Extent of possible integration unknown

Valve is investigating the possibility of expanding Steam to iOS and Android, a member of the official Steam forums claims to have learned. The person says he was told of the company's plans in speaking with co-founder Gabe Newell at Valve headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. Steam is currently only available for Windows and Mac, and even then with a much stronger emphasis on the former.

To what extent Steam might be integrated with iOS or Android is unknown. Buying and downloading mobile games through the platform is extremely unlikely, especially as Apple's App Store is mandatory in the case of iOS. In theory Steam apps could compete with services like Game Center and OpenFeint -- which provide scoreboards, achievements and matchmaking -- with the added advantage of desktop and (eventually) console integration. Very basic apps might simply let people handle community functions and/or queue up downloads for a computer.

Some other salient points revealed by Newell include the impending addition of video recording to Steam, matching a recently-added screenshot feature. Similarly, a filmmaking tool for the Source engine should be made public in the near future.

by MacNN Staff