Gabe Newell at Valve, the famous gaming company, was recently interviewed by Kikizo.com. He was asked a few questions about Mac, gaming and why their games are not ported to our favorite platform. He answered by saying that he has talked to people at Apple on several occasions but that they don’t take gaming seriously.

You might think I’m going to trash-talk this guy for another 300 words and then finish it off by saying that Mac rules. It does, but I’m not going to. This guy is different, in the sense that he has got some experience, and his arguments are pretty much rational. This is a guy that actually wants to take gaming to the Mac platform. And you know what?

I think he’s right about Apple not taking gaming seriously. Perhaps not right now but only a few years ago, gaming was not exactly what Apple was focusing their attention and energy on. As with pretty much everything that goes on at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, I think it’s closely related to their culture. Hardcore Mac fans just aren’t enthusiastic gamers. I think they see the Mac as a tool for creativity and productivity, and very seriously so.

But we can’t overlook the fact that these people are also very smart. Apple understands that the gaming industry is becoming more and more important, and that it today walks hand in hand with the computer industry. If Apple wants to win the hearts of the users, they’ll sooner or later have to hold hands with gaming. There’s probably people somewhere within Apple working on this as we speak.

The past three, four or five years, we have seen major developments within the gaming area. Games are no longer as linear as they were ten years ago. These days, gaming not only requires fast reflexes but also fast and creative thinking. And as gaming becomes more and more related to creativity, it’s also brought closer to Apple’s culture and I think they now will be giving it more attention.

I can’t give you a specific time-line, but I believe Apple will be progressively moving closer to the gaming industry over the next few years. Windows and the PC built their relationship with gaming over a long time; it is a long term commitment. But I’m still very confident that Apple will bring gaming to the Mac sooner rather than later.