Developers Unsatisfied With Valve’s Greenlight
Some developers feel like Valve isn’t doing enough to “promote” Greenlight. Valve’s Tom Bui has stated that Greenlight has about 2 million voters. A representative from Intravenous Software said they don’t see anything remotely like those figures, though.
“I’m not talking about votes, I’m talking about visitors,” the developer said. “I know a number of Devs, and each get about 15k visitors in the first week. Then it falls off a cliff. That tells me you have 15k people who come look at Greenlight on a weekly basis, and about 5k who check it once a month. Considering you have millions of members, don’t you think those numbers are very low. Only games that get media attention get any more visitors than that.”
The developer Space Bullet has also stated that there is a steady decline of visitors. Read More…
Oculus Rift Support Added to Half-Life 2
Oculus Rift support has been added to Half-Life 2. The update will be added in a few weeks. Interestingly, it has been nearly a decade since the game was first released.
“We just shipped a beta for Half-Life 2 that includes Oculus Rift support,” Joe Ludwig writes. “To get it, open the properties for HL2 in Steam, set your command line to ‘-vr,’ and opt-in to the SteamPipe beta. This should ship to everybody in a few weeks.”
There are some issues regarding the UI and game’s HUD. Mainly that it’s hard to see and read. Valve is hoping players will send their feedback regarding the new feature.
Resident Evil 6 & Left 4 Dead 2 Crossover Announced
A crossover between Resident Evil 6 & Left 4 Dead 2 has been announced.
Valve‘s FPS will be receiving enemies from RE6, and Capcom‘s RE6 will receive L4D2′s four main characters. However, this crossover is exclusive to PC (sorry console fans!) since the Resident Evil 6 mode this will be available for is ‘Mercenaries No Mercy‘. The new mode will also feature Witch and Mini Tank Special Infected characters. Valve players can look forward to battling creatures such as Lepotitsa, Napad, and Ogroman – all created in Steam‘s workshop.
“We’re huge Resident Evil fans, so when the opportunity arose to work directly with Capcom to combine L4D2 and RE6, we jumped at it,” says Valve’s Chet Faliszek.
These specific content modes will be available for free. Resident Evil 6 players can look forward to the new content on April 5th. The Valve content is having a spring release attached to the content, although nothing specific has been mentioned.
Valve “Distances Itself” from Xi3 Piston Steam Box
The Xi3 Piston Steam Box was recently announced, and it would seem that Valve is not too eager to have their brand attached to it.
In short form, the box is a micro-sized PC specifically designed to sit under the TV. It’s also fully integrated with Steam, thus the “steam box” part of the name. The device is upgradable and comes with 8GB of RAM, a 3.2Ghz Quad Core chip and at least 128GB of storage.
However, Valve is not endorsing this product. It’s true that Valve is and has been looking into making a Steam Box of their own, but they’ve insisted it should be ‘affordable‘. The Xi3 Piston Steam Box comes with a neat price tag of $1,000, it’s understandable that they’re not endorsing the product or attaching their name to it.
Valve’s Doug Lombardi told told Eurogamer on Monday that “Valve began some exploratory work with Xi3 last year, but currently has no involvement in any product of theirs”.
If you like the idea of the Steam Box, you can now pre-order it and expect it to be released around Christmas.
The War Z Returns to Steam
The War Z has returned on Steam after the controversy surrounding it.
Consumers were initially upset due to the fact the game promised things it did not deliver on. Steam agreed and removed the game from its service. However, Steam issued a statement where they stated Valve and Hammerpoint Interactive “collaborated to address community feedback” and “update the Steam store page.”
Steam’s Top 10 Sellers (2.10 – 2.16)
Steam‘s top 10 best selling games during the period February 10th – 16th has been released. Once again the Skyrim DLC Dragonborn came out on top, followed by heavily criticized Aliens: Colonial Marines. Far Cry 3 is still on the 10th place, question is when it will drop off the top 10. Fable 3 was during that period available for $9.99 during a midweek sale. I know I’m guilty of buying it.
- Skyrim – Dragonborn DLC
- Aliens: Colonial Marines
- Borderlands 2
- Torchlight II
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- ArmA II: Combined Operations
- Skyrim
- Impire
- Fable III
- Far Cry 3
This Week in Gaming (2.11-2.17)
This Week in Gaming aims to summarize the most important bits and pieces this week regarding the gaming scene. Pretty much what every other blog/site is doing but whatever. We’ll do it better, or so we tell ourselves so we can sleep better. Beware, most of these links will link back to this site, unless I didn’t cover it, which it then will link to the original article, or the article I picked as the better distributor of the news. If you like it -share it. If you hate it, tell us why. You know, we don’t bite.
