Valve confirmed today in a press release that the upcoming PC release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Steam will take advantage of the service’s Steamworks. In practical terms for us gamers, that means you can expect the PC version of MW3 to support offline play, Achievemnts, auto-updates and dedicated servers. Modern Warfare 2 was notably built using Steamworks as well.
Valve launched Steamworks in 2008, offering developers a suite of tools that they could use to access the full range of Steam features. The net result is better integration of Steamworks-developed games with Valve’s online games store. Developers using Steamworks also get to take advantage of built-in anti-cheating and copy protection tools.
More recently, Steamworks made its console debut with PlayStation 3 support for Portal 2. Cross-platform play and instant message is supported, as is Steam Cloud saving. The press release makes no mention of the PS3 version of Modern Warfare 3 offering the same support, but at least we know it’s techonologically possible.