Valve releases Source Engine for Xbox 360

Valve's Source Engine is now available as a middleware solution for Xbox 360, where it will compete for market share with the likes of Unreal Engine 3.

Optimised to make the most of Xbox 360's graphical hardware, and to support Xbox Live, the newly refined Source Engine for Xbox 360 is suitable âwhether [developers are] pursuing a traditional FPS, RTS, RPG or delving into new genres,â according to Valve boss Gabe Newell.

Valve is already using the Source Engine on Xbox 360 to develop Half-Life 2: Episode Two and accompanying titles Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One will also form part of the bundle.

That package is also due out on PlayStation 3, and being co-developed by Electronic Arts' UK studio, but a representative admitted last night that it was not currently working with Sony on middleware for PS3.