Valve brings Steam to Linux

Valve is bringing its Source engine and leading digital distribution platform Steam to Linux, it has revealed.

The studio is currently working on bringing a fully-featured client to Ubuntu 12.04, with the first game to be ported onto the store currently planned as Left 4 Dead 2.

Revealing the news on its new Linux Blog, Valve stated that Steam currently offered a good experience on the operating system and that it would be setting up an internal beta in the near future focusing on the auto-update experience and compatibility testing.

The studio is also currently working on optimising a version of L4D2 running at a high frame rare with OpenGL, as well as porting additional Valve titles, opening up the possibility of a port of Portal 2 and Half-Life 2.

Bringing Steam to Linux could also allow more developers to create games natively on Linux by opening them up to a wider audience.

“We want this to be a community of game developers, communicating with each other and talking about current efforts and future efforts in a powerfully creative environment,” wrote Valve of its new Linux blog.

“After all, isn’t that what open source is all about – the idea that collaboration and teamwork achieve amazing things?”