Portal 2 Steamworks Features For Other PS3 Games? News

Valve has expressed hopes that other games on PS3 will eventually benefit from the Steamworks features implemented in Portal 2.

Speaking to Ars Technica, Valve’s VP of Marketing, Doug Lombardi said,

"We are hoping other titles will benefit from the Steamworks tools and services we've created for Portal 2 PS3, but we don't have anything to announce today."

The PS3 version of Portal 2, described by Gabe Newell as “the best console version of the game”, features a range of exclusive options which integrate the title with Valve’s Steam service, including cross-platform play and chat with Mac and PC players. Valve is also implementing cloud-based storage of saved games, and has announced a unified rights system which entitles PS3 owners of Portal 2 to download the game for Mac and PC if they wish.

"The goal is to give a Portal 2 customer access to their game on as many devices as possible.” Lombardi said. "From our perspective, it's not two copies of a game; it's the same game, but with Sony's help we've worked out a method to allow that Portal 2 PS3 customer to also play their game on the PC and Mac."

It seems quite likely that future Valve PS3 releases will make use of the new Steamworks features they’ve implemented for Portal 2; what is unclear however is whether cross-platform play and unified download rights could spread beyond Valve's PS3 games to other third-party titles supported by Steam.