This is the first time that two large scale games platforms have collaborated in such a wide ranging manner. Although this is initially for a single title forthcoming Valve games will presumably benefit from the arrangement.

• Valve is demonstrating an unparalleled level of generosity by offering a free PC version of a new game as a bonus with the PS3 version of the game. New release PC games from a popular, proven studio are regularly released around a $50 price point. However Valve is increasing the value of the PS3 SKU and we expect it will drive consumer demand for the PS3 version significantly. Valve's success has been principally from PC gaming and, to a lesser extent, Xbox 360 games publishing and there has always been a suspicion that, given the nature of its games, Valve was leaving money on the shelf by not investing in PS3 games publishing.
• Valve is also offering PS3 gamers a significant incentive to sign up for and use its Steam PC games platform, if only to play the free version of Portal 2 on PC. It is not unreasonable to assume that a small percentage of new Steam users from this initiative will use Steam for other games as well as making purchases through the platform.
• Valve appears to have been given a large degree of control in how it is integrated into PSN. The PS3 version of Portal 2 will use Steamworks (Valve's toolset for enabling a game can be supported by Steam) and data from PS3 Portal 3 players will be used by Steam. There is also the tantalising issue of how many other PS3 games might opt to use Steamworks or whether this is even a possibility. PS3 game saves of Portal 2 will be handled by Steam's existing cloud infrastructure which does the same for PC gamers on Steam. To enable cross platform play between PC and PS3 Valve may also patch the PS3 version of Portal 2 via Steamworks (the only way to manage version control between the platforms), circumventing PlayStation's certification process. This may go some way to explaining why Valve decided to collaborate with Sony in the way it has: the degree of control it is receiving is unprecedented. By updating via Steamworks Valve appears to have addressed one of the most enduring complaints from PC and MMOG developers about making games for PS3: that the certification process for distributing updates via PSN is lengthy and expensive. Given the frequency with which PC and MMOG developers update their applications this was seen as a major issue and also meant that cross platform play between consoles and PCs has remained extremely rare.
• Despite a lot of speculation the games industry hasn't conclusively exploited the opportunities on offer in large scale collaboration between games platforms. A number of historical and commercial pressures have seen most games networks tending towards the proprietary rather than the collaborative. Although this is only the first move, both Sony and Valve have stolen a march on competitors in learning how best to manage large scale collaboration with another games network.