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Canonical in touch with Valve to ensure Steam is well supported on Ubuntu
Lots of Steam on Linux news this week after Michael Larabel visited Valve office and confirmed Steam and Source Engine on Linux.
Now, in a Live QA session for Ubuntu 12.04 release, Ubuntu Developer and Community Manager Jono Bacon said that he knows Canonical has been in touch with Valve to ensure top notch support of Steam client on Ubuntu.
Check out the video, skip to 52:14 for Steam part:
Probably Canonical already had idea about Steam on Linux before Phoronix broke the news? Also, according to Michael Larabel, Ubuntu has worked out a gaming deal from a big publisher. These games may be available in Ubuntu Software Center later this year.
It seems, Canonical has plans to push Ubuntu as a gaming platform this year to increase mainstream adoption.
Source: Ubuntu Vibes
Valve’s new business model – pay less if you’re nice?
This one is interesting, Valve is trying to charge morons and jerks more for their games, nice people would pay less or play for free even.
In a podcast interview with Seven Day Cooldown, summarized by Develop, Valve Boss Gabe Newell discusses the payment model for upcoming strategy game DOTA 2.:
“The issue that we’re struggling with quite a bit is something I’ve kind of talked about before, which is how do you properly value people’s contributions to a community?”
“…the games industry has this broken model, which is one price for everyone. That’s actually a bug, and it’s something that we want to solve through our philosophy of how we create entertainment products".
“An example is – and this is something as an industry we should be doing better – is charging customers based on how much fun they are to play with. So, in practice, a really likable person in our community should get Dota 2 for free, because of past behaviour in Team Fortress 2. Now, a real jerk that annoys everyone, they can still play, but a game is full price and they have to pay an extra hundred dollars if they want voice.”
And the latest news is that they are going beyond this crazy idea into seeing what’s actually possible:
“We’re trying to figure out ways so that people who are more valuable to everybody else [are] recognized and accommodated. We all know people where if they’re playing we want to play, and there are other people where if they’re playing we would [rather] be on the other side of the planet.”
"It’s just a question of coming up with mechanisms that recognize and reward people who are doing things that are valuable to other groups of people."
This sounds like a scary idea, what do you guys think? What if “nice people” would just resale Steam games to “trolls”? This just doesn’t look so great to me.
Source: /.
Valve updates Steam’s account policy, you can now access your games while banned!
I can’t believe they finally did it. A lot of gamers were questioning why it wasn’t possible to access games in offline mode in Steam while an account was suspended or banned, but the real news is that you already can, Valve just never told anyone.
What’s more? Your games aren’t limited to offline mode.
While Valve doesn’t have a lot of legal lingo surrounding the use of their digital distribution service, they do make it known in the subscriber agreement consent form…
“Valve may terminate your Account or a particular Subscription for any conduct or activity that Valve believes is illegal, constitutes a Cheat, or which otherwise negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers.”
One user put that clause to the test and was banned, however, he later found out that he wasn’t completely blocked out of accessing his games because of a recent policy update in Steam for account access, which has now been deemed as "account locking" instead of "account banning". According to a Steam volunteer moderator, he makes it clear that…
“Steam support stopped disabling Steam accounts a bit more than two months ago. This has been replaced with "account locking": you still have access to your games, but some restrictions are applied to your account (no trading, no cd key activation, no purchase allowed, etc.).”
He provides proof of this with screenshots of an account being banned but still having access to games in offline or online mode:
This means that gamers who have been banned either for fraudulent or nefarious purposes with the intent to use their Steam account for other activities other than gaming like an upstanding member of the interactive entertainment community, can still access the games they paid for.
There are simply restrictions added to the account but the content you paid for is content you still have access to.
Valve actually offers quite a bit of leeway in using their service, so getting banned is not something that’s particularly easy to do so long as you follow the rules. There are, however, some rare exceptions where tertiary license agreements are put into place for Steam games, particularly, EA’s games on Steam, where an EA EULA for a [now absent] product on Steam basically outlines the same sort of restrictions you would find on Origin. Of course, since it’s Steam, there’s no worries about "losing entitlements" or having third-party software scan your PC for you.
