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Recently there’s been chatter that Valve — the company behind the massively popular gaming service Steam — has been considering getting into the hardware business. Specifically, there have been rumors that the company has been toying with the idea of creating a proper set-top console which could potentially pose a threat to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Valve co-founder Gabe Newell even recently told Penny Arcade: “Well, if we have to sell hardware we will.”

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.
List of things to watch out for is here, thanks to Vogel again – Steam Daily deals on 27.12.2011.

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!
List of things to watch out for is here, thanks to Vogel again – Steam Daily deals on 26.12.2011.
According to a new FAQ, Steam now supports coupons. These tickets will sit in your inventory, and can be traded. Each coupon can be used on one game, but it doesn’t look as though they’ll operate as general Steam gift vouchers. The FAQ mentions that each one can be tailored to offer discounts on a certain selection of games. When you buy a game with a relevant coupon in your inventory, Steam will automatically apply the coupon discount. From there, you can choose to remove the coupon and save it for later.
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