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19 CommentsValve unveils Steam Trading Cards for players to earn and trade for rewards
By Dave Tach on May 15, 2013 05.15.13
Valve unveiled a beta program for Steam Trading Cards today, which users can earn, trade and cash in for rewards, according to a press release from the company. Participating players will earn game-specific trading cards and turn them in for rewards like game badges, profile backgrounds, emoticons, coupons and more through the Steam Trading Cards program. "Up to half" a game's card set will be available from playing the game. The other half is "earned through your collecting prowess." Players who "craft" their cards into game badges, which appear on user profiles, can also "level up" their badges by collecting the set of cards again. Games supporting the Steam Trading Cards at its beta launch include Don't Starve, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2...
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26 CommentsHalf-Life and Portal movies in early idea stages, J.J. Abrams says
By Michael McWhertor on Feb 06, 2013 02.06.13
"It's as real as anything in Hollywood ever gets," Abrams said of the just-announced plans to develop movies based on Portal and Half-Life. "Which is that we are really talking to Valve, we are going to be bringing on a writer, we have a lot of very interesting ideas." "And both a Portal and Half-Life movie are things I want to see," Abrams said. "We're also aware of the cautionary tales of movies that became games and vice versa. Our goal here to is to treat the world Valve has created in both these properties like anyone would a book or some great story that comes from a pitch or original script — just to treat it with the respect they treat their games and their players with." Valve co-founder and president Gabe Newell has expressed apprehension in the past about making movies...
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32 CommentsGabe Newell on Valve's past, gaming's present and Steam's future
By Griffin McElroy on Feb 01, 2013 02.01.13
Despite the fact that Windows was in 30 million homes, and was performing much better than Microsoft had assumed, it was still being outsold by a much smaller piece of software, from a much smaller company: id Software's Doom. "Somehow, the largest software company in the world was being out distributed by a 12-person company in Mesquite, Texas," Newell said. "There was no conception, there was no model for how this made any sense. How could they possibly have done this, right? It took years to build up enough distribution strength to go from number seven to number six in the word processing category, much less to come out of nowhere with a product that would be on more desktops than the most important product that Microsoft had." When Newell and collaborator Mike Harrington decided...
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21 CommentsValve releases original Half-Life for Mac and Linux
By Michael McWhertor on Jan 25, 2013 01.25.13
Valve landmark first-person shooter Half-Life has been ported and quietly released for Mac OS X and Linux. While Valve hasn't made any official announcements about the availability of Half-Life for other platforms and currently lists Windows as the only supported OS, the Mac version appears in our Steam library, installs and runs well. The original Half-Life, first released in 1998, has been one of a handful Valve games that hasn't received a non-Windows port since the developer began pursuing Mac and Linux development. The release of the original Half-Life could pave the way for older Valve-published titles like the original Counter-Strike, Team Fortress Classic and expansions Opposing Force and Blue Shift to come to Mac and Linux. Half-Life is currently priced at $9.99 on Steam. (...
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4 CommentsValve greenlights 10 indie games, including Akaneiro: Demon Hunters
By Dave Tach on Jan 15, 2013 01.15.13
Ten indie games are headed to Steam via Project Greenlight, among them American McGee's recently-Kickstartered Akaneiro: Demon Hunters, according to a press release from Valve released today. The fourth round of games from Project Greenlight includes: Akaneiro: Demon Hunters Asylum DLC Quest Eador. Masters of the Broken World La-Mulana Leisure Suit Larry MaK The Age of Decadence Unepic War For The Overworld The games above, which are in "varying stages of completion," will be released "independently in the months ahead," according to the press release. Joining them will be two non-game software titles: articy:draft, a game design tool and GroBoto, a modeling app. Announced last July, Steam Greenlight allows users to vote on games they'd like to see on Valve's digital...
