This Saturday the 28,000 members of this Steam group are planning to play Half-Life 2 together.

The group hopes that the massive play session will shoot Half-Life 2 up the Steam most-played list and let Valve know how many people are still waiting for Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Valve certainly know this already, and probably receive dozens of emails but the group hopes to deliver the message in a more appreciative way.

“Instead of focusing efforts in a negative and disrespectful way, we have decided to gain Valve’s attention by delivering a basic message: Your oldest and longest running fanbase would like better communication,” they say on the Steam group page.

Event is set to kick off at 7PM GMT / 11AM PST this Saturday.

Update #1:

First invite went to LTChaosLT. Congrats! Round two coming very soon…

Update #2:

We want you to make up a short story, leave a comment below or send us a direct message on our Twitter. We’ll pick the best story and post it here for everyone to read. GO!

Second winner is: Cake for this short story.

Gabe Newell said that it’s going to be a great addition and was a result of many direct requests from their customers.

“The Steam app comes from many direct requests from our customers,” he said

“Seeing which of your friends are online and playing a game, sending quick messages, looking at screenshots for an upcoming game, or catching a sale – these are all features customers have requested. Mobile is changing way people interact, play games and consume media, and the Steam app is part of our commitment to meet customer demands and expand the service functionality of Steam to make it richer and more accessible for everyone” Newell added.

We’ll be giving away 3 Steam Mobile invites later today!

The only bad thing is you need an invite:

During 2011 the platform grew to offer over 1,800 games to over 40 million accounts. Year-over-year unit sales increased by more than 100% for the seventh straight year, and during the 2011 Holiday Sale Steam’s simultaneous user number eclipsed the 5 million player mark.                      
 
Meanwhile Steam doubled the amount of content delivered in 2011 vs. 2010, serving over 780 Petabytes of data to gamers around the world. To meet the increasing demand for games and services on the platform, the Steam infrastructure more than doubled its service capacity and a new content delivery architecture was deployed to improve user download rates.
 
Over 14.5 mil copies of Steamworks games were registered during the year, a 67% increase over 2010. Steamworks titles shipped during 2011 include The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and more. Since the suite of services was released three years ago, Steamworks has shipped in over 400 games.
 
"Steam and Steamworks continues to evolve to keep up with customer and developer demands for new services and content," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "Support for in-game item trading prompted the exchange of over 19 million items. Support for Free to Play (FTP) games, launched in June, has spurred the launch of 18 FTP titles on Steam, with more coming in 2012. Looking forward, we are preparing for the launch of the Big Picture UI mode, which will allow gamers to experience Steam on large displays and in more rooms of the house."

Source: TGX

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

(Prices may change during the day)

Space Pirates and Zombies

http://store.steampowered.com/app/107200/

US: $ 2.49

UK: £ 1.74 (9% higher)

EU: € 2.24 (17% higher)

Homefront

http://store.steampowered.com/app/55100/

US: $ 7.49

UK: £ 7.49 (56% higher)

EU: € 4.99 (13% lower)

Machinarium

http://store.steampowered.com/app/40700/

US: $ 2.49

UK: £ 1.86 (17% higher)

EU: € 2.11 (10% higher)

Revenge of the Titans

http://store.steampowered.com/app/93200/

US: $ 2.49

UK: £ 1.74 (9% higher)

EU: € 2.49 (30% higher)

Dungeon Defenders

http://store.steampowered.com/app/65800/

US: $ 3.74

UK: £ 2.49 (4% higher)

EU: € 2.99 (4% higher)

Section 8®: Prejudice™

http://store.steampowered.com/app/97100/

US: $ 3.74

UK: £ 2.49 (4% higher)

EU: € 3.24 (13.37% higher, true story.)

Dead Space

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/DeadSpace

US: $ 4.99

UK: £ 3.74 (17% higher)

EU: € 3.74 (2% lower)

Dead Space™ 2

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/DeadSpace

US: $ 4.99

UK: £ 4.99 (56% higher!)

EU: € 7.49 (96% higher!!!)

