steamworks posts

Is Steam killing the PC game market? That's what two separate stories on the MCV web site are claiming this morning. The articles quote two anonymous sources, one from a digital download retailer and the other from a UK-based brick-and-mortar games retailer, that claim Valve's PC game download service is making things too hard for its rivals.

The stories also claim, again via anonymous sources, that "at least two big-name digital retailers are facing financial difficulties" due to Steam's current dominance of the PC game download market. Digital retailers are supposedly asking game publishers to offer PC games without Steamworks with one saying, "I've fought hard for my customer, and never before have I had to give my customers away. Steam is killing the PC market and it is no wonder digital retailers are failing."

Meanwhile on the retail side, MCV claims two UK-based retailers "... will demand that publishers remove Steam from their games – or they will not sell them in any form." It quotes one of them as saying, "If we have a digital service, then I don't want to start selling a rival in-store." It has to be said that, at least in the US, not everyone feels that way. GameStop offers Steamworks-based PC games in both its stores and via digital download while the PC game download service Direct2Drive also offers Steamworks-based PC games.

Call of Duty Black Ops PC gamers who have pre-orders the upcoming shooter via Steam can now go ahead and start pre-loading the game onto their hard drives. The Treyarch-developed game is the second PC game in the Call of Duty series that uses Steam and the Steamworks tools for things like online matchmaking, automatic updates, achievements and Steam Cloud save game features.

Unfortunately if you went that route it looks like the game is not currently scheduled to unlock for PC gamers until 10 am Eastern time on Tuesday. It's unclear if players who go ahead and buy the PC port at a midnight launch event this event will have to wait until that time to actually play the game.

[Via Shacknews]

Update: The word is that PC retail copies of Call of Duty Black Ops will be able to be installed and played right away.

A few months ago it looked like THQ was moving away from using Microsoft's Games For Windows Live for its PC games in favor of Valve's Steamworks tools. However, in a new interview over at Shacknews, THQ exec Danny Bilson stated that while Steamworks has been easier to use for its PC games he admitted, "Microsoft is really talking to me a lot about getting back on Games for Windows Live." He added, " I like both platforms and I really, really, really like Microsoft as a partner. They're fantastic partners. I want to respect them."

Bilson also talked about how important the PC platform is for THQ, stating, "You're going to see us putting out almost every, single console title we can on PC to expand our audience and expand the customer base, ultimately."

The Civilization series has always been a big favorite for Mac gamers and today it was announced that the latest game in the series, Civilization V, will be making its Mac debut on November 23. Aspyr Media is handling the publishing and development of the Mac port of Firaxis Games' turn-based strategy title. The system requirements for the Mac port include installing the Steam client which would suggest the Mac port will be made available on Steam at some point.

You can go ahead and pre-order the Mac port on Aspyr's GameAgent.com web site for both the download and box copy versions. And if you pre-order the game you will be put into a special drawing to receive a boxed Mac version of the game's Special Edition that's signed by Mr. Civilization himself Sid Meier. Also, all of the previous Civilization games for the Mac are currently being sold on GameAgent.com for 50 percent off.

If you have been waiting patiently to pre-order your copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops via digital download, your wait is now over. The Steam PC game site is now accepting pre-orders for the downloadable PC port of developer Treyarch's upcoming next game in the best selling shooter series.

The $59.99 game from publisher Activision will be made available for Steam users on November 9 and as we reported earlier the game will have Steamworks support for features like auto-updating, Steam Cloud save games and more. Last year's Steam exclusive release of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was a huge success for Valve's download service. The game has been in the top 10 of Valve's best selling games since it was first released nearly a year ago.