Valve’s head honcho, Gabe Newell, recently spoke out against these sort of practices that EA is using for Origin, saying that as the service stands right now it’s just not up to par to where it should be for consumers and gamers, and it’s just not doing anything super-well at the moment. It’s kind of hard to argue against that point.
At least gamers who went off the deep end and managed to get banned can still play their games and access the content on both Steam and Origin. So, in that regards, it’s a win-win situation for gamers no matter which digital distribution service you use.
However Steam’s official support representative has stated that:
“Games registered to suspended accounts will no longer be accessible; even in offline mode."
Of course, the support didn’t clarify if this applies retroactively for suspended accounts or the distinction between a suspended account or a locked account, so we’re awaiting official word from Valve on the matter.
Source: Cinemablend
Valve reveals mystery hardware project: wearable computing
“This morning, Valve Software set the world of gaming news abuzz by attempting to hire hardware engineers. Now, Valve developer (and well-known programmer) Michael Abrash has revealed what kind of hardware the company is prototyping: computer technology you can wear.
It’s certainly an important time to admit such a thing, considering how Google’s Project Glass heads-up display generated so much interest last week, but Abrash cautions that you shouldn’t expect a product out of Valve anytime soon, if at all:
To be clear, this is R&D – it doesn’t in any way involve a product at this point, and won’t for a long while, if ever – so please, no rumors about Steam glasses being announced at E3. It’s an initial investigation into a very interesting and promising space, and falls more under the heading of research than development. The Valve approach is to do experiments and see what we learn – failure is fine, just so long as we can identify failure quickly, learn from it, and move on – and then apply it to the next experiment. The process is very fast-moving and iterative, and we’re just at the start. How far and where the investigation goes depends on what we learn.
The reveal is actually part of a long, fascinating blog post about how Abrash was first drawn to work at Valve, after years at Microsoft, Intel (on the canceled Larrabee graphics architecture) and id, where he coauthored Quake, not to mention how the intense freedom at Valve (and a love of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash) helped him start building the wearable computing R&D project in the first place. It’s hard to think of a better recruiting pitch, and he’s even asking for interested talent to shoot him an email. Head on over to our source link to take a look.”
Source: The Verge
Steam soon to introduce used game selling and new refund policy!
YES! Finally Valve Software has decided that soon all Steam users will be able to sell or give away their own “used” games off their Steam accounts. Here is what Gabe Newell said:
“We are happy to announce that soon (May 1st) all Steam users who bought at least one game using Steam will be able to give away or resell their own Steam games to their friends. All of the funds gathered from their sales will either directly show on their credit card balance or Steam Wallet, so right now you don’t have to worry about buying a shitty game as you can simply sell it to someone else.” – Gabe Newell said.
Additionally Newell mentioned the new, improved refund policy:
“We really like how Google Play (former Android Market) handles refunds so we’re about to introduce a similar refund policy. You’ll have 12 hours to return any game whether you played it, liked it or hated it. Simple as that.”
Here are some leaked screenshots of the upcoming feature:
Valve actively looking for Linux devs
Valve has been recruiting for at least one Linux specialist to help port Windows games with this job ad since January. But it looks like they’re getting very serious, and keen to push on with the project. Phoronix.com’s Michael Larabel has received an email from Gabe himself asking for help head hunting.
The email to Larabel, which has been confirmed as genuine, reads:
We are running into a bunch of performance issues in Linux drivers (e.g. 50 millisecond draw calls because thedriver is compiling a shader).
We’d like to hire someone to work on these performance issues. If you know of anyone we should be talking to, I’d appreciate getting connected with them.
