In a megaton surprise that nobody saw coming, Valve’s Gabe Newell — who has previously been a vocal critic of the PlayStation 3 — came out on stage at Sony’s E3 press conference and announced thatPortal 2will release on the PS3 simultaneously with the PC, Mac, and Xbox 360. But that’s not all: the PS3 version ofPortal 2will be the only console version to include Steamworks support, which means that all the behind-the-scenes features that PC and Mac players are used to — such as automatic game updates and the Steam Cloud — will come withPortal 2on the PS3.
The press release also mentions “downloadable content” as one of Steamworks’ main features, so we’re wondering if this means thatPortal 2will receive free updates, just like the PC/Mac versions of all other Steam games.
Newell even went as far as to callPortal 2on PS3 “the best version on any console,” saying that Valve finally decided to develop on PS3 because it’s “the most open platform of all the current-generation consoles and [Sony] has worked extremely hard to make the platform the most desirable for consumers and developers.” Strong words, indeed — it sounds like Newell is as big a fan of the PlayStation 3 now as he was a detractor at its launch in 2006. As GLaDOS said at the end of the CG trailer shown at the press conference, “I think we can put our differences behind us … for science … you monster.”
Portal 2will be out sometime in 2011 on PS3, 360, PC, and Mac.
