AS EXPECTED, games publisher Valve has announced a version of its Steam gaming platform and Source gaming engine for the Mac.

The firm has recently been teasing gamers with a range of Apple-like ads that hinted at such a rollout, and today it has confirmed this in a blog post.

"As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

Steamworks for the Mac will include a new feature, the firm wrote, called Steam Play, which in combination with Steam Cloud will let players take any current games with them. For example they said that users would have a consistent playing experience whether using their work PC or home Mac.

Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve, said, "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."

As we reported yesterday Portal 2, which is set for a Christmas release, will be the first cross-platform offering from Valve. µ