Nintendo Held Their Nintendo Direct:
Nintendo has held one of their famous Nintendo Directs. In this one a whole bunch of games were announced, both for the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS. During the Nintendo Direct we found out the release date to the highly anticipated Animal Crossing: New Leaf. We also found out Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is heading for a release on the Nintendo 3DS. Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move, and Mario and Luigi: Dream Team were also announced. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will feature cross-play between the 3DS and the Wii U.
Aliens: Colonial Marines Goes Down in History As the Worst Game Ever, Probably:
The game had so much potential, being developed by Borderlands developer Gearbox. Yet, somewhere in the process between demo and final product, something went wrong. Now all we have is Sega blaming Gearbox, they in turn is blaming Timegate which is blaming Gearbox.. Yeah, it’s messed up. And we still don’t know what the hell happened! One of the latest rumors are that Gearbox used the budget intended for A:CM to develop the Borderlands series.
However, someone messed up at it shows with the crappy scores the game has received from sites that weren’t completely bought off.
Wii U’s Hardware and Software Sales Were Abysmal:
I may not have the biggest fan of the Wii U, but I’m honestly worried when I see they console has sold below 60 k units. Even analysts are saying the Wii U was a mistake, ok, only one said it openly. But we all know they’re thinking it. Furthermore, interdependent retailers have expressed their displeasure regarding the product and wants a price cut.
Ubisoft Becomes Assholes And Makes Rayman Legends Multiplatformed:
Ubisoft originally planned for Rayman Legends to be a Wii U launch title. However, the game was delayed again and again until fans thought that now in February, they will finally be able to play the game. Nope. Ubisoft decided in the last minute that the multiple platforms, and that it will be delayed to September. Developers have openly protested, and one even wrote a strongly worded letter on a forum. Ubisoft’s great excuse is that they’ve “done so previously.”
Steam Launched for Linux:
Gaming isn’t just windows-exclusive and Valve knows this. The official Steam client has launched for Linux users, and the celebration was a sale of 50 games! Steam is sure to have various bugs and kinks which needs to be sorted out, however, it’s nice they’ve considered other platforms than just Windows.
New Xbox Might Not Support Secondhand Games:
One of the rumors circulating the internet is that the next-gen Xbox will implement new DRM technology which will make secondhand games obsolete. The response from various companies were huge and it has sparked quite a lot of debate. Even GameSpot chimed in and stated that gamers would turn away from consoles that block secondhand games. That’s not all, it has also been rumored that the console will require online connection all the time.
Sony Will Announce PS4 Next Week:
Perhaps the most interesting and exciting thing next week is the PS4 announcement that will happen on February 20th. Various rumors and information has been released for a long time now, the latest being that the PS4 might be able to stream PS3 titles. Not only that, various rumors have been circulating regarding the design of the PS4 controller, and the purpose of the PS4 console.
Valve Faces Layoffs Due to Unknown Reasons:
What came as a surprise announcement is sort-of shocking. Valve has fired about 25 people, including electrical engineer Jeri Ellsworth. However, Gabe Newell has refused to share any information regarding why these people were fired. He did claim that the company is not cancelling any projects, nor is the layoff about various hardware and software project that have backfired. He simply wouldn’t tell.
Gabe Newell Responds to Valve Layoffs
Gabe Newell has responded to the layoffs which hit Valve and came to surface yesterday.
Newell told Engadget, ”We don’t usually talk about personnel matters for a number of reasons. There seems to be an unusual amount of speculation about some recent changes here, so I thought I’d take the unusual step of addressing them. No, we aren’t canceling any projects. No, we aren’t changing any priorities or projects we’ve been discussing. No, this isn’t about Steam or Linux or hardware or [insert game name here]. We’re not going to discuss why anyone in particular is or isn’t working here.”
Gamasutra did post a list of people who were potentially fire, but they were unable to confirm the list. Jeri Ellsworth, an electrical engineer for the company, has tweeted and confirmed that she was indeed fired.
Valve Faces Layoffs?
According to a report by Gamasutra, Valve has been hit with layoffs.
Affected employees have referred to the layoffs as the ”great cleansing”, along with ”large decisions.” Furthermore it has been suspected that a total of 25 employees have been let go, although no one has been able to confirm it.
The employees let go were apparently asked not to speak about the layoffs, but it does seem like the layoffs were due to difficulties within the company, rather than individual issues.
J.J. Abrams and Valve Working on Unannounced Game
J.J. Abrams and Valve co-founder Gabe Newell are apparently working on a so-far unannounced game.
The nature of the game project is very hush-hush, and nothing is known other than the fact they’re collaborating. Furthermore it was revealed during the annual D.I.C.E. Summit that the two men are going to collaborate on a movie. The general gist of the movie is apparently it’s going to be either Portal or Half-Life related.
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