Valve, the creators of many successful gaming franchises and of the digital distribution platform Steam have announced that the Steam for Linux client has been officially launched.

Canonical and Valve have formed a partnership right from the start and the official Steam for Linux client has been released via the Ubuntu Software Center.

“The introduction of Steam to Ubuntu demonstrates growing demand for open systems from gamers and game developers,” said David Pitkin, director of Consumer Applications at Canonical.

“We expect a growing number of game developers to include Ubuntu among their target platforms. We’re looking forward to seeing AAA games developed with Ubuntu in mind as part of a multi-platform day and date release on Steam,” he continued.

It also seems that the flagship title for the new platform will be Serious Sam 3: BFE and Alen Ladavac, CTO of Croteam, creator of the Serious Sam franchise of games, has declared himself a great fan of the Linux platform.

“And who better to lead the charge into Linux gaming than Valve? With Steam distribution on Windows, Mac OS, and now Linux, plus the buy-once, play-anywhere promise of Steam Play, our games are available to everyone, regardless what type of computer they’re running. That’s huge,” stated Ladavac.

In order to celebrate the release of Steam for Linux, Valve has started a major promotion, cutting the prices for all announced games, up to 80% in some cases.

The client from Valve also benefits from Big Picture, the new mode of Steam designed for use with a TV and game controller.

Besides the promotion, everyone who tries the Free-to-play Team Fortress 2 will receive a free, exclusive in-game item named Tux, the Linux mascot, which can be carried by any of the game’s classes and traded between players.

Valve also managed to prepare for the official launch their trademark games: Half-Life, Counter-Strike 1.6, and Counter-Strike: Source.