25 April 2012, 15:27

Valve is working on Steam and "Left 4 Dead 2" for Linux

Valve Software logo

Software and technology company Valve is working on a Linux port of its client for the Steam game distribution platform. According to a report by Phoronix founder and chief editor Michael Larabel, developers at the entertainment firm are also porting the "Source Engine" games engine to Linux and "Left 4 Dead 2", a game based on that engine. Additionally, Larabel says that he was shown the game running natively on Linux without Wine.

Valve wants to motivate other developers to port their games to Linux and distribute them via the Linux version of the Steam client. One of the photos in the article shows Left 4 Dead 2 running under version 11.10 of the Ubuntu Linux distribution using AMD's proprietary Catalyst drivers. Valve co-founder Gabe Newell is said to be actively involved in the port, and Valve is said to be thinking about porting further games. It was indicated that the beta phase of the Linux ports will start in the autumn.

In May 2010, Phoronix first announced that Valve was working on a native version of Steam for Linux. According to that report, various Valve employees were already working on ports then – but it appears that these ports are only now taking shape.

(crve)

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