Portal 2 is easily one of the most highly-anticipated games of 2011 and fans of Sony’s console got a special treat today as Valve has announced the Steam features shipping with the PlayStation 3 version of the game.
Marking the debut of Steam functioning on any next generation console, the features shipping in the PS3 version of Portal 2 include cross platform play (PC/Mac vs. PS3) for multiplayer games, persistent cloud-based storage of PS3 saved games, and cross platform chat (PC/Mac and PS3).
In addition, those who purchase Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 may unlock a Steam Play (PC & Mac) copy of Portal 2 at no additional cost by linking their PSN and Steam accounts.
“We made a promise to gamers at E3 that Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 would be the best console version of the product,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. “Working together with Sony we have identified a set of features we believe are very compelling to gamers. We hope to expand upon the foundation being laid in Portal 2 with more Steam features and functionality in DLC and future content releases.”
“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.”
Of course, these features are made possible thru the use of Steam, Valve’s bad-ass platform for the delivery and management of games and digital content.
Portal 2 is due for release on the PlayStation 3, PC, Mac and yes, even the Xbox 360 this April. What do you think of today’s news???
Well Gabe, thank you!
This is really great news.
Wether or not someone likes Steam, I really have to give them props of bringing together their networks.
I am truly surprised that they were able to pull this off.
If this is going to be successful (I really hope), maybe some of the other studios/publishers will follow that route. It may also be the biggest differentiator between PSN and XBLive. As far as I understood, Valve didn’t seem to be very happy with the restrictions on connectivity and content over their service.
Even if not every game lends itself for cross-plattform online play, I really want to see more of this community bridging happening in the future.
Again, huge props for Valve and Sony for pulling this off.
Hell yeah! Valve had said in an interview for GTTV back in August that they were looking into cross-platform co-op for Portal 2 and they definitely delivered! Thanks Valve!
Portal 2 will be perfect for cross-platform gameplay since there’s no need for split-second decisions and 100% accuracy like in a typical FPS like COD.
Here’s hoping that there’s gonna be a L4D3 soon with cross-platform co-op support!!
This is just phenomenal! Thank you Valve, thank you Gabe! I mean, buying it on the PS3 and then getting it for free on the PC?! Are you kidding me! Expectations are always high with Valve, but they just knocked it out of the park once again!
I wonder if you can even share your savegames between PS3 and PC (so I can play some stuff on the PS3 and then continue where I left off on the PC the next day)? But that’s probably not going to work, even though you can link your profiles together and play cross-platform…
Should I ever have a son, I will call him Gabe. ;)
From what I understood, that is actually one of the selling points for using SteamWorks. If the game synchronizes your data with the Steam Cloud anyway, I wouldn’t see why they couldn’t make them available on other platforms. The PS3 might encrypt and sign local saves, but a game like Portal should be able to sync the state while the data is in memory and circumvent that problem. You would however have to be online while saving to make that possible. Syncing a savegame that was created offline might not be possible until it is loaded.
At least that’s how I would see it.
Well that’s what Steam Play does via Steam Cloud. Also, Steam would be the perfect way to battle the monster that has just been awakened, namely piracy on the PS3.
now, more then I think about it,.. Getting a game for 2 extra platforms for free,..
This is kind of a megaton,.. Thanx VALVE!!
TThis is cool. i liked the first porta, although my pc isn’t powefull enough it’s still cool that i can link my game up to Steam via PSN and get a fre copy of the game for PC/MAC valve is the moust awsome company after Rockstar.
This is the coolest thing ever. I was having a hard time deciding which platform to buy this game on, but the free PC version included with the PS3 version makes it a no-brainer.
To be honest, I was already leaning towards the PS3 version anyways so I could play co-op with my wife :)