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Comment by tzaman | Hacker News Reader

I hope not, Valve is doing just fine without Apple.

Now yes, but Apple's put them in a tricky position for the future. Thanks to the influence of iOS, Steam will be in a rather tight spot once Windows 8 rolls out (as the WinStore will be the primary source for games by default; exclusive on ARM); the presence of the App Store on OSX isn't doing them any favors either.

On the flip side, if Apple wants to take the consoles head-on (a fairly safe assumption), they're going to need strong console-level games. Partnering with Valve puts them on mostly equal footing with Microsoft and Sony in terms of publisher relationships, as well as a few headliner exclusives.

you are right, the position is tricky, but I think partnering with Apple is the easy way out for Valve (and they'll probably loose their identity in the long run - probably not a bad thing, but still).

They have a nice user base and if they'll adapt to WinStore coming out with proper counter-measures and marketing approaches (and maybe some new ideas), I think there's nothing they should be afraid of.

How doe you expect Steam to "adapt" to being near-totally shut out of their primary market? Steamworks is a moot point when Win8/MountainLion comes with Xbox Live/Game Center integration as a selling point. Like it or not, Steam's days as-is are numbered and Valve needs a new platform. Could be Apple, could be their own but they have to do something if they want a chance of surviving.

As a Windows user who uses Steam as the primary method to purchase games I would say, from my experience, that Steam won't have to adapt at all. When I eventually have a Windows 8 machine one of the first things I'll install is Steam. Why would I change? I've already invested a great deal of money into it. It works quite well as a platform and for me to switch would require a superior platform to take its place, which I don't see coming in the near future.

Plus, considering Microsoft's history with PC gaming it would take a great deal for me to switch to their platform from Steam. Game for Windows Live anyone?

Unless Microsoft ups their game (bad pun!) in terms of actually supporting PC gaming then I would think Valve will be just fine. I'm willing to bet Xbox Live integration on Windows 8 is not a selling point to Valve's market.

If someone from Microsoft suggested I should switch from Steam to their platform I would laugh in his face.

Let me answer that with a question:

How was Dropbox able to "survive" when Apple has their cloud (and I'm sure Windows will feature something similar as well)? If I remember correctly, Apple wanted to buy them and they said no.

The bottom line, it can be done. Others have proven it.

iCloud (and SkyDrive, Microsoft's equivalent) is capable of co-existing on your system with Dropbox. Dropbox even has features that iCloud lacks (files aren't limited to a single app, proper cross-platform support, photo archival, etc.)

Windows Store, by design, removes the ability for Steam to function. It's technically possible to run Steam on Win8-x86, but constrained to the "legacy" desktop and denied integration of any kind with Metro. They'll be shut out completely with ARM. Their momentum will carry them for a while, but provided Metro isn't a massive failure Steam's current business model will be unviable within 5 years of Win8's launch. If they are to survive, Valve /must/ get off the PC.

Well, if Apple want to win the [OS/hardware/whatever] war then all they need to do spend a chunk of their cash stockpile and ensure that Episode 3 launches on OSX first.

Or more seriously, if Valve wanted a hardware partner then why wouldn't they work with Apple?

Your comment reminds me of when Bungie went up for sale. They'd found success making great games for the Mac, and were showing the early work on Halo to great acclaim. When Apple had the chance (I presume) to buy them they assumed that it didn't matter who bought them because they were a Mac only shop... then Microsoft bought them and Halo never made it to the mac.

I hope Apple has learned from that lesson, but on the other hand, Apple is an environment focused on operating systems and hardware, and not necessarily run by the right people to be deciding which games to green light.

Halo did get released for Mac (albeit two years after the PC release)

That's pretty much the same as "never" being released. After that much time games lose their steam and people start talking about a sequel instead.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it still sells after two years, but the whole "brand new game that takes the market with storm" phrase has long since passed.

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