Valve has officially released the first video of their upcoming Steam Controller in action. They show off the controller with a number of games, including some that you wouldn’t necessarily consider using a controller for. While Portal 2 and Counter-Strike: GO make sense with the controller, Valve showed some of the Steam Controller’s unexpected range by using it to play Civ V and Papers, Please. I’d say that the controller certainly has some potential.
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Portal Board Game Coming This Fall
Being a big Portal fan and a big board game fan, I think this news is the sort of thing that combines the best of both worlds to make the best news ever. A design team at Valve has partnered up with board game company Cryptozoic Entertainment to make Portal: Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game.
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The Economics of Steam Trading Cards and the Steam Wallet
It’s been six months since Steam introduced their Trading Cards. When they first launched, I was utterly confused as to why anyone would be interested in virtual trading cards that had no purpose and no value. It just seemed like a way for Valve to make some money that no one would buy into.
However, having just completed the Steam Holiday Sale, it’s readily apparent that Valve has hit a home run with the Trading Cards. It’s not just the transaction fees that are making Valve money. The spin-off effect from Trading Cards does just as much to make Steam even more profitable.
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Valve Unveils Thirteen Steam Machines at CES 2014
We came into CES 2014 expecting Valve to show off some of the Steam Machines that various third parties were making. However, I don’t think we expected over a dozen Steam Machines to choose from when they start rolling out. According to Valve, each of these machines will come loaded with Steam OS and will include a Steam Controller.
So let’s look at all of the Steam Machine manufacturers and what they’re offering.
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7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: The Orange Box
After seven weeks, our list of the seven best games of the seventh generation of video game consoles comes to a close. While many, many great games aren’t making such a short list of great games, I think that this game won’t get too much of an argument for making it over other deserving
When a game picks up scads of awards, everyone takes notice. But how good is a company that can make multiple games, ship them in a bundle and garner accolades and win awards for each of them? That’s exactly what Valve did when they put Half-Life 2, HL2: Episodes 1 & 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal into one award-winning package called The Orange Box.
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Valve Ships Steam Machine and Controller Prototypes Today
Christmas is coming early for 300 Steam users who were notified Wednesday that they are among the lucky chosen few to get their hands on prototype versions of the Steam Machine consoles and the Steam Controller. Valve announced that the Steam Machines and Controllers were heading out the door today and they’d be releasing an early version of SteamOS to the public.
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Upcoming Steam Sale Dates Leaked
One of the great challenges of buying games on Steam is juggling the need to play a good game when it’s released with the fact that you can get a game for 33% or more off the launch price if you just hold out a couple of months at the absolute most for the next Steam sale.
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Valve Files for Half-Life 3 Trademark
Well, we knew that Half-Life 3 was going to come out eventually. It really is a case of not if but when it gets officially announced and released. Based on a recently discovered European trademark application, it looks like we could be seeing some of Half-Life 3 inside the next five years.
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Valve Makes the First Controller Innovation in 16 Years with the Steam Controller
In 1997, Sony completely changed the way that controllers were designed and console games were played with the launch of the Dual Analog controllers. From there, we’ve seen some tweaks to controller design but very little in meaningful controller innovation outside of the recent move to motion controls.
While Valve’s announcement of Steam Machines was a bit underwhelming, their third announcement was a definite game changer. Their new Steam Controller looks to be the first big change in controller design in the last sixteen years.
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Valve Announces “Steam Machines” but No Details
Monday’s surprise announcement of the SteamOS was followed by a logical second of three announcements. Yesterday’s big Steam announcement was Valve telling us what we already knew. Valve is working on Steam branded hardware to bring gaming to the living room.
et geekera 