At the time of preparing this report, US $1.42 makes a Euro. Here's what Valve seems to be pricing its games and those of its affiliates on the Steam platform as: $1 = €1, ignoring exchange rates, meaning that if a product costs say $20 on Steam, you will be charged €20 (approximately $27.86), if you are buying from the EU. Several game titles have been priced in this fashion. Call of Duty 4, priced at US $49.99 ($59.4 after applicable taxes) is tagged at €49,99 ($70 before applicable taxes).

In reaction to this, disgruntled European gamers have started protesting this move by Valve on online forums, an example of which can be found on Valve's own Steam Users' Forums. Also found on the same board is a user group named 1€ ≠ 1$. Certain groups have even started reporting this to the European Commission Consumer Cell. The gamers allege that they have been given a largely unfair pricing scheme with products on the Steam platform, that violates trade laws. The Steam platform serves gamers from around the world with a common platform to purchase games, and coordinates multiplayer gaming and updates. An unhappy consumer base from one of the largest markets in the world could certainly impact on its revenues.

Today, Half-Life turns 10 years old. What started off as a humble beginning for Valve software, using dated technologies licensed from id Software, now stands as one of the greatest PC games ever made. At 10, Half-Life enjoys a lavish Metacritic score of 96%, an aggregate of all known participant reviews.

To celebrate the occasion, Valve is giving away copies of Half-Life via Steam for 98¢ (US $ 0.98), to symbolize the year 1998. This offer ends 12:01 pm PST on November 21. Visit Steam Games for more details.Go Dr. Freeman!

The PC version of Left 4 Dead, Valve's zombie thriller, has been officially announced. The game is now available via Steam to gamers around the globe, to purchase, download and play. The hard-copy title will be available for the PC and Xbox 360 platforms at retail stores on Tuesday, November 18 in North America and worldwide on Friday, November 21. For more information, please visit Steam Games.

Valve, creator of the best-selling game franchises Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike, is letting everyone know that its upcoming zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead, has gone gold and is on schedule to become widely available next week. Additionally, the game can now be pre-loaded. Those who pre-order the game via Steam save 10% off the regular price and may now pre-load the game so when it become available at 12:01 am EST on November 18, 2008 they'll only need to download a little piece of the game code and start the game right away. The pre-order discount is also available for both the PC and 360 versions at participating retail outlets.
Left 4 Dead is the new survival action game from Valve for the PC and Xbox 360 that blends the social entertainment experience of multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress with the dramatic, narrative experience made popular in single player action game classics such as the Half-Life series of games. Playable in single player, co-operative, and multiplayer modes, Left 4 Dead is one of the most anticipated releases of 2008 and winner of numerous pre-launch awards, including Best of E3 from multiple outlets. A demo version of the game was also made available today.

Valve, creators of best-selling entertainment products and advanced technologies, today announced the roll out of Steam Cloud, a set of services for Steam that stores application data online and allows user experiences to be consistent from any PC. Steam Cloud is a free extension to Steam, a leading a platform for PC games with over 15 million accounts worldwide.

Steam Cloud support will ship with Valve's Left 4 Dead demo later this week and the full game on November 18. In this first release, the information stored and accessible through the Steam Cloud includes keyboard, mouse, and gamepad configurations, as well as multiplayer settings such as spraypaint images.

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (Steam and Source), today announced a special promotion granting those who pre-order Left 4 Dead early access to the official demo.

Left 4 Dead is the new survival action game from Valve that blends the social entertainment experience of multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress with the dramatic, narrative experience made popular in single player action game classics such as the Half-Life series of games.

Crysis Warhead is now available for purchase via Steam and to play for gamers in North America. In addition, the original Crysis is now available for purchase and play by gamers the world over. Outside of North America, Crysis Warhead will become available for play tomorrow (Thursday) via Steam.

With a market position resurrection in progress, AMD/ATI look to compete using a tried and tested tool for technological supremacy over its rival(s), developer-level optimizations for their games. Blizzard has been looking at implementing DirectX 10.1 with its future games. If that happens, it becomes a favorable scenario for AMD's products since Blizzard aren't habituated to making games that run best on only the most expensive hardware, but that with DirectX 10.1, they will look to implement certain DX10.1-exclusive effects, which means that even mid-range users of ATI products could enjoy the best visuals that the game has to offer, something NVIDIA and its users could miss out on.