As we reported earlier today, Microsoft plans to revamp its PC game download business strategy in mid-November by switching from its Games For Windows Live client to a web-based store called Games For Windows Marketplace. However, like other PC game download sites, don't expect that store to have any PC games that use Valve's Steamworks features. Shacknews quotes Microsoft's Peter Orullian as saying, "If a game is a Steamworks game, it's not something we're selling." Earlier this week Valve announced that over 200 games have incorporated Steamworks' tools. Ironically Valve has had no problems offering PC games for sale on Steam that have Microsoft's Games For Windows Live features.

Microsoft's stance against selling Steamworks-based PC games is similar to what Stardock has for its Impulse game download service and GamersGate has for its own service. Both feel that since Steamworks-enabled games require the use of Valve's Steam client they don't want to sell titles that have such a client on their service. Direct2Drive's owners at IGN used to feel the same way but earlier this year IGN did a 180 and started selling Steamworks-enabled PC games due, the company claims, to its customer demands.

A few weeks ago Valve launched the Mann-Conomy update for Team Fortress 2, allowing players of the multiplayer shooter to trade, purchase or sell in-game items via the game's new Mann Co. Store. Today Valve announced that five people who created in-game items for the game have been generating tons of money thanks to selling their items in the in-game store.

The five people (Rob Laro, Shawn Spetch, Steven Skidmore, Spencer Kern, and Shaylyn Hamm) each received money from Valve generated from royalties from the in-game items they created. The amounts ranged from $39,000 to $47,000 for just two weeks of sales. Two players had to fly to Valve's offices in Seattle to get their checks because the amounts were so high that PayPal couldn't handle them. People who want to add items to the store can do so at the Contribute web site. In addition the tech behind the Mann Co. Store is available for any game developer via Valve's Steamworks platform.

[Via email press release]

Update: In a chat with Valve team members and the Team Fortress 2 community creators at Gamasutra, it's revealed that the five creators get 25 percent of the in-game item's total revenues which means Valve's take from selling the items could total over $500,000.

While Call of Duty: Black Ops has yet to show up for pre-orders on Steam as of the time of this post, the next game in Activision's first person shooter series is confirmed as not only coming to Valve's PC game download service but it will also be using Valve's Steamworks tools as well.

In a post on Call of Duty Black Ops' official message boards, developer Treyarch goes over the PC multiplayer features of the game and states, "Millions of Call of Duty fans are already on Steam. Their Friends are on Steam. Steam will provide the ease of auto-updating instead of manual patching." The PC port will also use Valve's Anti-Cheat system as well as the Steam Cloud for save games. As previously reported, the PC version will also have support for dedicated servers but PC players will have to purchase those servers from a third party rather than set them up themselves.

In related news the Direct2Drive PC game download site has set up a preliminary page to purchase Call of Duty: Black Ops. While you can't yet buy the game the page does show what the PC version's minimal system requirements will be. You can check them out after the jump:

The Steam PC/Mac game download service has now surpassed the 30 million active user mark, according to a new press release from its owner Valve today. While Valve is notorious for keeping specifics about the numbers of games sold on Steam to itself, today it revealed that it has seen sales growth of over 200 percent in the last 12 months via Steam.

Valve also revealed that it has recorded a 178 percent growth in Steam user accounts over the past 12 months. Over six million users access Steam each day, according to Valve, with peak simultaneous users going over the three million mark. In order to meet the increased demand, Valve has improved Steam's infrastructure to run at 400 Gps. Steam now has over 1,200 games in its library. Over 200 of them use Valve's Steamworks game development tools (Steam achievements, matchmaking, Steam Cloud, etc). Over 100 million save files now use the Steam Cloud service.

It's been a while since Valve launched the revamp and redesign of its Steam PC game download service but that doesn't mean that Steam can't add new features.every now and again. This week, a new feature entered into a public beta that allows Steam users to recommend games.

The new feature lets Steam automatically recommend games to you based on the games in your Steam account that you already own and play. You can also make your own recommendations and send them to your Steam friends. There's also the ability to see what games your friends are playing and also see what they recommend to purchase and play on the service. The beta can be accessed by going into the Beta update via the Settings tab.