The Valve crew have made clear today – as if they’d not done so several times already – that they’ll be growing beyond the traditional deep-dark-basement model for gaming in the year 2014. Word today comes from a Steam space with “livingroom” literally embedded in its URL, with “The Steam Universe is Expanding in 2014″ […]
There’s only so much we can read into Valve’s vague plans to “connect the dots for customers who want Steam in the living room,” but the safe bet is on the Steambox. The company’s just-launched teaser site shows a countdown clock leading up to Monday’s announcement, as well as an image of a controller leading into darkness (oh, and there’s the profile of a cat, too). Valve’s planned entry into the hardware space has already been well-documented, so a dedicated console for PC-gaming in the living room should come as no surprise. What’s more intriguing, however, is Valve’s desire to connect users to its “design process.” Could that mean the launch of a beta testing program? We’ll know for sure come early next week.
Source: Valve
There has been a lot of speculation about the Valve Steam Box recently, it is now believed an announcement might be made as early as next week. Gabe Newell, Valve’s co-founder, referred to Linux as “the future of gaming” during his speech at LinuxCon 2013. He further added that the company will reveal more information about “the hardware opportunities we see for bringing Linux into the living room” next week.
Valve has said that it is working on creating its own console, but the Steam Box project really is about creating a model that other manufacturers can follow to build their own Linux based gaming consoles. Newell said during the speech that the next step for them is to “release some work we’ve done on the hardware side.” He also said that Valve has plans to initiate a “grand unification” of gaming that’s currently done on consoles, mobile devices and PCs, according to Newell, 198 Steam games are now running on Linux. It isn’t entirely clear at this point in time if Valve is going to release an actual Linux based console next week or will it first release the model or guidelines based on which other manufacturers can build their own devices.
Valve Steam Box Might Be Announced Next Week original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Birthdays are normally a time for celebration, but you know what? People heap adulation on Steam every day of the year. So let’s flip it, and spend today remembering when Steam was new, and was just about the worst thing ever.
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Valve has announced a new program today that makes it easier for Steam gamers to share their downloaded game titles. Called Steam Family Sharing, the program allows Steam gamers to share their library of titles with as many as 10 additional computers. Any title in the library can be shared, but only one person can use the sharing program at a time. The Steam Family Sharing Program will be launched in limited beta next week, initially only 1,000 Steam accounts will be given access.
The way the program works is that a user will send a request to the lender, who will then authorise their computer. The authorized computer takes up one of the 10 slots that are available, it will then be able to access the games library. Each Steam user will be able to save their individual game progress and achievements, even while playing shared titles. As previously mentioned, since only one user can access the shared account at a time, any connected user will be logged out once the account lender signs on. Users won’t be able to share region locked games out of their particular region, also, during the beta stage titles which require subscriptions or third-party serial numbers won’t be supported.
Valve’s Steam Family Sharing Lets Users Share Games With 10 Computers original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Steam already had a good setup in terms of being able to get and play games, however one bit that had been lacking was the ability to share those games with friends and family members. While that option is not yet available, it has been announced. This will be arriving as Steam Family Sharing and […]
You probably thought family plans were just for cellular data. Well, sir or madame, you are wrong. Soon enough you’ll be able to share games you purchased through Steam with your friends and family, as well. The king of downloadable gaming has just announced Steam Family Sharing, which will allow customers to authorize certain devices to access their library of lendable titles. The same way that you’re able to loan out a physical copy of a game or a book, you’ll now be able to lend your digital downloads to others. And, if you see that your brother has a game you’ve been on the fence about, you can request access and try it for yourself. There are, of course, limitations. Your library can only be used by one person at a time. So if you, the primary user, log in to spend some quality time with Call of Duty Ghosts, your buddy checking out Bastion ahead of Transistor’s release will have only a few minutes to either save and quit, or buy the title for themselves. Family Sharing will be launching in a limited beta next week, and you can sign up for it at the source link.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Steam
Last week we reported on seemingly bad news that Valve was not working on Half-Life 3 at the moment. This was “confirmed” by John Patrick Lowrie, the voice actor for some of Valve’s games such as Half-Life 2 and DotA 2. However according to a comment posted on Lowrie’s blog (which has since been removed), it seems that the voice actor “misspoke” when it came to sharing news about Half-Life 3.
According to Lowrie, “My comments just seemed to cause a whole bunch of confusion and when I tried to minimize the confusion I misspoke and caused a whole bunch more confusion,” and suggested that perhaps he would be one of the last people to know about Valve’s plans since voice actors are apparently the “last to know anything”, and that they only find out about a project when they are hired for it.
Of course this hardly means that by this logic that Half-Life 3 is indeed in the works since Valve has not yet said anything, but as Lowrie has succinctly put it, “What I was trying to say before (and failed) is that whatever Gabe Newell has to say about a project is the best info you’re going to get. He owns the company and knows what’s going on.” We’re not sure if this good or bad news, so make what you will of it.
Half-Life Voice Actor “Misspoke” About Half-Life 3′s Status original content from Ubergizmo. 
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The future of Microsoft’s digital game distribution systems just got brighter. Jason Holtman, who was heavily involved with the growth of Valve’s Steam platform, has been hired by Redmond. According to a statement he gave Gamesindustry International, he’ll work to flesh out Windows’ native gaming and entertainment efforts. That isn’t plausible without developer support though, and given his history as a liaison between devs and Valve, he’ll be putting those skills to work to “make that happen” at his new gig. However, seeing that Microsoft’s other gaming platform is taking the majority of the company’s focus right now, we don’t expect many new details about Holtman’s duties to surface that soon.
Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft
Source: TechCrunch
Have you ever played any of the Left 4 Dead series? It is definitely a different take on the undead genre, and who knew that the undead themselves have different classes to torment the still living? Well, there are whispers going around that Left 4 Dead 3 is in active development – alongside the long awaited Source Engine 2, or at least according to some competitors in Valve’s Dota 2 championships, The International, who toured around Valve’s offices this week itself. Needless to say, any photo can be doctored these days, accompanied by some rather outlandish claims, so do take this bit of news with a pinch of salt.
It must be noted too, that Valve founder Gabe Newell has allegedly said to have confirmed that Source 2 is in the pipeline and in due time, it should be released for the masses. Has it been so long already, that Left 4 Dead 2 was released in 2009? Boy, how fast does time fly, and considering how it was only a year between the first Left 4 Dead title, the third version of the game is long overdue, at least in the books of fans of the game.
Left 4 Dead 3, Source 2 Seen In Valve Offices (Rumor) original content from Ubergizmo. 
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