Valve

Gaming
December 3, 2012
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Steam Big Picture Mode

Steam’s Big Picture mode now available for silver screen gamers

By on December 3, 2012 at 9:57 PM.

Steam’s Big Picture mode now available for silver screen gamers

Valve on Monday announced the public release of the company’s Big Picture mode for its Steam software delivery platform. The new mode supports a traditional gamepad, along with a keyboard and mouse to give gamers access to their favorite titles and content right on their television sets. The Big Picture interface can be enabled on any TV by connecting a PC or Mac with an HDMI cable. To celebrate the launch, Valve is discounting over thirty controller-friendly games that will be on sale from now until December 10th. Big Picture mode is fully supported on 41 titles including Portal 2 and Left For Dead 2, and an additional 386 games are listed to include partial controller support, which will still require a traditional mouse and keyboard at certain times. Valve’s press release follows below. More →

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Software
October 2, 2012
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Valve launches non-gaming software on Steam after missing September release date

By on October 2, 2012 at 11:45 PM.

Valve launches non-gaming software on Steam after missing September release date

Steam Non-gaming Software

Valve announced on Tuesday its “Software” section for non-gaming applications available on its Steam platform is now open for business, just under one month after the company missed its original September 5th launch date. Moving beyond offering digital PC games, Steam’s new software offerings provide another app store for consumers to buy software from. But unlike Apple’s (AAPL) hugely successful Mac App Store, software on Steam can be tweaked to have Steamworks features such as “easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.” Valve’s press release follows below.

More →

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Gaming
September 21, 2012
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Half-Life 3 rumored to be an open world game set for 2013 launch

By on September 21, 2012 at 7:00 PM.

Half-Life 3 rumored to be an open world game set for 2013 launch

Half-Life 3 Open World Game Rumor

Fans awaiting the sequel to Valve’s critically-acclaimed Half-Life 2 might not have to wait much longer. According to Journal Du Gamer, Half-Life 3 is reportedly “well underway although much work remains.” The website’s insider source claims that HL3 will be inspired by The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim  and Oblivion and will supposedly still be an action-oriented first-person shooter, but will be set in an open-world, have quests and lots of NPCs to mingle with. How long have fans been waiting for Half-Life 3? Well, the last release was Half-Life 2: Episode Two and that came out in 2007. While it’s just a rumor, the source says that Valve will launch the game in 2013, which has kicked up speculation that it could be released for Microsoft’s (MSFT) next-generation Xbox or Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 4. More →

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Gaming
September 10, 2012
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Steam’s ‘Big Picture’ brings PC gaming to the living room [video]

By on September 10, 2012 at 3:40 PM.

Steam’s ‘Big Picture’ brings PC gaming to the living room [video]

Valve Steam Big Picture PC Gaming On TV

Valve Software announced on Monday that it is finally ready to bring Steam — its popular PC gaming client — to the living room using a new TV-optimized feature called “Big Picture.” According to Kotaku, Big Picture looks very much like the Xbox 360′s dashboard sans the advertising clutter and keeps all of a player’s games, friends, customized levels and mods and game sales all in one digestible UI. Best of all, almost all of Steam’s games designed for keyboard and mouse have built-in controller support, so gaming on the sofa feels more like gaming on a console. A video introduction follows below. More →

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Hardware
September 5, 2012
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Valve fed up with lame computer hardware, decides to make its own

By on September 5, 2012 at 11:35 PM.

Valve fed up with lame computer hardware, decides to make its own

Valve Enters Computer Hardware

Valve Software, maker of both the popular Steam online gaming platform and smash-hit games such as Portal 2, has finally had it with the moribund PC hardware market and is planning to build some hardware of its own. Valve has posted a new job listing on its website for an industrial designer capable of lighting a fire under the PC hardware market. The company says in the job posting that it’s “frustrated by the lack of innovation of in the computer hardware space” as “even in basic input, the keyboard and mouse, haven’t really changed much in any meaningful way over the years.” The end result, says Valve, is that it’s “jumping in” to the hardware space.

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Software
August 8, 2012
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Valve to offer non-gaming software through Steam starting September 5th

By on August 8, 2012 at 9:40 PM.

