This week at E3 we were met with a megaton announcement from Valve's one and only Gabe Newell. While everyone was jumping up and down at the news that Portal 2 would indeed be coming to PlayStation 3 owners, it was also revealed that it would be the best version on the consoles and will support Steamworks. Read more to find out how this becomes related to PlayStation Plus.

I do not feel that the Portal 2 announcement was the biggest shock. It was that Steam or at least parts of its features could very well be part of the PlayStation Plus and the next FW 3.40 update. Think I have gone mad? Then take a look below and decide for yourself.

First off I want to point out these three major features of PlayStation Plus:

"Full Game Trial - A great way to try before you buy. Play a game for up to one hour, and then purchase the game to unlock your trophies and continue your progress.

Automatic Downloads - PlayStation Plus downloads select demos, patches and firmware updates automatically, so you don’t have to think about it.

PlayStation Store Discounts - Save money on stuff you’re buying anyway with discounts on games of up to 50%. These discounts alone make PlayStation Plus worth it. Straight cash perks to perk your thumbs up."

-PlayStation.com

As a very heavy Steam user for years, I thought PlayStation Plus sounded very much like the beloved PC service from Valve. Here is what Steam offers users:

"Automatic Game Updates - Hunting for patches and downloading from unorganized web sites is so twentieth-century. On Steam, your games stay up-to-date by themselves. No hassles.

Enjoy Steam-Only Special Offers - From pre-release discounts to free-play weekends, Steam delivers what gamers value most.

Instant Access To Your Favorite Games - Over 1,100 games are available to purchase, download, and play from any computer. Check out the new releases, indie hits, casual favorites and everything in between.

Chat With Your Friends While Gaming - See when your friends are online or playing games and easily join the same games together. Chat with your buddies, or use your microphone to communicate in any game."

-SteamPowered.com

Sounds a lot like PlayStation Premium doesn't it? Steam could very well be what is powering cross-game chat if it is to come. Also, I must point out that as of now Sony has no "Games on Demand" like service for the PS3. If they want to offer a full 1 hour demo and then give you the ability afterwards to buy and unlock the full game, don't you think there is much more involved than many may think? Unless they mean wait to buy it at retail, then we can expect to see full PS3 games on the PSN Store. This is supported by the EU PlayStation Blog saying all new PlayStation Plus users will get a copy of LittleBigPlanet for free digitally.

One might say this could very well be just stacking the deck and it could be, but Steam just announced support for Mac and will soon move to Linux. Would the PS3 be such an odd move for Sony and Valve to take?

I ran across this quote from Valve's Erik Johnson on PlayStation University:

“The work we’re going to do on Steam [on PS3], feature-by-feature, we don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like today. But we want to create that same kind of thing on PS3 [as we have on PC] – where people can talk to each other, know what they’ve played.”

This snippet is the key part of the interview. Very much enforces all the info you read earlier. So will the PS3 be the next Steam-powered platform? Well we should find out by the end of this month.
Source: Could PlayStation Plus=PS+Steam? | PS3