Hasta La Gadget!

Well that was quick. We’ve only know that Valve is working on a version of Steam for Linux for a few months, but now it seems that the studio is ready to put that incoming version to the test. Valve will be putting Steam for Linux through and internal beta sometime next week, and then later on in October, it will invite a group of people to participate in a small private beta.

When we say “small” we mean it too. Valve will only be inviting 1,000 people to take part in this private beta, explaining in a Valve Linux blog post that the beta will involve Steam, one Steam game, and support for Ubuntu 12.04 and later. It appears that Steam for Linux is still in the early stages of development, at least relatively, as Valve says that the beta won’t feature Big Picture Mode or any additional Steam games.

Valve didn’t say what that one Steam game featured in this incoming external beta is, but we have a feeling it’s Left 4 Dead 2. Valve has been using that game to test out Steam for Linux internally, so it makes sense that the studio would want to use it in the beta. Valve says that a beta sign up form will be coming soon, but didn’t give an specific date for its release.

Valve also recommends that those who are new to Linux sit this beta out and instead sign up for a future beta. If you’re an existing Linux users, however, Valve wants you, saying that this beta will be a good opportunity to see how far the studio has come in porting Steam to Linux. We’ll have more details about this upcoming Steam for Linux private beta soon, so keep it here to SlashGear.

Steam for Linux beta kicks off in October is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’re a fan of strategy games from developer Firaxis, you might want to grab the latest playable demo from the company. Firaxis and 2K Games have announced that a playable demo for the title XCOM: Enemy Unknown is now available for download on Steam. For now, the demo is available for PC gamers only, but a demo for console gamers will be coming soon.

The demo offers the first two levels of the single player tutorial campaign. The levels allow the user to experience combat controls and effective tactics for fighting the alien threat. Gamers will also be introduced to the XCOM Base in the demo. Soldier training and the researching of alien technology takes place in the base.

If you’re not patient enough to play through it yourself (or you don’t have a PC,) here’s a complete play-through of the demo:

The game is up for pre-order right now and include the Elite Soldier Pack. This pack includes the blonde, flattop wearing character from the classic X-Com game. The soldier pack also includes the ability to customize armor in the game.

Steam has made available the demo for X-COM: Enemy Unknown, where this demo works on the PC platform at the moment, sporting a couple of tutorial missions. Not only that, we do know that the demo too, will arrive on both Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms ‘soon’, although we are rather wary of that word since it is extremely relative. 2K Games announced that this particular demo will offer a couple of levels from the single-player campaign, where players will be introduced to the nuances of combat controls as well as the X-COM base which primarily sees action for soldier training and to research alien technology.

For those of you who actually played MicroProse’s classic turn-based strategy series in the past, back when games still came on floppy disks, you might want to check out the demo of X-COM: Enemy Unknown in order to see how this contemporary update has managed to roll back the years, making you wish that games these days come with the kind of imaginative wonder back then. The full copy of X-COM: Enemy Unknown will arrive at retail stores on October 12th on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Valve’s Steam Big Picture Goes Live, Valve Big Picture mode beta launched,

Yesterday marked the launch of a new service from Valve with the beta of Big Picture mode for Steam. Big Picture mode is a version of the Steam digital delivery platform designed to operate on big HDTVs rather than smaller computer monitors. The new mode will allow users with high-end media PCs connected to the TV to get higher quality graphics in the living room than they can with their consoles.

Despite numerous rumors to the contrary, Valve does not intend to launch its own game console any time soon. Rather the goal was apparently to make PC gaming more accessible and convenient in the living room. I’d love to have some of my PC games on my massive projector screen and this new Big Picture mode will make that easier than ever.

Big Picture mode looks sort of like the dashboard on an Xbox 360 or on other set-top boxes. You can use it to purchase games, surf the Internet, and chat with friends using the standard in-game overlay. Naturally, Big Picture mode has fonts, icons, and menus optimized for viewing on a big screen. The mode is also designed with prompts that can be used via a game controller from across the room, and even has a special keyboard mode optimized for game controllers. As a matter of fact, they recommend the Xbox 360 Controller for Windows, or the Logitech Gamepad F710 for gameplay and controlling the interface.

PC users can opt into the Big Picture beta now. There’s no word yet on when the Mac version will be available, though Valve says it’s “coming soon.”

[via Kotaku]

When you say “Electronic Arts” and “Valve” in the same sentence, most gamers will likely point to the digital distribution tussle currently going on between the two. Electronic Arts wants its platform, Origin, to become one of Steam‘s biggest competitors, and Origin has garnered a lot of negative comments in the past couple of years because of that. Valve and Electronic Arts have always had a seemingly close relationship though, and it might surprise some to hear that at one point, Electronic Arts was considering purchasing Valve, as The New York Times is reporting today.

The New York Times doesn’t give a specific timeline for the proposed buyout, but says that at the time, Valve would have been valued at “well over $1 billion” if talks between the two companies had actually progressed that far. It seems that talks didn’t really go anywhere, and there’s a pretty good reason for that, as Gabe Newell says that Valve isn’t a studio we can expect to see bought out by a larger company anytime soon.

Instead, we should expect Valve to “disintegrate” before its ever bought out, with its workers going their separate ways. “It’s way more likely we would head in that direction than say, ‘Let’s find some giant company that wants to cash us out and wait two or three years to have our employment agreements terminate,” Newell said. So no, you don’t have to worry about another company buying out Valve and forcing the studio to change.

For the record, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter says that Valve is likely worth in the area of $2.5 billion. That number seems a little closer to the mark than EA’s $1 billion valuation, and it may even be a bit a higher than Pachter estimates, given the immense success of Steam and Valve’s library of incredibly popular game series. So, how about it – do you think Valve would be any different today if it had been bought out by Electronic Arts?

Electronic Arts tried to purchase Valve in the past is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.