Steam, the online computer gaming portal, keeps track of what hardware its players are using to access the many games in its service.
Of interest in the exhaustive list of specs is the fact that 49.46 percent of Mac gamers on Steam game on a Macbook Pro. Which makes sense, of course, as that’s a pretty powerful laptop. From there, we see the iMac coming in at 28 percent, plain-jane MacBooks garnering 9.49 percent, and the MacBook Air, my personal machine, used by 6.29 percent of Mac Steam gamers. The MacBook Pro and MacBook Air both rose in the hardware charts, with an increase of .44 and .89 percent, respectively.
Steam has kicked off its summer sale, offering up to 75% off some of the hottest games for Mac and PC. The sale runs until July 22, Steam is adding new titles each and every day, with customers given the opportunity to vote for the titles they want to see reduced.
Valve co-founder Gabe Newell recently addressed the rumor that Apple CEO Tim Cook visited his company last week in an interview with Seven Day Cooldown. Newell flat out denied the rumor, originally published by AppleInsider, that Tim Cook visited Valve HQ.
Cult of Mac originally added to the rumor by saying that Apple could have been meeting with Valve because Apple is working on its own type of gaming console for the living room, and was potentially looking for partnering with Valve.
While it’s been revealed that Cook did not in fact visit Valve, our sources have again reiterated that Apple is absolutely continuing with its plans for a living room gaming presence regardless of Valve involvement.
Apple and Valve may be partnering with each other on a revolutionary video game console.
An unconfirmed report surfaced yesterday saying that Apple CEO Tim Cook was spotted at Valve’s headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. Whenever Cook is spotted out and about, people take notice. The CEO of the world’s most valuable company doesn’t personally visit other tech companies to simply have a chat.
Many speculated as to why Cook would be visiting Valve, maker of popular game series like Half-Life, Team Fortress and Portal. Valve also boasts an incredibly robust online PC gaming platform called Steam that operates similarly to Apple’s App Store.
We’ve gotten word that Cook was indeed at Valve yesterday, and what’s more, Apple is planning a full-on assault to take over the living room. This assault won’t just be limited to the long-rumored Apple HDTV set, but will also include a revolutionary home console as well.
Apple CEO Tim Cook was reportedly spotted at the headquarters of PC gaming platform Valve this morning. The Washington-based company boasts the most robust and established desktop gaming network in existence. Think of Valve as the iTunes of PC gaming. Is a Valve/Apple partnership in the works?
Late last week, Valve released an official app for iOS and Android devices that allows gamers to stay connected to its Steam community wherever they may be. It was instantly popular with the Steam users who were able to gain access to it, but the only problem was, it was in beta testing and not many had that privilege.
But today the service is out of beta and available to all.
It looks like Valve threw a few extra coals into their engine after hearing about the 3rd party Steam app that was released earlier this month. They were not going to let any other app take their steam and so they have now released the official Steam app onto both Android and iOS. I’d like to say users are ecstatic, but there seems to be a catch.
The Steam gaming network has been incredibly popular on the Mac since it made its debut in March of last year, and it enjoys over 35 million subscribers all over the world, offering a huge library of over 1,400 games. It’s not exactly the most popular network amongst gamers today, however, after it confirmed that its database has been hacked, potentially compromising the personal data and credit card information of all its subscribers.
There’s not much else to know right now, but Valve Software — the AAA game design house behind Portal 2, Team Fortress 2 and Steam for Mac — have just announced an entirely new game in the Counter-Strike series, which will debut on the Mac in early 2012.
Retrospectively casting an eye over an incredible year for both Apple and its customers, one of the most surprising developments of 2010 was the Mac’s long-overdue maturity into a serious gaming platform after years of false hopes and promises.
More surprising than even that, though, is the fact Apple almost had nothing to do with it: even while Cupertino oiled and massaged iOS into a platform capable of rattling the nerves of gaming’s most unassailable colossus, they continued to ignore Mac gamers and its developers.
So who was responsible for the Mac Gaming Renaissance of 2010? There’s no one company in particular, but let’s start with Valve.
![Steam Kicks Off Summer Sale With Up To 75% Off Games Until July 22 [Deals]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-13-at-14.45.52.jpg "Steam-Summer-Sale-2012")
![Why Apple CEO Tim Cook Met With Valve [Updated]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/valve-portal.jpg "valve-portal")
