Ever wanted to know what was set to happen in Half-Life 2: Episode 3? Well Valve's former lead writer is happy to oblige...
Read More »Valve is cracking down on trading card bots and fake games by denying Steam keys
Valve has been making plenty of changes to Steam over the last year or so but it looks like the company is prepared to clamp down even further as this week, it was revealed that soon, Valve will begin denying developer requests for batches of keys to their games. This …
Read More »Valve’s Steam Link app for Samsung Smart TVs has left beta
Update: Today, Valve announced that it's Steam Link app for Samsung Smart TVs is no longer in beta. This means anyone with a 2016 or 2017 Samsung Smart TV should be able to download the app and start streaming PC games directly to their TV. Supported controllers include: Steam Controller. …
Read More »Valve’s first new game in years is a Dota card game called ‘Artifact’
Last night, Valve’s annual Dota 2 tournament, ‘The International’, kicked off and it seems the studio had something rather special to show off- a brand new game. It’s called Artifact: The Dota card game and unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be quite what the audience wanted as the initial reaction …
Read More »Steam launches 1,000 games since Direct debuted
Steam launched its new Direct service in June, taking over from the now defunct, community driven Greenlight. Instead of relying on votes from users, Direct gives developers the chance to get their games on Steam for a $100 fee. At the time of the big change, Valve were unsure of …
Read More »Valve balances CS:GO pistols, starting with the Tec-9
CS:GO has once again taken back the second spot on Steam’s Game and Player Statistics, showing the enduring popularity of the competitive shooter. In a bid to further ensure longevity, Valve has announced plans to change many of the pistols in the game, starting with the Tec-9. The Tec-9 is …
Read More »Almost two decades later, Valve is still patching Half-Life
While Valve might be keeping us in the dark when it comes to future game releases, the company has no gripes with going back and patching up its older games. While most developers would leave a game behind after a few years on the market, Valve has generated a cult …
Read More »40,000 accounts hit with VAC ban immediately after Steam Summer Sale
The Steam Summer sale is usually a good opportunity for cheaters to pick up cheap copies of multiplayer games on alternate accounts. Fortunately, it looks like Valve has managed to keep on top of it this year, with 40,000 VAC bans being handed out on the 6th of July, the …
Read More »Valve’s new ‘Knuckles’ VR controller offers full finger tracking, starts shipping to devs
Late last year, Oculus launched its own Touch Controllers. These were a significant step up for virtual reality, improving on both the traditional gamepad and even the wands that come with the HTC Vive. However, Valve isn't too far behind and this week, the company began shipping out its own …
Read More »Valve has lost another one of its veteran writers
It looks like Valve has lost yet another writer as this week, Jay Pinkerton parted ways with the studio. Since the start of 2016, we have seen several writers leave Valve's offices for various reasons, all of which previously worked on the Half-Life series. This time around, it is Pinkerton …
Read More »Valve will charge $100 for Steam Direct submissions
It has been several months since we first heard about Valve's plans to phase out Steam Greenlight and replace it with a new service known as ‘Steam Direct'. One of the key changes with Steam Direct was originally going to be the price of submitting a game to Steam, which …
Read More »Valve will tackle Steam’s ‘fake game’ problem by placing limits on trading cards
Last week, Valve began its series of community posts outlining the future of the Steam Store. The first post focussed on recommendations and improving discoverability. This week, Valve is turning its attention to what it calls ‘fake games' and the ‘bad actors' that produce them. Valve has sussed out that …
Read More »Valve opens up about Steam recommendations and upcoming store changes
As we learned earlier this year, Valve is planning some significant changes to the Steam Store at the moment. One of the key changes has been Steam's recommendation algorithm, which Valve has now fully detailed in a new update, going over the Steam Store's ‘philosophy' and the tech behind it …
Read More »Germany finally takes Half-Life off the naughty list
Almost two decades. That’s how long it took for German authorities to finally take Half-Life, the original and all its offspring, off its list of censored media content. Germany, a country known for its openness, political correctness and proactive federal authorities has always taken a very aggressive approach towards media …
Read More »Valve launches stats page to be more transparent about support requests
Over the years, Valve has faced quite a bit of criticism over customer support. Things have improved quite a bit with the introduction of refunds but there is still room for improvement. Now in order to be more transparent about its support efforts, Valve has launched a new support stats …
Read More »The last remaining Half-Life series writer has left Valve
