Category: Industry News

Dear Esther Hits 100,000 Sales

May 18th, 2012 · By Vic · 4 Comments

I have nothing but good things to say regarding thechineseroom’s “Dear Esther“. Which is why I’m so happy that, after just three months since its release (and following the very recent release of its Mac port), it has sold 100,000 copies over Steam. It may not sound like much, but for an alternative game (and a PC-exclusive to boot), it’s actually pretty impressive.

Next up, thechineseroom will be tackling two distinct game projects: Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, a title that speaks for itself; and Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, an open-world spiritual successor to Dear Esther built on CryEngine 3. They’ll be parting ways with Dear Esther’s lead level designer, Robert Briscoe, which is a huge shame, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of his work in the foreseeable future. That said, I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for a remake of Korsakovia. Hey, maybe even Conscientious Objector.

Okay, maybe not.

GameStop’s Steam Wallet Cards Go Live

May 14th, 2012 · By Vic · 14 Comments

After hidden code within a Steam beta client release indicated that the so-called Steam Wallet Vouchers were about to see the light of day, and after a report from Kotaku gave us our first glimpse at these wondrous cards, many were curious regarding the possibility of GameStop actually stocking pre-paid Steam Wallet cards.

Well, you need speculate no longer, for GameStop have at last announced the distribution of Steam Wallet voucher cards in GameStop stores all across the United States.

The special Steam Card webpage provides very few details on the vouchers. But maybe details aren’t really needed. You simply buy them, and then use the enclosed keycode to fill up your Steam Wallet (on your PC, of course) with lovely monies. Apparently there will be a $20 card, as well as a $50 card, and they will presumably cost as much as the Steam Wallet dollars offered within. Hopefully this will spice up the Steam trading economy. More details over at Joystiq.

“The Final Hours of Portal 2″ Pulled From Steam Due To Malware Hack [UPDATED]

May 13th, 2012 · By Vic · 11 Comments

[UPDATE: The application has been brought back online and, apparently, all malware is gone. Good riddance! You can now safely install and read Final Hours of Portal 2.]

Geoff Keighley’s “The Final Hours of Portal 2“ is an interactive digital story that chronicles the development of Portal 2, from its inception in late 2007 to its release in early 2011. It’s a follow-up to Geoff’s previous “The Final Hours” articles, which he created as part of GameSpot’s “Behind the Games” series. The first one he ever wrote was “The Final Hours of Half-Life“, and if I’m not mistaken, the last one was “The Final Hours of Half-Life 2“.

Despite being a terrible PC port, having been originally designed for the iOS, it remains an insightful and very well-done interactive article of sorts; and I’m hoping Valve will bring Geoff back in for a possible ”The Final Hours of Half-Life 3” (more recently, he actually did “The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3“). But wait a minute – what’s this?

Valve And Blizzard Reach Trademark Settlement On The Dota Situation [UPDATE]

May 12th, 2012 · By Vic · 5 Comments

Last year, it was revealed that Blizzard had filed a notice of opposition against Valve with regards to the Dota trademarks. For a couple of months, the situation remained uncertain, but Blizzard have just announced that an agreement has been reached by both parties. According to this settlement, Valve will be allowed to use the Dota trademarks commercially, while Blizzard will maintain non-commercial use of the Dota trademarks. A win-win… mostly. Interestingly, as part of this agreement, Blizzard will change the name of their upcoming Action RTS game, from “Blizzard DOTA” to “Blizzard All-Stars“, a title which they say “ultimately better reflects the design of our game”.

Apparently, both Valve and Blizzard will have no further comment on the terms of the settlement beyond this press release, which is, ultimately, understandable. Good to hear that two awesome development studios (with a great focus on the PC community to boot) remain bros after all. After all, you know what they say: bros before… trademark disputes. Or at least I think that’s how it went.

[UPDATE: In their article on their subject, Joystiq intriguingly noted that Dota 2 is set to release... in 2013. Not sure if it's legitimate or just a typo, but it is worth bringing up. Credit to Smash of ValveTime for the discovery.]

Portal 2′s Perpetual Testing Initiative Hits 1.3 Million Downloads; 35,000 User-Created Test Chambers; And More!

