valve posts

Valve is pretty notorious for keeping most of the hard sales numbers from its Steam PC game download service to themselves. So it's not a shock to learn that Valve won't be providing sales figures from Steam to an upcoming UK-based sales chart for PC game downloads.

Speaking to MCV, Valve's Jason Holtman called the idea of such a sales chart "old" saying, "The point is, it's not super important for a publisher or developer to know how well everyone is doing. What's important to know is exactly how your game is doing – why it's climbing and why it's falling. Your daily sales, your daily swing, your rewards for online campaign number three. That's what we provide."

While Valve may not believe it's important, it has been frustrating to not get a better idea of how PC game sales are really impacted by digital download sales when that information is kept secret.

In a major about face for Microsoft, the publisher announced today that the upcoming PC version of developer Lionhead's fantasy RPG Fable III will be made available for purchase and download via Valve's Steam service as well as Microsoft's own Games For Windows Marketplace web site. Fable III will be the first Microsoft published game to be sold on Steam.

Microsoft and Valve have been rivals in the PC game download business as well as for extra PC game services (Steamworks vs Games For Windows Live) so Fable III's appearance on Steam is a pretty huge change of pace for Microsoft. The game will be made available for pre-orders later today on both Steam and Games For Windows Marketplace. Games For Windows Marketplace will offer Fable - The Lost Chapters, the PC port of the first game in the series, for free as a pre-order special. In addition Steam pre-orders will also get the exclusive Rebel's Weapon & Tattoo Pack, which adds four exclusive weapons and five character tattoos. The game will be released via these outlets and via retail stores on May 17.

Update: Games For Windows Live has now put up its pre-order page for Fable 3 as has Steam with its own Fable 3 pre-order page.

Portal 2 is already being praised as one of the best games of 2011, if not of all time (ignore the Metacritic trolls). Now it looks like the puzzle-shooter sequel from Valve will be getting an extensive behind-the-scenes feature via Gametrailers.com host Geoff Keighley.

Keighley, who previously did a huge "The Final Hours of Half-Life" feature for Gamespot way back in 1998, will apparently return to Valve for an article called "The Final Hours of Portal 2". A teaser site for the game is already online but there's no word on when the article will be released or what kind of format (written word, video, both) the feature will be presented.

We have been wondering when there will be a Portal 2-Team Fortress 2 crossover and, well, we were not disappointed. Developer Valve has announced in a funny post on the Team Fortress 2 web site that owners of the multiplayer first person shooter will find that a number of its hats can be used by Portal 2's co-op robots if players own both games.

Specifically, the TF2 hats that are available in Portal 2 are the Mann Co. Cap, the Prince Tavish's Crow, the Pyro's Beanie, the Fancy Fedora, the Master's Yellow Belt and the Tyrant's Helm. Have fun making the bots look sillier than they already do.

With Portal 2 now out in stores in the US and available on download via Steam, the puzzle-shooter sequel will have issues trying to replicate the sales success of the original. Gamespot reports that the first Portal game, released in 2007 as part of The Orange Box collection, has sold nearly 4 million copies, according to figures provided by its developer Valve.

The game's sales figures do not take into account the number of copies that have been sold via Steam, according to the article, which means that the true number of copies is likely much higher. Indeed, the game was given away for free for two weeks in May of 2010 via Steam as a way to celebrate Portal's Mac release.

With Portal 2 now officially on sale, Valve is also launching a new line of Portal 2 merchandise via the company's online store. It goes without saying that there are a bunch of new Portal 2 related t-shirts that you can call your own. We especially like the 1970s themed Aperture Science logo t-shirt. Groovy.

Along with the t-shirts you can also get some very nice art prints for $100 a piece, some Aperture Science related posters ("My new boss is a robot" indeed) and a 1940's Aperture Science logo shot glass. It's the perfect way to drink while solving the game's many puzzles.

Valve's launch of the in-game store feature in Team Fortress 2 in 2010 was pretty contraversial for some players who felt that having such a feature was detrimental to the game. However the Mann Co Store has proven to be popular as lots of new weapons, items and clothing items have been sold and have made some of the community members who have created them pretty wealthy.

Now Valve has decided to continue that trend with the just released Portal 2. The PC version of the puzzle-shooter sequel contains a "robot enrichment" feature that lets players purchase new skins, hats and additional genstures for the two robots in the game's co-op feature. There's also a trading tab that isn't active yet. From the looks of things this store is basically just like Team Fortress 2's feature. If you want to purchase these items for the robots you can but you can also safely ignore the store and it won't affect your enjoyment of playing in the slightest.

Super 8, the upcoming summer action movie from writer-director J.J. Abrams, makes a surprise appearance in the just released puzzle-shooter sequel Portal 2. Valve's game just unlocked for PC players via Steam and it contains a very interesting surprise. In the game's Extras section was a brief "interactive teaser" for Super 8.

The teaser, which uses the Source Engine, has your character on board the train that's the subject of the massive wreck in the first Super 8 teaser trailer. Just before the crash you can look around the train car and zoom in on some documents but that's about it. After the crash you then wander around the train wreckage until you get to the car that contains ... well, whatever is in the car that breaks out with a massive scream. The teaser then ends and sends you via Steam's browser to the Super 8 web site.

The big question we have is: Was this just a one-shot teaser or are there plans for a full-blown Super 8 game using Valve's Source Engine?

It looks like the final time for the launch of the PC version of Portal 2 via Steam will happen at 12:36 am Eastern time on Tuesday or basically less than an hour after this news post goes live. The GLaDOS@Home efforts by fans have closed the gap by completing the computations of two more of the Potato Sack PC indie games.

There are two more games still to be completed but it doesn't look like the player efforts will be enough to complete them before the new launch time. Overall the GLaDOS@Home efforts have shaved off over nine hours from Portal 2's original launch time.

Update: And that's all folks. The final two games have been completed and Portal 2 is now unlocking for those folks who have pre-order and pre-loaded the game on Steam.

Portal 2's PC release time on Steam has been cut down by several hours thanks thanks to efforts of gamers who have been playing the 13 Potato Sack indie games with Portal 2 content. A few minutes ago, the ninth game completed its computations in the GLaDOS@Home web site. As a result the release of Portal 2 is now set at the moment for 2:10 am Eastern time.

But there are still four more games (Defense Grid: The Awakening, Killing Floor, Super Meat Boy and Amnesia: The Dark Descent) still left to unlock and at the moment it's debatable if player efforts will be enough to shave off any more time. It looks like community efforts are concentrating on one game at a time (Killing Floor is the main focus) but we will see if that will be enough to unlock Portal 2 earlier than 2:10 am.