Steam announced for PlayStation 3

Brian Ambrozy 15 Jun, 2010 at 4:45pm ET Article published in Gaming

In something of a stunner, Gabe Newell showed up on stage at the Sony press conference during E3 2010 today to announce not only Portal 2 coming to PlayStation 3, but Steam as well.

He was a bit self-effacing, and admitted that he has been quite outspoken about PlayStation3 in the past; in some ways, his embracing of Steam on the PlayStation 3 could be considered a sort of apology.

Launching with Steam is Portal 2; what Newell says will be “the best console version of the game.”

This is where we insert a wink emoticon. The best console version; of course Gabe is still firmly sticking to Valve’s PC guns.

The announcement of Steam on PlayStation 3 is huge news; this is the first console version of the incredibly diverse gaming platform that has revolutionized PC gaming. No details on how Steam will work with or fit in with PlayStation Network have been announced.

Comments

15 Jun 2010 ~ 5:08pm mertesn Hopefully it'll get better support than the Orange Box did. I understand that fiasco was likely out of Valve's hands, but it still reflected poorly on them.
15 Jun 2010 ~ 5:29pm Garg Huh. Interesting.

I'm surprised Sony is okay with this, as it could potentially erode whatever online purchase revenue they had. Wonder if Valve gets to do whatever they want with it, of if Sony imposed some limitations?
15 Jun 2010 ~ 5:51pm drasnor I hope I can use my PlayStation Store points to buy stuff on Steam.
15 Jun 2010 ~ 5:51pm ledbetter I'm happy that Valve and Sony have kissed and made up, but I'm still not sure about this relationship. I like my PC games on PC and my PS3 games on PS3. When will we know all the details, I wonder?
15 Jun 2010 ~ 8:30pm jojimbo It would be amazing to download and play PC only games on the PS3! That would be amazing... imagine Total War, Football Manager, Doom 2! Running on a PS3 emulator. Awesome prospects. Come on steam! Oh and games that are just as cheap as iphone apps please
15 Jun 2010 ~ 9:34pm CustomPCMAX Does this mean all Valve games will run on the PS3 or just the games Valve wants to port? Do we know which games yet?
15 Jun 2010 ~ 9:45pm Koreish If this is their surprise I am disappoint. It's not big news and it is certainly not worth the push back of Portal 2 in my opinion.
16 Jun 2010 ~ 8:50am timuchan @Koreish why would that push back Portal 2? I highly doubt the push back and the development of Steam for PS3 are related in any way. Its very unlikely that they even share any of the same developers.

What would be awesome though... and I'm hoping is true, knowing Steam, is that I'll be able to play all the games I've already purchased. TF2, Half Life 2, Portal... this is all very exciting.
16 Jun 2010 ~ 10:55am mertesn

jojimbo wrote:

It would be amazing to download and play PC only games on the PS3! That would be amazing... imagine Total War, Football Manager, Doom 2! Running on a PS3 emulator. Awesome prospects. Come on steam! Oh and games that are just as cheap as iphone apps please

custompcmax wrote:

Does this mean all Valve games will run on the PS3 or just the games Valve wants to port? Do we know which games yet?

No, this will not mean all of Valve's games will run on PS3, nor does it imply that you'll be able to play PC games on your PS3. What it more likely means is that future Valve titles will use Steam for cross-platform multiplayer capability as well as a potential second store.
16 Jun 2010 ~ 10:57am mertesn

Timu-chan wrote:

What would be awesome though... and I'm hoping is true, knowing Steam, is that I'll be able to play all the games I've already purchased. TF2, Half Life 2, Portal... this is all very exciting.

I'm hoping for the same thing: A purchase for one platform is a purchase for all platforms. It's hard to say whether this will happen though. It'll largely depend on Sony's willingness to allow Steam to operate as a store independent of the PSN Store.
16 Jun 2010 ~ 12:03pm Koreish

Timu-chan wrote:

@Koreish why would that push back Portal 2? I highly doubt the push back and the development of Steam for PS3 are related in any way. Its very unlikely that they even share any of the same developers.

Portal was scheduled to come out this year then they push it back for a big announcement which was Valve's and Sony's new relationship. I'd imagine that Valve still is the developer because Newell said it was going to be the best console version. Would you trust a third party to make it the best?
16 Jun 2010 ~ 12:05pm Tushon

mertesn wrote:

It'll largely depend on Sony's willingness to allow Steam to operate as a store independent of the PSN Store.

That seems unlikely to happen, but maybe Valve promised Sony something special.
16 Jun 2010 ~ 12:30pm mertesn

Koreish wrote:

Would you trust a third party to make it the best?