Gabe Newell
Valve, Bellevue
This isn’t overly surprising, but it is reassuring. With the rapid rise of Android as a gaming platform, and recent changes to the Linux kernel which integrate Android code, there’s every reason for developers to start treating open source more seriously. The Humble Indie Bundle has proven that there’s a market for Linux gaming too, as grateful Tuxheads spending more than Mac users.
It could well be that they’re looking for someone purely for internal testing and research with no firm plans to bring Steam or games to Linux yet. But neither the ad or the email seem particularly speculative.
Source: PC Gamer
Valve nukes Steam Box, working on new UI
The beginning of the week brought reports that Valve was working on something called “Steam Box,” a list of hardware specs and associated software that manufacturers would turn around and build to sell under Valve’s certified label. Much like PC gamers would see their favorite titles branded by Nvidia or AMD, these rigs would feature the Steam Box logo, indicating that they were good to go when it comes to playing PC games offered on Steam.
The idea, it seemed, was to take the console approach and provide a set list of hardware that developers could rely on from multiple manufacturers. There’s no indication that Valve was looking to create a single console to compete with the current and next-generation crops, but rather to have a standardized PC platform that lasts for up to four years at the most. There’s even talk that the Alienware X51 rig was built based on an early Steam Box spec.
According to a November 2 tweet by Valve employee Greg Coomer, a hand-built prototype consisted of a quad-core Intel i7 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and a Zotac Z68 mini-ITX motherboard with an on-board Nvidia mobile GPU. According to Zotac’s website, the Z68-ITX WiFi Supreme supports socket LGA1155 2nd generation Intel Core processors and features the Intel Z68 Express chipset, Nvidia’s GeForce GT 430 GPU with 1 GB of DDR3 VRAM, 802.11n and Ethernet connectivity and more.
Coomer said his prototype ran Portal 2 FAST.
Still, regardless what seems to be going on with Steam Box, Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi claims the company is currently focused on prepping and shipping the Steam Big Picture Mode UI. He even admitted that Valve is building boxes to test the new Steam interface only. This new UI will reportedly make the online gaming service easier to use for people who want to play Steam games on a PC that’s connected to their TV.
“We’re also doing a bunch of different experiments with biometric feedback and stuff like that, which we’ve talked about a fair amount,” he admitted. “All of that is stuff that we’re working on, but it’s a long way from Valve shipping any sort of hardware.”
Yet hardware is not out of the question, as even Valve bossman Gabe Newell recently said that Valve will sell hardware if it becomes a necessity to keep the doors open.
On top of that, Lombardi didn’t actually refuse to say that Valve isn’t working on a hardware platform. Instead, he agreed that there’s definitely nothing coming any time soon, nothing at GDC or E3. Like Newell said, there’s a possibility that maybe some day Valve will make hardware, but Lombardi made it clear that (a) Valve partnering with hardware manufacturers and/or (b) Valve building its own hardware will not be happening anytime soon. End of story.
As for the prototype seen back in November, Lombardi said that Coomer is one of the guys leading the Big Picture effort. “The idea is that you can take Steam to any display,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is say, ‘here’s a box that we’re going to use for testing that’s common for Big Picture mode and get performance at a base level.’”
“We’re always putting boxes together,” he added. “Going all the way back to the Half-Life 1 days, we built special boxes to test our software render… it’s just part of development.”
Sound like he just nuked any speculation that Coomer’s rig was a Steam Box prototype
.
Source: Tom’s Hardware m.tomshardware.com/news/Valve-Steam-Box-Zotac-Alienware-Big-Picture,14959.html#xtor=RSS-993
Gabe is more than fine… financially
Forbes editors have decided to estimate Gabe Newell’s fortune recently. As you realize there’s a list with the richest people in the world on which Gabe turned out to be… 854. This may sound not that great right? But as it turns out, if he wanted to sell his shares to someone else, he would be richer by $ 1.5 billion.
Just imagine how much does he earn by month… congrats Gabe I guess? Now make your service (Steam) better…
Valve patents for controller
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