PC

Trine 2 Will Feature Cross-Platform Multiplayer For PC And Mac

Trine 2 is getting both a Mac and a PC version, and developer Frozenbyte is going to see if they can play together nicely. The Steamworks version of the game will offer cross-platform multiplayer support, the studio said in a news release.


April 14, 2011
PC

Portal 2′s Steam Connection To The PS3 Explained

Developer Valve calls the PlayStation 3 version of Portal 2 “the best console version of the game”, for various reasons. For one, buying that version gets you a copy of the game for Steam too. But more important, to Valve at least, is that it brings the Steam platform to Sony’s console.


October 19, 2010
News

30 Million Accounts And Other Impressive Steam Numbers

What’s Steam been doing in the nine months since Valve last released detailed statistics? Adding another five million users and more than 200 new games, for starters.


September 3, 2010
News

Team Fortress 2′s Heavy Finally Playable In… A Poker Game

Telltale Games’ tease that featured a cryptic crossover between Homestar Runner, Penny Arcade, Sam & Max and Team Fortress 2 turns out to be the developer’s latest gambling game, Poker Night at The Inventory. Yeah.


July 31, 2010
News

Valve’s Plan To Get More Mac Games On Steam Just Sane Enough To Work

The creator of Half-Life, Team Fortress and Portal has a plan to increase the number of Mac games that are available through its digital distribution service, Steam. Valve plans on giving away* “some” of its Mac-specific game code to developers.


May 25, 2010
News

Magic The Gathering Gets Steam-Powered

After a successful run on Xbox Live Arcade, Wizards of the Coast is bringing Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers to keyboard and mouse set via Steam next month.


March 25, 2009
News

New Steamworks Feature ‘Makes DRM Obsolete’

Shortly after Microsoft revealed new features for their Games for Windows Live service, Valve counters with new Steamworks features, including in-game downloadable content, robust matchmaking, and new technology they claim “makes DRM obsolete.”


May 30, 2008
Uncategorized

Valve Announce Steamcloud, Sounds Great

Valve have today announced Steamcloud, a new element to their Steam service that will allow the company to store your user data online. What kind of data? Stuff like saved games. Keyboard configurations. Preferences. That kind of thing. So if you’re playing on one PC and move to another (say, you’re playing in a cafe, or buy a new PC), you can keep all that stuff. Pretty neat. Also announced were some extra services Valve have in store later down the line, like driver auto-updating, and a means for Steam to check your PC, check that game you want to buy then give you a fairly conclusive answer on whether you’ll be able to play it or not. Bless you, Valve. Bless you.

Steamworks & Steamcloud – In Summary [Rock, Paper, Shotgun][Pic]


January 30, 2008
News

Valve Offers Up Steam Online to Devs for Free

It looks like Valve just fired a shot in war to become the dominant support for online PC gaming. They are now giving away Steamworks, a suite of publishing and development tools that include copy protection, social networking services and server browsing, to developers and publisher worldwide.

Steamworks is the online back-end used in both Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box.

“Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today’s market,” said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. “Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing.”