Back at the start of 2016, Marc Laidlaw, the lead writer on Half-Life and Half-Life 2 departed from Valve. It was a shock at the time but the writers behind Half-Life 2 Episode One and Episode Two remained. Now this year, those writers have also left, meaning there are no …
Read More »Valve opens up about upcoming Steam changes, will crack down on fake games
It looks like Valve is finally looking to crack down on ‘asset flippers' and address concerns regarding the quality of games flooding the Steam store on a daily basis. Similarly to how Valve decided to get more involved with the press earlier this year, Valve has also begun consulting with …
Read More »Valve is making more changes to Steam User Reviews
Steam User Reviews are often a useful tool for many looking to pick up a new game on Steam but there are ways to exploit the system. For example, there are some developers out there that will gift copies of their games in exchange for positive reviews. As a result, …
Read More »Valve plans to refocus its efforts on software, next wave of games inbound
Now that virtual reality is out there and in consumer hands, more companies are choosing to invest in it. In fact at GDC right now, LG is showing off its very own SteamVR-supported competitor to the HTC Vive. So with all of this new hardware coming in, Valve plans to …
Read More »Valve is gearing up to release Source 2 but it won’t be useful for everyone
Valve has been working on its Source 2 engine for a long time now and while the engine has popped up in the likes of Dota 2, we have yet to see a game truly showcase what the new engine is capable of. Fortunately, it seems like Valve is currently …
Read More »Valve to appeal $3 million fine from Australian Federal Court
Back in December, an Australian federal court ordered a $3 million fine against Valve after finding that the company had breached Australian Consumer Law between 2011 and 2014. This had been an on-going case for some time and was a huge factor in Valve's decision to finally start offering refunds …
Read More »Valve announces Steam Audio, aims for more realistic spatial audio
A while back, Valve acquired Impulsonic, a peculiar move for a company that doesn't delve into sound all that much. However, now we know why as today ‘Steam Audio' was announced, which is intended to usher in a new generation of spatial audio. Steam Audio has been in development for …
Read More »Valve ditches $3,000 tracking course requirement for SteamVR developers
Valve has announced that it is ditching the requirement of a $3,000 training course to become a SteamVR tracking partner, meaning just about anyone can make SteamVR enabled hardware. While the course and in-person training will still be available for those who want it, Valve is also making much of …
Read More »Gabe Newell and Valve talk 200Hz VR screens, next-gen headsets and more
Valve CEO Gabe Newell and members of the company's virtual reality developmental team sat down recently with the Valve News Network to talk about what it's been working on lately and what we can expect in the future. During it they discussed the idea of content before price cuts, newer, …
Read More »Valve wants to bring back paid mods eventually
Back in 2015, Valve teamed up with Bethesda to experiment with the idea of paid mods, giving modders a chance to make some cash for their work on games. However, the paid mods launch for Skyrim wasn't handled particularly well and it was quickly drowned in controversy, leading to paid …
Read More »Valve has three full VR games in development, compares new strategy to Nintendo
Valve appears to be opening up quite a bit this year. Last month, Gabe Newell held an impromptu AMA on Reddit and now just a few weeks later, Valve has held a long three-hour press briefing at its offices, giving people plenty of time to ask questions and figure out …
Read More »It looks like Steam is set to get a major client overhaul
Steam has gone through various changes over the years, the version we have today is quite different from what we had back in 2005 for instance. However, it looks like we may see another major update to Steam's user interface in 2017, as this evening a new image appeared on …
Read More »Valve targets Team Fortress 2 gambling sites in latest crackdown
Valve has announced that it will be cracking down on sites that allow people to gamble with their Team Fortress 2 game skins. It the short term it will be banning accounts associated with the sites, putting users at risk of losing items. In the future though, it may well look …
Read More »Valve confirms more SteamVR headsets on the way
While the HTC Vive has enjoyed many months on the market as the only headset to use Valve's SteamVR tracking technology, it won't remain that way for much longer. In fact, soon there could be quite a few SteamVR headsets on the market, as Valve has confirmed that around 500 …
Read More »Gabe Newell is doing an AMA tomorrow, 17th January
CEO and founder of Valve and oft-cited saviour of PC gaming, Gabe Newell, will be conducting a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) on the site on 17th January at 3PM PST (11PM GMT). This was secured by the new “The_Gaben” subreddit, mere days after being founded and it's been confirmed …
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