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BY EVAN THOMAS

ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY


There’s a new way to get your mobile gaming fix. Valve Software on Thursday announced a mobile application for its online gaming hub Steam.

The new app offers gamers a mobile link to their social network and access to Steam’s considerable catalog of PC and Mac games. They can buy the latest games on the go and they will automatically download to their computer at home. (VIDEO SOURCE: STEAM POWERED MOBILE)

The Next Web says building on Steam’s existing community functions is going to make the experience even better.

“This new release places the entire platform on a whole new level, creating a mobile social network element for the community.”

A new app gives Steam the opportunity to expand into the mobile-gaming retail market, but Joystiq says -- don’t count on it.

“No news is given regarding the potential for iOS or Android game selling through the Steam mobile portal, but it seems unlikely -- at least on Apple devices -- given various terms of service restrictions regarding competition with the official application stores.”

PCMag thinks that’s only a matter of time, though.

“It seems likely, given that the Android Market and Amazon's own AppStore already provide similar functionality, including the ability to download and update games across a variety of mobile devices.”

PC Gamer wonders if some things are better off not done on the go.

“I can imagine the drunken 3G purchases/messages already. Apologies in advance friends list.”

TechCrunch agrees . Steam’s deals are great, and often difficult to resist.

“As a gamer with admittedly poor impulse control, the newly-released Steam app for iOS and Android has me very worried. ...I could easily see myself going overboard on buying games I don’t need when I should be pretending to be a productive member of society.”

The Steam app is currently locked in beta. You can download it from iTunes or the Android marketplace, but you won’t be able to get at all the features until Valve starts handing out access codes.