Valve to offer non-gaming software through Steam starting September 5th

Valve Announces Non-Gaming Software

Valve Software on Wednesday announced that it will soon begin offering non-gaming software on Steam, the company’s popular digital distribution platform. The software categories will range from “creativity to productivity,” and software tout many of the same features found in the company’s gaming offerings, such as easy installation, automatic updates and the ability to save work to the Steam Cloud. “The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games,” said Mark Richardson at Valve. “They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in response to those customer requests.” Steam is currently available on PCs and Mac computers, and a watered-down version is available on Android and iOS devices. A Linux port has also been announced and will be available in the future. Valve will begin selling non-gaming software through Steam on September 5th. Read more for the company’s press release.  More →

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Gaming
August 2, 2012
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Valve: Agree to not sue us or lose access to Steam

By on August 2, 2012 at 1:05 PM.

Valve: Agree to not sue us or lose access to Steam

Valve Steam TOC Lawsuits

Gamers beware: Valve Software, the firm behind immensely popular gaming portal Steam, wants you to waive your right to sue before you continue gathering games using its digital distribution platform. The company has amended its subscriber agreement to stipulate that by subscribing to its service, users agree to not file lawsuits against the company. Gaming giants Microsoft (MSFT), Sony (SNE) and Electronic Arts (EA) have similar policies in place, Kotaku notes. More →

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Gaming
July 27, 2010
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Valve apologizes for accidentally dropping ban hammer on 12,000 Modern Warfare 2 users

By on July 27, 2010 at 6:30 PM.

Valve apologizes for accidentally dropping ban hammer on 12,000 Modern Warfare 2 users

Oh DRM, how we love thee. Valve, the company responsible for the lifestyle game Modern Warfare 2, recently issued an apology to over 12,000 legitimate MW2 users who were accidentally banned from getting their first-person shooter on by the company’s DRM implementation. Valve’s president, Gabe Newell, wrote an email stating the the snafu occurred when an issue  with “a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version” occurred. We’re just going to go ahead and take Mr. Newell’s word for it. The email also promised affected users two copies of Left 4 Dead 2, one for them and one for a friend. Anyone out there get accidentally hammer banned by Valve over the last few weeks? More →

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Gaming
May 13, 2010
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Steam now available for the Mac

By on May 13, 2010 at 4:41 PM.

Steam now available for the Mac

steam-mac

Mac gamers got some much needed love from the gaming industry on Wednesday as Valve released its highly aniticipated Steam game distribution platform for the Mac. Steam jumped on board the Mac platform offering 64 titles at launch that include Sid Meiers Civilization IV (Colonization, Warlords, and Beyond the Sword editions), World of Goo, Bejeweled 2, and City of Heroes. As an added bonus, Portal is available for free until May 24th on both the Mac and PC. Folks coming from the PC platform will also be happy to know that many titles are branded “STEAMPLAY” and one purchase will let you play the game on all Steam-supported platforms. So stop reading this post, point you browser to Steam’s website, and get your gaming on. More →

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Software
September 17, 2008
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Google NOT Eying Valve for Next Acquisition

By on September 17, 2008 at 6:44 PM.

Google NOT Eying Valve for Next Acquisition

So much for that. According to MTV’s Multiplayer blog, this morning’s rumors regarding Google’s intentions to acquire video game company Valve are a “complete fabrication” according to a representative of Valve. Multiplayer sources Valve’s PR guy, Doug Lombardi, who reveals that the rumor has absolutely no truth behind it.

Just to make sure Lombardi wasn’t being cagey, I asked if [we would] be correct if we posted that (my words) “Valve says Google isn’t buying the company.” He said that would be correct. So… no sale!

There you have it people. Maybe the original “WELL PLACED SOURCES” hit the sauce a bit early today. After all, it is hump day. Whatever the case may be, not every rumor can turn out to be true. Some are debunked a bit quicker than others mind you, and this is apparently one of them.

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Software
September 17, 2008
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Google Eying Valve for Next Acquisition?

By on September 17, 2008 at 10:28 AM.

Google Eying Valve for Next Acquisition?

These days you can’t say the word “Google” in an acquisition rumor post without setting the internet a-buzz with chatter and that is just what has happened this morning. Citing “well placed sources”, the Inquirer is reporting that Google may gobble up video game company Valve any second now. Of course the fact that Valve is a gaming company is likely of little relevance to the giant G. Instead, the consensus is that Google has its eye on Valve’s beloved content distribution platform Steam. Steam is known throughout the land as the godfather of download services, currently hosting 440 game titles and roughly 15 million active users. Ask any one of them how great Steam is and you’ll get a pretty quick read on why Google might be eying Valve. This could mean big things for Google and bigger things for Google competitors – Valve makes content distribution so easy a caveman could do it.

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