Updates to Valve's Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

• Reduced Medic's unlockable requirements to match that of the Pyro's. Medic players now meeting the requirements will receive their unlockables shortly after joining a server
• Fixed Spy sapper view model animation popping
• Fixed another issue with the Hot on your Heels achievement
• Incorporated the new Russian fonts into the base Team Fortress 2 fonts. Fixes the missing fonts problem when running in Russian with English VO
• Fixed "Hot on your Heels" counting non-flamethrower based kills
• Fixed some Pyro achievements not working on some servers
• Fixed Compression Blast and Flare Gun trail particles on DX8
• Fixed Spy cloaked as Scout in response rules for all classes

Valve Software, the master mind behind Steam is now seeking to expand with Steam Cloud, the next major update for the digital distribution service. Steam Cloud will allow gamers to store not only their game profiles and graphics setting, but also all of their savegames created through Steam for life. You won't need to worry about your savegames anymore. All the data will be automatically uploaded to back-end servers whenever you go online. It will be accessible from any PC at no cost and there will be no space limitations to worry about. The first games to offer Steam Cloud support will be Half-Life and Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2 and the forthcoming co-op shooter Left 4 Dead. Steam Cloud will also be freely available as part of the Steamworks set of developer tools. In addition, Valve plans a couple of other updates for the Steam platform in near future. They will include auto-updating of your computer's device drivers, social features including events and calendar systems, 'official' community pages for games, pricing localised to your country's currency, Amazon-style recommendations and shopping cart systems, and more payment options.

Game developer Valve released the final details on its upcoming Team Fortress 2 content update during a party in downtown San Francisco. Although I have never played TF2, from all the comments this update sounds like a big deal, and most of it will be directed to the medic character in the form of three new weapon replacements dubbed "The Blutsaugher", "The Critzcrieg" and "The Ubersaw". The weapons will be earned through a new achievement system, and equipped through a loadout menu. Below you can check out Valve's official descriptions for the weapons.

Valve has revealed that Atari has become the latest big name addition to the list of publishers distributing their games via Steam, with a number of well known titles going on sale. Nine games are now available for download; Act of War: Direct Action, Act of War: High Treason, ArmA: Combat Operations, Atari 80 Classics in 1, Death to Spies, Desperados 2: Cooper's Revenge, Indigo Prophecy, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum and Tycoon City: New York. Two more major titles from Atari which will go on sale in the coming weeks are The Witcher and Neverwinter Nights 2. Nizzi Renaud, Atari's Vice President of Online Entertainment, said:

Atari is excited to team up with Steam and deliver great games through a digital platform that our fans have asked for. We look forward to making an extensive collection of games, across many genres, available to Steam's extensive, globally-connected community.

Valve has confirmed to Joystiq that The Orange Box -Valve's acclaimed compilation containing Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 - will be split into separate PC titles on April 9th. Valve has yet to officially announce pricing details, but retailers currently list Portal at $19.99 and the other two packages at $29.99 each. Expect more details soon.

After making record sales for the holiday season last year, Valve Software may now add music and video downloads to its digital distribution platform Steam. According to the company's marketing VP Doug Lombardi the new service will be operational before the end of this year.

We're also looking at other types of content like video and music,

We're definitely having those conversations and meetings, and we're reaching out to folks with other types of digital entertainment. I think before the end of the year, you'll probably see some pilot programs with other digital entertainment on Steam.

Read the full interview at Tom's Games.

Valve's Steam service for downloading PC games and digital content has gone through another milestone surpassing 15 million accounts and releasing year-over-year sales growth of 158% through the holiday season. Throughout 2008 Valve also promised to bring more community features as well as new titles such as Valve's Left 4 Dead. "PC gaming is thriving, and has evolved into an era of constant connectivity," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "That connectivity gives us the ability to have a much better relationship with customers, not just for delivering our games, but across all aspects of our business - including the design, development, and support of our games. Features like Guest Passes, Free Weekends, Gifting, and the Steam Community have been very well received both by customers and the developers who are using Steam. We are accelerating our release of new functionality in the next year as well as finding new ways to work with our partners such as the release of Steamworks, which allows them to bring the many benefits of Steam to their packaged products."

Valve Software is still working out exactly what it's going to do with Half-Life 2: Episode Three. "We don't know entirely what's happening in the next episode, but we're gonna figure it out!", a laughing David Speyrer, Episode Two project lead, has told PC Zone magazine. "There are always things we want to do that we can't because of the constraints of either the story or the arc we've laid out for the gameplay - or just time", he continued in a feature dissecting Valve's Orange Box, part one of which you can read on PC Zone's site here. "So we shelve them and carry on. Ideas fly around here quite a bit, so we have this huge laundry list of things to try for the next thing...", Speyrer concluded. Don't expect Episode III any time soon then by the looks of it.

I bring good news for those of us who don't want to spend $50 on all the games included with Orange Box: Valve is planning on releasing the games as separate titles. As Warren Jenson, CFO and executive VP of Electronic Arts (who owns Valve) so eloquently put it, "We are unbundling Orange Box and releasing separate PC SKUs". The separate SKUs are likely to arrive before March 31st, when the fiscal year ends. Pricing, availability, and release date are not clear at this point. It is also unclear whether or not the Orange Box will continue to be sold as a package, or if the Orange Box will only be sold as a bunch of split-up titles.

