While we knew Portal 2 on PS3 would feature some degree of Steamworks integration, the Sony and Valve partnership announced at E3 2010 extends far beyond what we initially expected.

Not only does Portal 2 boast cross-platform co-op play between PS3 and PC, those who purchase a copy of the PS3 version can unlock a Steam copy at no additional cost by linking their Steam and PSN accounts on both platforms.

“We made a promise to gamers at E3 that Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 would be the best console version of the product,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. “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.”

“We designed the Portal 2 PS3 experience to be very straightforward for gamers,” said Josh Weier, project lead on Portal 2 at Valve. “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.”

Valve goes an extra mile yet again. Truly a commendable move. Portal 2 is slated for a release this April. Xbox 360 owners are unfortunately left out in this deal, presumably due to Microsoft’s tight restrictions on Xbox Live.

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