May 11th, 2012 · By Vic · 5 Comments

Released barely two days ago, Portal 2′s latest DLC offering, the Perpetual Testing Initiative has turned out to be a pretty massive success, as heralded by a press release from Valve in which they announced some of the PeTI service’s early statistics. Apparently, over 35,000 custom puzzle levels have already been created and published over the Steam Workshop. In total, the Portal 2 playerbase have already consumed over 1.3 million test chamber downloads.

In celebration, Valve is holding a Weekend Workshop sale on the Steam Store, during which Portal 2 will remain at its Midweek Madness discount of 66% off (about 6 dollars/5 euros), Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will be 33% off, and within Team Fortress 2′s in-game Mann Co Store, many of the officially released, community-created Steam Workshop items will be available for 50% off their regular price. Now that’s science for you. Quick, go buy things!

And if you haven’t had enough science within the PeTI, then allow me to provide you with some of my recommendations: CaretCaret’s “12 Angry Tests” series, which contains some of the greatest level design, puzzle gameplay and bizarre humor I have ever experienced; Jaxe’s excellent “Decay” mini-series, sporting some incredible level design, built for intermediate to skilled Portal players; Motanum’s A La Tag series, with unique and innovatie gameplay strongly focused on gel gameplay; and the Podcast 17 Community Chamber collection, encompassing all puzzle levels created by my brothers in arms and colleagues: the Podcast 17 community members.

Valve Announces The Dota 2 International 2012 Championship, Taking Place At PAX Prime

May 11th, 2012 · By Vic · 0 Comments

Last year, Dota 2′s world debut came to us through “The International“, the first ever Dota 2 tournament. It put 16 of the world’s most elite Dota teams up against each other, competing for a grand prize of $1 million dollars. It was a huge success, especially for the championship’s winners, team Na’Vi of Ukraine. There definitely was some crazy Mortal Kombat-type stuff: in fact, Shang Tsung himself drained the bandwidth out of the championship’s LAN, resulting in some wacky lagging issues for both spectators and players alike. Don’t get me wrong – it was a great tournament, but hopefully Valve has learned from the mistakes they made in both streaming and organization.

Well, they’d better have, for this year, the International is coming back, this time taking place at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington; smack-dab in the middle of PAX Prime. An interesting choice, sure – but I’d say Germany was a far more accessible location for the eponymous international Dota fanbase. Still, it’ll make for added exposure, which is a good thing.

The 2012 International will be held during the last weekend of August: from the 31st of August to the 2nd of September. No details yet on how many millions of dollars the grand prize will contain - maybe it’ll be more this year. There will be 16 teams, just like last year, although we don’t know the full roster yet. The defending champions, Team Na’Vi of Ukraine; and this year’s newcomers: Team DK of China, are both the first teams to have been invited so far, although we’ll surely hear more about the other 14 teams soon.

Valve have already set up a teaser webpage for the championship, just like they did last year. Be sure to stay tuned to the official Dota 2 blog for more info on the event!

At Long Last, Steam Is Actually Coming To Linux

April 25th, 2012 · By Vic · 7 Comments

In early 2010, Valve released Steam on the Mac OS. Over the course of that year, they re-released all of their games with Mac support, and while certain execution errors remain, Steam for Mac was a pretty big success. But since then, we’ve been hearing reports and implications that Steam might also be on its way to the Linux OS. But every time we do… nothing really happens afterwards. Well, the speculation has come to an end, as it would appear that Steam on Linux is finally coming. Linux gamers – rejoice!

Surprise, Surprise: Apple CEO Tim Cook Never Actually Went To Valve

April 19th, 2012 · By Vic · 8 Comments

Little under a week ago, it was widely reported that Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, had visited Valve’s headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. Despite the fact that no proof was put forward, the Internet instantly caught fire, and we all began hearing reports (which were, yet again, unsourced) that this supposed visit somehow represented evidence that Valve and Apple were making a game console. Seriously. But - no need to worry about any iValve or iSteam thingamajig, as according to Gabe himself, this whole rumor was false right from the start.

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