Valve developer Doug Lombardi recently promised gamers everywhere something that is sure to be appreciated: "more Portal". What exactly consists of "more" is still in the works, but Lombardi promised something else while we wait: brand new download-able Team Fortress 2 Maps, which will arrive for all platforms, for absolutely no charge. Valve has not said anything about possible release dates, but they have unveiled a "juicy" little tidbit about Episode 3:

In Episode One I think we left people with some big questions. After Episode Two people saw it was going somewhere. With Episode Three we want to live up to the promise of where we are taking things to; there's a lot of work being done to make sure we deliver on that promise. Exact details on what's next for Gordon are a way off; probably months not weeks.

We'll keep you posted as this shapes up.

Valve today announced Steamworks, a complete suite of publishing and development tools - ranging from copy protection to social networking services to server browsing - is now available free of charge to developers and publishers worldwide. Steamworks, the same suite of tools used in best-selling PC titles Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box, is available for all PC games distributed via retail and leading online platforms such as Steam. The services included in Steamworks may be used a la carte or in any combination.

CCP's massively multiplayer online game in space, EVE Online, will be the first MMO to be available on Steam, Valve announced today. To celebrate the occasion, a special 21-day trial period for EVE will be available, free of charge, to all Steam gamers. Steam gamers will also save $5 off their first full month of EVE Online. "Launching EVE on Steam means the addition of another fantastic PC game and the introduction of MMOs on Steam," said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. "The team at CCP continues to expand EVE's universe and gameplay for the legions logging in to play each month, just as we continue to expand Steam's consumer and developer features."

Valve is planning on releasing two more maps for Team Fortress 2 within the next two months, Valve employee Robin Walker informed. One of the new arenas is a remake of Team Fortress Classic's Badlands map. In the meantime, while waiting for the map pack to be released, Valve will ship other new content. That other content includes the forthcoming Medic achievement pack, which will add several new achievements for the Medic as well as a significant gameplay tweak for the class. "It's a large scale modification to the core of the game," Walker hinted. "It'll debut in a limited fashion through the Medic first, but it'll be affecting all classes eventually." "We're really looking forward to the community reaction," he continued. "We're really excited about where TF2 will be going over the next year."

Fresh off the success of The Orange Box, the 2007 game of the year award-winning collection of new games heralded as "the best value in gaming history," Valve Corporation announced the acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios, the Orange County-based development house behind one of 2008's most anticipated games, Left 4 Dead. The merger of the two companies will extend Valve's development team and provide the company with a new studio in southern California. "We have been seeing very strong growth with Steam and Source, our content distribution and development platforms, up over 150% over the last 12 months. Given our expectations for Left 4 Dead and our long-standing relationships with members of the Turtle Rock team, this was an easy decision. It also gives us a base from which to expand our development activities in the Los Angeles area," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "Left 4 Dead fills a long-standing demand gamers have had for a co-op first-person action experience, and it will also help Valve's expansion into the console market," added Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of marketing.

The most recent Steam Hardware Survey shows more Steam gamers play on NVIDIA GeForce hardware than any other graphics platform. In an effort to further support this popular PC gaming configuration - Steam games plus NVIDIA hardware - Valve and NVIDIA have entered into an agreement to collaborate on development, distribution, events, and more. Effective immediately, all NVIDIA gamers may receive a free copy of Portal: First Slice, a special version of the award-winning new game from Valve, by visiting www.steamgames.com/nvidia1 and "Taking the test." Steam will then auto-detect the presence of NVIDIA hardware and make Portal: First Slice available immediately, free of charge. To make it easy for all NVIDIA customers to redeem this offer, a link to the Steam offer will also be included in all NVIDIA drivers.

Just a few months ago, one of the largest updates in Steam's three-year history introduced a set of new community features to the millions of gamers connecting to Steam each week. Today Steam introduces the ability to purchase any game in its growing collection and send it as a gift to anyone in the world. To send a gift, customers simply select from hundreds of leading games on Steam and then indicate that the purchase is a gift at checkout. Within minutes, an e-card is delivered directly to the recipient's inbox. If the recipient is new to Steam, they'll receive everything they need to get started. For more information, visit Steam.

Sega and Valve today announced an agreement to deliver a lineup of new Sega titles to customers around the world via Steam. The new Sega games coming to Steam include Universe at War: Earth Assault, The Golden Compass, Sega Rally Revo, Sega Revo, Worldwide Soccer Manager, Futbol Manager and more. In addition to the new games, Sega titles previously released on Steam to customers in North America, such as Medieval II: Total War and Rome: Total War, are now available to Steam gamers in Europe and most of the world. For pricing information and release dates on these and other Sega titles, please click here.