Steam Controller/Link Not Working on Mac, So Valve Offers All Its Games for Free

Two new pieces of Valve hardware, the Steam Controller and Steam Link, don't currently work on Macs, as they are meant to. To compensate early adopters, Valve is giving away its entire game catalog.

Neither Link nor the Controller is widely available yet, but those who preordered recently began receiving their units. Both are intended to work with any computer that can run Steam, including Macs, but technical issues are preventing that from being the case right now.

"Unfortunately, there are some temporary software issues that prevent the hardware from functioning with Macs," an email from the Steam hardware team (via Eurogamer) reads. "We expect these problems to be resolved as we update firmware and drivers over the next few weeks."

Specifically, the Steam Link doesn't stream from Macs; Valve says an "upcoming update will add full support for streaming audio, video, and controller input."

Meanwhile, the Steam Controller doesn't offer gamepad emulations on Macs. Valve recommends opting into the Steam beta client, which will enable keyboard and mouse emulation, while gamepad emulation should start working "within a few weeks."

Using the beta version of Steam is recommended for Mac users as it's the fastest way to obtain "the latest fixes and functionality."

Unfortunate as this is, the company is adding the Valve Complete Pack to affected users' Steam accounts. This is the complete collection of its games--and that includes "past, present, and future." (The past games alone cost $100 on Steam.) It's also offering refunds on both the Steam Controller and Link; it's extending the return period from 30 to 60 days and offering to pay any shipping costs.

The Steam Controller and Link both officially launch on November 10. Preordering either one right now gets you free copies of Rocket League and Portal 2. For more details, check out our piece on everything you need to know about the controller here, as well as our first impressions of one of the new Steam Machines here.