Hearts of Iron III

http://store.steampowered.com/app/25890/

US: $ 2.49

UK: £ 1.99 (25% higher)

EU: € 2.49 (30% higher)

Hearts of Iron 3 Collection

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/HeartsOfIron

US: $7.49

UK: £6.24

EU: €7.49

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

http://store.steampowered.com/app/35130/

US: $ 3.74

UK: £ 2.49 (4% higher)

EU: € 3.74 (30% higher)

Tomb Raider: Legend

http://store.steampowered.com/app/7000/

US: $ 3.74

UK: £ 1.99 (16% higher)

EU: € 2.49 (12% higher)

Tomb Raider: Anniversary

http://store.steampowered.com/app/8000/

US: $ 2.49

UK: £ 2.49 (56% higher)

EU: € 2.49 (30% higher)

Tomb Raider: Underworld

http://store.steampowered.com/app/8140/

US: $ 4.99

UK: £ 2.49 (21% lower)

EU: € 3.74 (2% lower)

Assassin’s Creed Pack

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/Holiday2011_AssassinsCreed

US: $59.99

UK: £34.99

EU: €59,99 (30% higher)

Assassin’s Creed Revelations

http://store.steampowered.com/app/201870/

US: $ 37.49

UK: £ 22.49 (6% lower)

EU: € 37.49 (30% higher)

Assassin’s Creed™: Director’s Cut Edition

http://store.steampowered.com/app/15100/

US: $ 4.99

UK: £ 2.49 (21% lower)

EU: € 4.99 (30% higher)

Assassin’s Creed 2 Deluxe Edition

http://store.steampowered.com/app/33230/

US: $ 4.99

UK: £ 3.74 (17% higher)

EU: € 7.49 (96% higher!!)

Assassin’s Creed® Brotherhood

http://store.steampowered.com/app/48190/

US: $ 13.59

UK: £ 10.19 (17% higher)

EU: € 16.99 (63% higher)

Two Worlds Epic Edition

http://store.steampowered.com/app/1930/

US: $ 6.79

UK: £ 4.75 (9% higher)

EU: € 6.79 (30% higher)

Two Worlds II

http://store.steampowered.com/app/7520/

US: $ 13.59

UK: £ 8.49 (2% lower)

EU: € 13.59 (30% higher)

Two Worlds II Castle Defense

http://store.steampowered.com/app/7530/

US: $ 4.07

UK: £ 2.71 (4% higher)

EU: € 3.39 (8% higher)

Two Worlds II – Pirates of the Flying Fortress

http://store.steampowered.com/app/200440/

US: $ 10.19

UK: £ 8.49 (30% higher)

EU: € 10.19 (30% higher)

Serious Sam 3: BFE

http://store.steampowered.com/app/41070/

US: $ 19.99

UK: £ 14.99 (17% higher)

EU: € 19.99 (30% higher)

Solar 2

http://store.steampowered.com/app/97000/

US: $2.49

UK: £1.74 (9% higher)

EU: €2.24 (17% higher)

Call of Duty®: Black Ops

http://store.steampowered.com/app/42700/

US: $29.99

UK: £19.99 (4% higher)

EU: €29.99 (30% higher)

Terraria

http://store.steampowered.com/app/105600/

US: $2.49

UK: £1.49 (6% lower)

EU: €2.49 (30% higher)

Cities in Motion

http://store.steampowered.com/app/73010/

US: $4.99

UK: £3.74 (17% higher)

EU: €4.99 (30% higher)

Sequence

http://store.steampowered.com/app/200910/

US: $1.24

UK: £0.99 (25% higher)

EU: €0.99 (4% higher)

Stronghold 3

http://store.steampowered.com/app/47400/

US: $33.49

UK: £20.09 (6% lower)

EU: €33.49 (30% higher)

F.E.A.R. Collection

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/12357/

US: $24.99

UK: £19.99 (25% higher)

EU: €24.99 (30% higher)

Gothic Complete Pack

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/12075/

US: $12.49

UK: £9.99 (25% higher)

EU: €12.49 (30% higher)

