You could be forgiven if you thought that last year’sGame Developers Conference — the one-year gather of gambling moving company and shakers — had been redubbed “ the iPhone Developers Conference . ” After all , the 2009 edition of the trade show feature a clayey comportment from iPhone game makers as well as a push by major biz developer like Konami and Capcom into the iPhone market . And the iPhone Game Summit serial publication of lectures and events highlighted a grow interest in the platform . in truth , the iPhone was the belle of last year ’s gaming chunk .
This twelvemonth ? Not so much . Oh , the iPhone still figures to be a large topic of pastime at the 2010 GDC , which kicks off Tuesday in San Francisco . But it will be competing for attention from developer with both the Mac and Apple ’s forthcoming iPad .
Indeed , as GDC obtain underway , the freehanded news seems to be coming from the Mac gambling sector — especially that Valve would bring in its Steam biz computer storage to the Mac . The game developer confirmed on Monday that its gaming engine , and a number of its most pop offerings — Left 4 Dead 2 , Team Fortress 2 , Counter - Strike , and Portal to name a few — will be uncommitted on the Mac in April . Future expiration will be simultaneous to Mac and Windows , the first of which is Portal 2 , which debut subsequently this year .
Portal 2 is a heatedly anticipated sequel to Valve ’s offbeat and award - winning puzzler , and its arrival on the Mac signifies that Valve is take this program seriously . dead , it ’s become very , very just to be a Mac gamer .
As David Chartier pointed out earlier in this space , it ’s a good meter for Valve to jump into Mac gambling . mack users represent an untapped sector of the population ; it ’s likely that Valve wants to venture its call on those user . Even a modest fraction of game available on Steam would be a mean vast boon to the Mac gaming market . The availability of Steam also mean that Valve and other developer are that much closer to doing coinciding launching of new titles .
That ’s not to say Valve ’s promulgation will launch a Renascence for Mac gaming . As Valve co - founder Gabe Newell infamously said in 2007 , developing for the Mac has been hard due to Apple being “ spicy and cold ” to gambling , “ Apple does n’t take game seriously ” has been the conventional wisdom among developer and game alike . But Valve ’s comer is a Brobdingnagian footstep forward .
The way I see it , if the Mac can get Steam ’s back catalogue of game usable to download and there suddenly is involvement from developer in launch titles on the Mac , then Mac play will formally have arrived . We may still be worlds away from playing Modern Warfare 2 against our PC brethren , but for now let ’s rejoice that we ’ll soon enjoy Team Fortress 2 , Portal , lead 4 Dead , and the rest .
Valve is n’t the only company making waves with Apple ’s assorted program . Disney , Capcom , and Bigpoint are all typeset to offer up preview or promulgation for approaching games on the iPhone . These include Disney ’s standoff - in with the of late released Alice in Wonderland and Capcom ’s flagship Street Fighter struggle enfranchisement and its hoped-for launch for the iPhone . Bigpoint , meanwhile , is collect buzz for its planned demonstration of “ Uniter , ” the company ’s grumpy - platform engineering that will allow iPhone and on-line thespian to finally compete against each other in a variety of games .
Elsewhere , Gameloft , Ngmoco , and other great - name iPhone developers are readying their latest line of iPhone game GDC ’s iPhone Games Summit is back in action at law this year , and we ’ll report on the speakers and sessions as they come about . The iPhone is still very much the talk of the town of the town .
But the iPad is the X Factor . While very few developer have actually gotten their hands on the gimmick , many say they ’re developing for the weapons platform . As we get closer to the iPad ’s April 3 launch , anticipate more details on who expects to toy a part in the emerging iPad play market and what that market will calculate like . Will developers focalise on effortless titles like the puzzlers that first set in motion with the App Store ’s 2008 entry ? Or will games that take advantage of the iPad ’s in writing capabilities dominate the discussion ? What kind of play platform will the iPad become ?
As always , GDC figures to be full of surprises . OnLive ’s declaration last class of its online gaming service stole the 2009 show ( though the platform remains in growing a class subsequently ) . Who will seize the headlines and who will deliver the good in 2010 ? What demonstration will wow the consultation ?
We ’ll offer on - the - floor reportage and updates on announcements as we hear them . Already , it search to be an exciting event for Mac , iPhone , iPod speck , and iPad gamers .
