in a position to do this sort of thing easily with Live, but they don't, and they didn't.
Interesting. On a related note, Gabe shat all over the ps3 when it came out and said Valve would never develop for it. [1] I wonder what made him change his mind.<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR8CVLVmKQs&feature=related&t=3m05s" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR8CVLVmKQs&feature=relat...</a>