Disciples III – Resurrection

http://store.steampowered.com/app/200670/

US: $7.49

UK: £7.49 (56% higher)

EU: €7.49 (30% higher)

Disciples III – Renaissance Steam Special Edition

http://store.steampowered.com/app/33670/

US: $4.99

UK: £3.74 (17% higher)

EU: €4.99 (30% higher)

Dawn of War® – Platinum Edition

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/447/

US: $10.19

UK: £3.39 (47% lower)

EU: €3.39 (56% lower)

Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® – Soulstorm

http://store.steampowered.com/app/9450/

US: $6.79

UK: £3.39 (21% lower)

EU: €2.37 (54% lower)

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Complete Pack

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/7432/

US: $20.39

UK: £16.99 (30% higher)

EU: €13.58 (12% lower)

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands™

http://store.steampowered.com/app/33320/

US: $4.99

UK: £3.74 (17% higher)

EU: €4.99 (30% higher)

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands™ Digital Deluxe Edition

http://store.steampowered.com/app/901478/

US: $7.49

UK: NOT AVAILABLE (100% fail)

EU: €7.49 (30% higher)

Prince of Persia®

http://store.steampowered.com/app/19980/

US: $4.99

UK: £3.74 (17% higher)

EU: €3.74 (2% lower)

Prince of Persia®: The Sands of Time

http://store.steampowered.com/app/13600/

US: $2.49

UK: £2.24 (40% higher)

EU: €2.49 (30% higher)

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within™

http://store.steampowered.com/app/13500/

US: $2.49

UK: £2.24 (40% higher)

EU: €2.49 (30% higher)

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones™

http://store.steampowered.com/app/13530/

US: $2.49

UK: £2.24 (40% higher)

EU: €2.49 (30% higher)

Star Wars Republic Commando™

http://store.steampowered.com/app/6000/

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

http://store.steampowered.com/app/32370/

each

US: $2.49

UK: £1.74 (9% higher)

EU: €2.24 (17% higher)

Star Wars Battlefront® II

http://store.steampowered.com/app/6060/

US: $2.49

UK: £1.61 (1% higher)

EU: €2.24 (17% higher)

Star Wars® Empire at War™: Gold Pack

http://store.steampowered.com/app/32470/

Star Wars Jedi Knight Collection

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/

each

US: $4.99

UK: £3.74 (17% higher)

EU: €4.74 (24% higher)

ps.: Sodding packs! I hope, nobody wants the comparison for every fucking Gothic/Jedi Knight/Dawn of War II Title separately. If so, just look it up on SteamPrices.com!

Interesting info was posted on reddit today, according to one of the users he got banned by Mike Blaszczak (Valve employee) on the official Steam Forums for a suggestion he made towards his behavior on the forums, here’s the full story:

I’ll try to keep this as short as possible. Someone posted a thread in the Steam forums asking for help with an issue related to a game they had bought, asking for a response from Valve.

As it happens, and as everyone knows, Valve only responds to these problems in the form of support tickets.

Nevertheless, Valve employee MikeBlaszczak responded with absolutely no information, but moved the thread to the General Steam Forum.. without even mentioning that the proper way to handle the problem is a support ticket.

When the thread got moved, I mentioned that the only way it would get taken care of was through a support ticket. And, I did make a remark about how the Valve employee should have mentioned as much.

What I didn’t expect was that I would get my post deleted and an instant -2 point infraction from Mr. Ballsack for stating such a thing.

I admit, I was a bit annoyed after that, and I made another reply pretty much restating what I had said before.. that the only way they will find help is if they submit a ticket. And I did restate my surprise that the official valve employee response (which is quite a rare thing on those forums) failed to mention the actual helpful solution.

Bam.

Banned.

Am I right or wrong in wanting to stand up for this? I think this is the very definition of unfair treatment no matter how you look at it, but at this point it seems like I have no choice but to let it go.

What would you do?

Well if the story is real, that’s some bullshit behavior right there. Anyway, stay tuned for more giveaways today on our Steam group!

