Portal fans were undoubtedly disappointed last June when Valve cancelled Portal 2's E3 media event and delayed the sequel's release until mid-2011. Putting a positive spin on that news, the developer promised to wow gamers with a surprise instead – and we may have just received it. According to Shacknews, Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 will support cross-platform multiplayer and chat with the PC and Mac versions (this isn't coming to the Xbox 360).
What's more, PS3 customers will get a free SteamPlay copy of the sequel for PC and Mac. "PS3 gamers will be able to simply drop the Blu-ray disc in the PS3, link to their Steam account from inside the game, and all their Steam friends (on PC and Mac) will be visible and accessible for chat and game invites," explained Josh Weier, Portal 2 project lead. There's talk of cloud-based saved games, so you might be able to access your progress on each platform.
"Working together with Sony we have identified a set of features we believe are very compelling to gamers. We hope to expand upon the foundation being laid in Portal 2 with more Steam features and functionality in DLC and future content releases," said Valve boss Gabe Newell. We assume that last part about "future content releases" is referring to other games, so we might be looking at the first of many titles planned to support cross-platform gaming.