Valve has announced some pretty impressive features for the PlayStation 3 version of Portal 2, which will be shipping with SteamWorks, a first for any console game.
Portal 2 will feature cross-platform play, allowing PC and Mac users to take on their PS3 counterparts. Cloud-based save games will allow players to load their progress from any PlayStation 3, and cross-platform chat allows PC, Mac, and PS3 gamers to all converse while shooting portals at each other.
Best of all, by linking your PSN and Steam account, anyone who buys Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 will unlock a copy of Portal 2 on the PC and Mac at no additional cost.
“We made a promise to gamers at E3 that Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 would be the best console version of the product,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. “Working together with Sony we have identified a set of features we believe are very compelling to gamers. We hope to expand upon the foundation being laid in Portal 2 with more Steam features and functionality in DLC and future content releases.”
“We designed the Portal 2 PS3 experience to be very straightforward for gamers,” said Josh Weier, project lead on Portal 2 at Valve. “PS3 gamers will be able to simply drop the Blu-Ray disc in the PS3, link to their Steam account from inside the game, and all their Steam friends (on PC and Mac) will be visible and accessible for chat and game invites.”
There is no doubt that these are some impressive features, but one has to wonder why the PlayStation 3? Furthermore, how many other games will support Steam in the future? Valve isn’t exactly known for pumping out new games each month (or even year). Time will tell if this a meaningful turn of events for Sony’s troubled console.