Rock of Ages

http://store.steampowered.com/app/22230/

US: $2.49

UK: £1.47 (9% higher)

EU: €1.99 (4% higher)

Bastion

http://store.steampowered.com/app/107100/

US: $5.09

UK: £3.89 (20% higher)

EU: €4.75 (21% higher)

Bulletstorm™

http://store.steampowered.com/app/99810/

US: $4.99

UK: £7.49 (135% higher!!)

EU: €12.49 (226% higher!!!)

Test Drive Unlimited 2

http://store.steampowered.com/app/9930/

US: $6.79

UK: £5.09 (17% higher)

EU: €6.79 (30% higher)

Red Faction Guerrilla

http://store.steampowered.com/app/20500/

US: $4.99

UK: £3.74 (17% higher)

EU: €2.49 (34% lower)

Red Faction®: Armageddon™

http://store.steampowered.com/app/55110/

US: $7.49

UK: £3.74 (21% lower)

EU: €7.49 (30% higher)

Worms Complete Pack

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/12391/

US: $19.99

UK: £14.99

EU: €17.49

Anomaly: Warzone Earth

http://store.steampowered.com/app/91200/

US: $2.49

UK: £2.24 (41% higher)

EU: €2.49 (30% higher)

Far Cry®

http://store.steampowered.com/app/13520/

US: $2.49

UK: £1.24 (22% lower)

EU: €2.49 (30% higher)

Far Cry® 2: Fortune’s Edition

http://store.steampowered.com/app/19900/

US: $4.99

UK: £2.49 (21% lower)

EU: €4.99 (30% higher)

Beat Hazard Complete

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/8500/

US: $3.24

UK: £2.11

EU: €2.49

A Game of Thrones – Genesis

http://store.steampowered.com/app/58550/

US: $19.99

UK: £14.99 (17% higher)

EU: €19.99 (30% higher)

Sonic Generations

http://store.steampowered.com/app/71340/

US: $10.19

UK: £6.79 (4% higher)

EU: €10.19 (30% higher)

King’s Bounty: Platinum Edition

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/6121/

US: $ 8.74

UK: £ 7.49 (34% higher)

EU: € 7.49 (11% higher)

Nuclear Dawn

http://store.steampowered.com/app/17710/

US: $4.99

UK: £3.74 (17% higher)

EU: €4.49 (17% higher)

WARNING DON’T BUY NOW:

Nuclear Dawn is going to be on IndieRoyale.com bundle!

Official confirmation here!

X Superbox

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/6330/

US: $9.99

UK: £9.99 (56% higher)

EU: €9.99 (30% higher)

Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition

http://store.steampowered.com/app/35140/

US: $4.99

UK: £2.49 (22% lower)

EU: €4.99 (30% higher)

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition

http://store.steampowered.com/app/22370/

US: $7.49

UK: £4.99 (4% Higher)

EU: €7.49 (30% higher)

Overlord Complete Pack

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/2464/

US: $4.99

UK: £3.74 (17% higher)

EU: €4.99 (30% higher)

Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3

http://store.steampowered.com/app/115300/

US: $44.99

UK: £29.99 (4% higher)

EU: €44.99 (30% higher)

Killing Floor

http://store.steampowered.com/app/1250/

US: $4.99

UK: £3.74 (17% higher)

EU: €4.49 (17% higher)

Alice: Madness Returns

http://store.steampowered.com/app/19680/

US: $7.49

UK: £7.49 (56% higher)

EU: €12.49 (117% higher)

IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946

http://store.steampowered.com/app/15320/

US: $3.39

UK: £3.39 (56% higher)

EU: €3.39 (30% higher)

IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover

US Storepage:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/63950/

US: $16.99

UK/EU Storepage:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/63970/

UK: £10.19 (6% lower)

EU: €16.99 (30% higher)

Football Manager 2012

http://store.steampowered.com/app/71270/

US: $26.79

UK: £20.09 (17% higher)

EU: €33.49 (63% higher)

DUNGEONS – Steam Special Edition

http://store.steampowered.com/app/57650/

US: $10.19

UK: £6.79 (4% higher)

EU: €10.19 (30% higher)

