Valve has announced today that Steam for Linux has officially entered its closed beta.
The listing of titles available for the beta include Team Fortress 2, World of Goo, Trine 2, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and approximately 21 additional Steam games. Also accessible in the beta is Steam’s big picture mode, which essentially turns the PC service into a console with its designed use for a TV and controller.
“This is a huge milestone in the development of PC gaming,” according to Gabe Newell, Valve President and co-founder. “Steam users have been asking us to support gaming on Linux. We’re happy to bring rich forms of entertainment and our community of users to this open, customer-friendly platform.”
Installation of Steam for Linux is currently available on Ubuntu 12.04 with “additional popular distros” coming in the future, according to Frank Crockett, a member of the Steam for Linux team. These additional distros will be prioritized based on user feedback.
Valve received 60,000 responses to its request for participants within the first week, with the current beta participants being chosen from that group, according to the press release. The number of users able to participate in the beta will widen and be chosen among survey respondents.
According to the announcement, Steam for Linux will become available for all Steam users when the beta is deemed stable.
For a full list of all games available on the Steam for Linux beta, take a gander at the screenshot captured below.
Soooo… those people who installed Linux on their PS3s are probably pretty stoked right now!