Valve’s Steam for Mac available starting today (May 12)

Here’s a big reason why my Bootcamp partition can soon be erased: Valve is releasing Steam for Mac! In case you didn’t know, Steam is a Valve-run platform through which you can download and purchase games. All your purchases stay “in the cloud”, so with one username & password you are able to download and reinstall all your games on any computer. No more worrying about safe-keeping serial numbers and storing all your original CDs/DVDs.

Valve worked closely with Apple to bring the Steam platform to Mac OS. The best part? “Steam Play” will allow you to purchase a game once, and play it on all available Steam platforms. Portal will be the first game made available for Steam on the Mac, and every Wednesday starting from May 12, Valve is expected to release one new game.

Personally, I’m very excited to have a native gaming platform available on the Mac and look forward to reclaiming the 50GB I allocated for XP in Bootcamp. Team Fortress 2, here I come (again).

Look for the Mac client to be made available on Steampowered.com later today in the US.

Source: Steam For Mac Launch Details Revealed