Dungeons – The Dark Lord

http://store.steampowered.com/app/200550/

US: $10.19

UK: £9.99 (53% higher)

EU: €10.19 (30% higher)

Atom Zombie Smasher

http://store.steampowered.com/app/55040/

US: $ 2.49

UK: £ 1.49 (6% lower)

EU: € 2.49 (30% higher)

This will allow developers and publishers on Steam to offer discounts on specific chunks of their catalogue to specific customers. It’s easy to imagine coupons being offered as prizes, operating as rewards for loyal customers or high ranking community members. THQ, for example, could offer a bonus 20% off coupon to customers who have bought three games in their catalogue. The FAQ says that it’ll be possible to redeem coupons on already discounted games “unless specified otherwise,” which could lead to some spectacular savings when used in combination with one of Steam’s mega-sales.

Valve haven’t officially announced the coupon system yet. The FAQ is the only indication that they’ve been added, but the timing is good. It arrives ahead of the upcoming Steam Holiday Sale.

Source: PC Gamer

The Commission is investigating whether Apple worked with the five publishers to form a cartel over e-book sales, and whether they engaged in restrictive business practices. The publishers are Hachette Livre, HarperCollins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck.

"The Commission has concerns the publishers may have colluded to raise the price of e-books and that Apple may have facilitated this," Commission competition spokeswoman Amelia Torres told ZDNet UK on Tuesday. "We are starting a formal investigation. This does not prejudge the final outcome."

Torres declined to say which concerns the Commission had over Apple’s practices or technology. Apple’s iBooks application is available for Apple devices such as the iPad 2 and the iPhone.

The Commission’s formal investigation proceedings follow a number of surprise inspections carried out by Commission officials in March, according to a Commission statement.

The UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) shared similar concerns with the European Commission, and was running a parallel probe into Apple over e-books. The OFT closed its investigation before the formal Commission proceedings opened, but may reopen the probe if its concerns are not met by the Commission, an OFT spokeswoman told ZDNet UK on Tuesday.

"We closed the investigation on administrative grounds," said the spokeswoman. "During the course of the investigation, it became clear the Commission is well placed to address matters."

Simon & Schuster shares the same parent company as ZDNet UK: CBS Corp, a US company. HarperCollins is part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, a US corporation. Penguin is part of Pearson Group, of the UK. Hachette Livre is owned by Lagardère Publishing, France. The German company Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck owns UK publisher Macmillan.

Apple has not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.

Source: ZDNet

Also guess what happens with Steam and the publishers who put their games on Steam? According to the Steamworks FAQ:

3. Who sets the price for my game on Steam?

Pricing is very title specific, and we’ve got a lot of data and experience to help you decide on what the best price is for your title. We’ll work with you to figure out pricing.

So this basically means that the problem EU sees with Apple is that apple "worked with" publishers to set prices. Steam’s Steamworks FAQ says it does the same thing.

Is it time we contact the European Commission once more?

News thanks to rottencat!

In a recent interview with TCS, Gabe Newell explained why Valve is so successful. Recently we posted how Ubisoft were abandoning the PC market due to piracy, and imposing heavy DRM on their customers, but according to Newell that’s not really the right way to go about it.

He said that there is a general misconception about piracy, and it’s not really the high cost that forces people to pirate. It’s about the delivery service and how convenient it is to people with purchasing power:

“In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem,” he said.

“For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable.”

Ubisoft said that, “95% of people will pirate our game.” It’s a ridiculous thing to say without releasing any sort of data and they have also cancelled Ghost Recon: Future Soldier for the PC.

Newell explained a lot more as to how they were providing better services and creating a sense of brand loyalty. He mentioned that piracy is basically a “Non-issue” for Valve.

“Our goal is to create greater service value than pirates, and this has been successful enough for us that piracy is basically a non-issue for our company.”

“Prior to entering the Russian market, we were told that Russia was a waste of time because everyone would pirate our products. Russia is now about to become our largest market in Europe,” he revealed.

If only Ubisoft and others could learn a thing or two from this man, the gaming industry would be in a much better position.

Source: Gamingbolt