Steam's 'Early Access' lets both Mac & PC gamers try titles still in development

The new Early Access program, reflecting the wider state of gaming, is largely PC-centric, but the inclusion of several cross-platform games compatible with Apple's OS X shows developer support for the Mac is slowly growing. Of the 12 games available, a quarter were coded for both Mac and PC.

Mac gamers looking to try out titles as they're developing can check out the strategy-simulation games Kerbal Space Program, Prison Architect, and Patterns, available for $23, $30, and $10, respectively.

The past few years have seen increasing game development for the Mac platform, which has typically been something of a second class citizen in the gaming world. More recently, though, a number of high-profile game releases have seen Mac launches simultaneous with their PC counterparts or following shortly thereafter. For example, the upcoming Bioshock Infinite will be available to Mac owners a few months after it debuts on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on March 26. In addition to new games, a number of legacy titles are trickling onto Apple's platform some years after first being released on consoles or for PC.