
PS3 Portal 2 to come with free PC/Mac version, cross-platform play - phsr
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/01/ps3-portal-2-to-come-with-free-pcmac-version-cross-platform-play.ars
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jokermatt999
A few thoughts on this:

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.

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.

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.

4) And last, holy crap this is awesome I love Valve and Steam is just
completely wonderful. </fanboy>

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iwwr
It's not clear exactly if there will _actually_ be cross-platform play or if
Valve simply decided to give PS3 gamers a free Steam copy, which they would
have to play on a PC. It looks as though there will be some chat integration,
though.

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sudont
"Cross Platform Play" is in all the titles I've seen, so I have to assume that
there's going to be cross-platform play. Newell also talks about game invites,
which are part of initiating a game with someone.

Portal should work well in cross-platform play since there's no direct
competition: Quake III (IIRC) PC players absolutely dominated Dreamcast
players. Collaboration removes the importance of this competitive edge.

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iwwr
Cross-platform play could also mean just PC-Mac. I'd just like to know if
there aren't any 'gotchas', marketing folks are prone to these kinds of "soft
lies" (remember BF2's 'dedicated servers'?)

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trotsky
_“We designed the Portal 2 PS3 experience to be very straightforward for
gamers,” said Josh Weier, project lead on Portal 2 at Valve. “PS3 gamers will
be able to simply drop the Blu-Ray disc in the PS3, link to their Steam
account from inside the game, and all their Steam friends (on PC and Mac) will
be visible and accessible for chat and game invites.”_

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Osmose
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.

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

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rsuttongee
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.

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.

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.

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2mur
I have an Xbox that sees some use, and I used to be a big CS fan back
2002-2005 or so. But I've been strictly a linux user since then and I haven't
played any PC games.

I'm going to be migrating to a Macbook once they update the processors and one
of the things I'm most excited about is checking out the Steam platform on
Mac.

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baxter
When this was first mentioned at E3 last June Tycho from Penny Arcade had this
to say about it:

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.

<http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/6/16/>

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simias
I think it's great, but this should be the rule and not the exception.

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iwwr
Relevant:
[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6140/creating_dedicate...](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6140/creating_dedicated_pc_servers_for_.php)

There are real technical difficulties in enabling cross-platform play.

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Splines
Ugh. Sounds like mostly working around design decisions and infrastructure.
Getting the engines talking to each other sounded straightforward.

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InclinedPlane
Technology is just one challenge. Once you're over that there are fundamental
platform differences you can't gloss over.

Specifically, for skill based multiplayer games (such as most FPSes) the
advantage of a keyboard and mouse over a controller is hugely significant. To
a degree to where it might as well be cheating. The inevitable result of cross
platform play becoming available between PCs and consoles in games like Black
Ops, Halo: Reach, etc. would be that gamers quickly segregated themselves by
platform, to keep games interesting.

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larrik
Wow. I don't have a PS3, but this news is gigantic! I hope this is a real
trend.

This would mean you can continue your game while travelling.

Microsoft is in a position to do this sort of thing easily with Live, but they
don't, and they didn't.

~~~
citricsquid
"Microsoft is in a position to do this sort of thing easily with Live, but
they don't, and they didn't"

What sort of thing? Cross platform play? They've supported that (but for
almost every type of game it sucks) and also giving the free extra copy is
something Valve do, it doesn't really have anything to do with Sony...

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arohner
Or being generous to the customer.

Valve made a DLC for Left4Dead2, released for 360 and Mac/PC. Valve released
for free on PC, but MSFT told them they _must_ charge for it on 360, $7.99 (or
thereabouts). In response, Valve had a sale on Mac/PC where all of L4D2 was
$6.99, and then you get the new DLC for free.

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random42
source?

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mambodog
It was $6.80 for each: <http://www.l4d.com/sacrifice/index.html#sale_content>

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redthrowaway
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.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR8CVLVmKQs&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR8CVLVmKQs&feature=related&t=3m05s)

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InclinedPlane
I imagine that developing for the PS3 has gotten better over time.

The real difference now is that they have had experience with developing for
the 360 and it doesn't suit they're style. Many of Valve's most recent games
have been of the multiplayer variety, and they have a strong ethic of
continuing to tweak their multiplayer games over time, adding content,
tweaking game balance and game mechanics, etc. This style of development,
which is familiar to anyone who's played PC multiplayer games over the last 2
or 3 decades, is at odds with the way Microsoft handles game releases. There
is a long QA pipeline to go through (which can be onerous if one also has
their own QA pipeline) and there is a general standing policy of charging
money for major content releases. And this has caused an immense amount of
frustration for Valve.

The divergence of TF2, for example, between the console version and the PC
version has been extreme. To the degree where it's probably fairer to call the
PC version perhaps something like TF2.5, because there has been so much
ongoing development in the game.

The PS3 is recognized as being the weakest platform (in terms of developer
interest, game sales, profits, etc.) in the current generation, so Valve was
able to negotiate a sweet deal with Sony in allowing them to put Steam on the
PS3. This is no small thing, and fully explains why they have gone back to the
PS3 despite the problems they've had with the console. The ability to have
their own way in terms of content updates is enormous for Valve.

tl;dr Developing for the PS3 may be more technically frustrating but Sony's
huge concessions mean that Valve gains the freedom to deliver game updates on
their own terms which more than makes up for the technical difficulties.

~~~
redthrowaway
Those are interesting points. I wonder if graphics are now at the point where
the PS3's Cell architecture, which seemed needlessly complicated before, is
now starting to look like a point in its favor. It's no secret that the PS3 is
a far more capable device than the 360. Perhaps the PC market has come far
enough that the ps3 is the only console capable of matching the PC in terms of
graphics.

