So as we all know, Valve - and Gabe specifically - have not been showing the PS3 much love throughout it's life. This all changed at E3, with Gabe announcing - on the Sony Press Conference Stage no less - that Portal 2 was coming to PS3. So the big question: Why did they change their minds? 
 
When the Steam client for Mac OSX was released, Gabe said  "We would love to see the PS3 be more open like a Mac than more closed like a Gamecube. It makes it easier to justify those investments if that were the case." A comment I always considered strange, as Valve develop for the 360 - arguably one of the least open platforms of this generation, with Microsoft tightly controlling the hardware, software, network and everything in-between. So why now are they actively developing for a platform they don't see as a justifiable investment? The only Valve game on PS3 thus far was Team Fortress 2 running on a engine ported by an EA studio.
 
Well if we take it back a bit to pre-Left4Dead: Valve are a company born out of the PC's create and share environment - a philosophy that they have taken with them in every title they develop. They release SDK's, they answer emails about tech questions, and they are relativity open with their IP as part of a culture. For as long as people have been making PC games, people have been modifying and sharing them - and Valve are no different.
 
Roll it forward again, and Left4Dead has launched on PC and Xbox 360, and rumours of the first DLC pack are bouncing around. Now what the rumours could not agree on: was what it would cost on the Xbox. Eventually it came out for free, something the second DLC pack didn't manage. With Team Fortress 2, Valve had the whole development team continuing to push content and updates long after launch - the size of the team has scaled back a bit, but they still are pushing content nearly 3 years later . The cost of developing content and pushing it through Steam was simply part of their business costs - They did not charge people for access to it. An attitude Microsoft pretty much told them to leave at the door. With the launch of Left4Dead2 Valve started talking about trying to bring community maps to 360, and then promptly stopped again. The Left4Dead2 DLC that followed was a pay-for package, with Valve citing Microsoft as the reason. This was a shift for Valve.
 
So where does any of this come in? Well when Gabe announced Portal 2 for PS3, he said it would have SteamWorks support. SteamWorks is Valve's name for a framework of libraries that allow for quick integration with many of Steam's features such as: Achievements, Updates, and the Community/Friends stuff. He also announced Steam Cloud support, a system which will sync save games and settings to Steam servers. This is something Valve would not get away with on 360 - offering competing services to Microsoft's.
 
My theory is it's also something Sony where not too hot on letting them get away with either - hence Gabe's comments about wanting the PS3 to be open - but, for what ever reasons, backed off. I wouldn't say this is a step towards a big happy future where we all play together, but it would not surprise me that when L4D3 comes out - PS3 owners get a much better deal out of it than their 360 counter-parts. Call me crazy, but this was my theory - once I'd stopped going Valve fanboy over the Portal 2 trailer. Also, Kevin Butler - right up until he started talking about kings.  
 
Tell me what you think, am I crazy? 
Before you accuse me of being PS3 fanboy, I don't own either console - although am looking seriously at getting one or the other, was hoping E3 would make it easier to decide.