Hardcore gamers would still remember how Valve sided with ATI and ID Software sided with Nvidia when Doom 3 and Half Life 2 were still in development. Times have changed and today Valve and NVIDIA entered into an agreement to "collaborate on development, distribution, events, and more".
Effective immediately, all NVIDIA gamers may receive a free copy of Portal: First Slice, a special version of the award-winning new game from Valve, by visiting a special page on Steam where their GeForce card will be automatically detected. To make it easy for all NVIDIA customers to redeem this offer, a link to the Steam offer will also be included in all NVIDIA drivers.
"More Steam gamers, including myself, play on NVIDIA hardware than any other GPU," said Doug Lombardi, vice president of marketing at Valve. "That's a testament to the company's long history of innovation and quality. By working together with NVIDIA to expand our development, distribution, and marketing efforts, we're increasing our ability to serve the millions of NVIDIA customers logging onto Steam and help us prepare for our next generation of content."
Throughout the coming year, the companies will also be working together to support competitive gaming events for Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2 and will continue to work together to define and support the breakthrough features of tomorrow's games and graphics hardware.
"Valve's endorsement of our technology and tools is yet another example of how the world's leading gaming companies are working with NVIDIA," said Roy Taylor, vice president of content relations at NVIDIA. "Portal is the hottest new, award-winning title from Valve, and we're delighted that Valve will offer First Slice exclusively to GeForce customers."