Not after the Orange Box
16 Jun 2010 ~ 2:39pm timuchan @Koreish I only meant different development teams, I should've been more clear. I'm sure all will be done under Valve's roof, it just seems that the two projects are different enough that they'd have different programmers. You could be right though, I'm no Valve expert.
16 Jun 2010 ~ 3:14pm Canti

mertesn wrote:

Hopefully it'll get better support than the Orange Box did. I understand that fiasco was likely out of Valve's hands, but it still reflected poorly on them.

If I remember right the problem with the Orange Box was that Valve worked with EA to distribute the PS3/Xbox versions and when DLC was released EA wanted to charge for it while Valve wanted to offered it for free.
16 Jun 2010 ~ 3:15pm Canti

Koreish wrote:

If this is their surprise I am disappoint. It's not big news and it is certainly not worth the push back of Portal 2 in my opinion.

Who says Portal 2 will be released for the PC and PS3 at the same time?
16 Jun 2010 ~ 3:19pm mertesn

Canti wrote:

Who says Portal 2 will be released for the PC and PS3 at the same time?

Gabe Newell during the Sony presentation.
16 Jun 2010 ~ 3:23pm mertesn

Canti wrote:

If I remember right the problem with the Orange Box was that Valve worked with EA to distribute the PS3/Xbox versions and when DLC was released EA wanted to charge for it while Valve wanted to offered it for free.

No, you're thinking of the Valve/Microsoft DLC issue which was another bunch of crap outside of Valve's control. EA actually did the PS3 port of Orange Box as well as distributed it.
17 Jun 2010 ~ 1:09am Clos Wouldn't this also mean LEft 4 Dead will come onto the ps3..or at least left 4 dead 3?
17 Jun 2010 ~ 1:24am Obsidian

Clos wrote:

Wouldn't this also mean LEft 4 Dead will come onto the ps3..or at least left 4 dead 3?

No. There's no guarantee that there will be a L4D3 and there's little reason for Valve to develop a port of the original.
17 Jun 2010 ~ 4:28am aLEX dude.
they NEVER said STEAM was coming to PS3.
I have no idea where you got this from ?
17 Jun 2010 ~ 4:34am Koreish You are right.

What does Brian know?
17 Jun 2010 ~ 5:55am mertesn

alex wrote:

dude.
they NEVER said STEAM was coming to PS3.
I have no idea where you got this from ?

Source: Gabe Newell at the Sony event for E3 2010 ~2:00 in.
He seems like a pretty reliable source seeing as how he co-founded Valve, but yeah, he was probably lying on stage.
17 Jun 2010 ~ 10:13am mcgrawgamer LOL he never said steam is coming to psn. He said portal 2 will be coming to the ps3 with full steamcloud support. steamcloud is not the actual steam service. to simplify it basically any updates be it patches or dlc will come to the ps3 version day and date with pc/mac and this is why he said it will be the best console version because they will not have to have updates certified for the game like they will need to do on the 360 version.
17 Jun 2010 ~ 10:23am _k So when he says Steam will be part of that experience with features like steam cloud he means Steam is not included in Steam right?

And since there is suppose to be no cross platform support, Macs finally have a one up on something for gaming besides a graphing calculator.
17 Jun 2010 ~ 11:27am ED WTF? Steamworks or Steamcloud as its called will be on PS3, NOT Steam itself. WOW dude you need to man up and say you where wrong, this whole damn article is broken. HTF? Did you even double check you info? Even after the other dude corrected you? WOW! FAKE
17 Jun 2010 ~ 11:37am _k Do you guys even really know what Steamworks is because ED showed that by calling it the cloud?
17 Jun 2010 ~ 11:46am Obsidian

alex wrote:

dude.
they NEVER said STEAM was coming to PS3.
I have no idea where you got this from ?

mcgrawgamer wrote:

LOL he never said steam is coming to psn. He said portal 2 will be coming to the ps3 with full steamcloud support. steamcloud is not the actual steam service. to simplify it basically any updates be it patches or dlc will come to the ps3 version day and date with pc/mac and this is why he said it will be the best console version because they will not have to have updates certified for the game like they will need to do on the 360 version.

ED wrote:

WTF? Steamworks or Steamcloud as its called will be on PS3, NOT Steam itself. WOW dude you need to man up and say you where wrong, this whole damn article is broken. HTF? Did you even double check you info? Even after the other dude corrected you? WOW! FAKE

Getting awfully redundant in here.
17 Jun 2010 ~ 11:59am Linc Obsidian, the word you're looking for is "redundant." Post edited.
17 Jun 2010 ~ 12:22pm Koreish

mertesn wrote:

Source: Gabe Newell at the Sony event for E3 2010 ~2:00 in.
He seems like a pretty reliable source seeing as how he co-founded Valve, but yeah, he was probably lying on stage.

Clearly that is doctored.
17 Jun 2010 ~ 1:16pm primesuspect Our team interviewed Doug Lombardi at E3. Their writeup of what he has to say about Steam and PS3 is coming soon. Stay tuned.