Valve’s gaming service Steam is now available for Linux users, the company said this week.
To celebrate the launch, Valve is selling 57 Linux-compatible games at bargain prices, with prices slashed by 50 or 75 percent. Games on sale include classic Valve titles like Half-Life and Counter-Strike: Source, as well as newer games including Bastion and FTL: Faster Than Light.
The release lays the groundwork for a coming battle over the way people play games in their living rooms.
Valve CEO Gabe Newell has been publicly promoting his company’s plan for pushing PC gaming, and the Steam client, into the living room using Valve-branded PC hardware with a living-room form factor, as well as Steam-ready hardware produced by other vendors.
Speaking at the DICE gaming industry conference earlier this month, Newell stressed the importance of open platforms, calling a potential Apple TV game console “threatening” to the idea of PCs moving into the living room.
“Our company wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the openness of the PC. Steam wouldn’t exist if not for the openness of the Internet,” Newell said. He then called Linux a “get out of jail free pass for our industry, if we need it.”
Last July, Newell called Microsoft’s Windows 8 “a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space” while speaking to VentureBeat.
Preparing for War, Valve Launches Steam for Linux
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Preparing for War, Valve Launches Steam for Linux
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Preparing for War, Valve Launches Steam for Linux
