When Valve made a debut of Proton for Steam on Linux, the company committed to enabling Linux gamers from across the globe to play all of the latest games available for the Windows platform, on their Linux distributions. Since the announcement, the market share of people who game on Linux has been rather stagnating for a while. When Proton was announced, the Linux gaming market share jumped to 2%, according to a Valve survey. However, later on, it dropped and remained at the stagnating 0.8~0.9% mark. Today, according to the latest data obtained from Steam Hardware Survey, we see that the Linux gaming market share has reached 1.0% in July, making for a +0.14% increase. What drove the spike in usage is unknown, however, it is interesting to see the new trend. You can check out the Steam Hardware Survey data here.

To state that the Steam Deck made a splash when it was announced is an understatement - interest in the portable handheld console with its tight Steam integration is still going strong even after initial orders and the now ubiquitous scalping shenanigans, with eBay sellers looking for some $5,000 just for the end user to take their Steam Deck from their reservation queue place. Interest in the Steam handheld has been so immense, in fact, that it seems that shipping of all versions - even the entry-level one with 64 GB of eMMC storage - has slipped to Q2 2022.

When the handheld was first announced back on the 16th of July, initial shipments were expected to be sent out by the end of this year. However, Valve has now updated its estimated availability, bringing about a few more months of waiting for anyone just entering the queue - and possible 2023 slippings for further reservations. The "after 2Q 2022" is as vague as it comes as well - these units could be shipped in the first day of the quarter or face a delay until the release of the Steam Deck 4 (since Valve will skip the number 3, of course). We'll have to see whether there are any delays for already-confirmed pre-orders, but for now, it seems that if you've locked in an earlier delivery date, your order hasn't been affected.

Valve has recently stated in a recent interview with IGN that they haven't encountered a single Steam game that could not run on the Steam Deck at their performance target. The performance target set by Valve is 30 FPS at the device's native resolution of 1,280 x 800 and according to Valve developers, this was achieved with new and old titles. The Steam Deck is powered by a custom AMD quad-core Zen2 SoC with RDNA2 graphics which is paired with 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory.

ValveAll the games we wanted to be playable, it's really the whole Steam library there. We haven't really found something that this device couldn't handle yet,

Valve's Steam Deck announcement took the gaming world by storm last week, as the announcement of a Valve-designed portable gaming console packing an AMD Zen 2 CPU with RDNA2 cores set collective imaginations on fire. However, as is the case for any recent gaming hardware launches, expect the Steam Deck to be hard to come by - demand for a mainstream portable, Switch-like console that promises to enable AAA-gaming on the go is apparently sky-high, despite the fact that some portable devices exploring the same concept have been available for a while now, such as the AYA Neo (which even packs two extra Zen 2 cores) and the Intel-based One XPlayer.

As is the case for any recent hardware launch that garners enough mainstream attention (looking at you, current-gen GPUs and consoles), a lopsided demand-supply ratio is a playground for unscrupulous types looking to make a profit at the expense of other people's impatience. And it sure is happening already - eBay listings for "pre-order confirmed" Steam Deck variants are already being set at €4,324 (roughly $4,989) - though we'd say they're tentatively set at that ludicrous pricing. It seems that the current median asking price sits around the $900 mark for the 512 GB SSD-equipped variant. Tentative or not, this just goes to show that the new normal is for launched products to be actively gauged for scalping practices - more now than ever before.

The upcoming Steam Deck device has recently been confirmed to feature a M.2 NVMe 2230 slot on all three models. This confirmation comes after Valve CEO Gabe Newell confirmed in various emails the presence of the slot and this information has since been updated on the Steam Deck website. The official device specifications now list all models as featuring socketed 2230 M.2 modules with a notice that they are not intended for end-user replacement. The base Steam Deck model features just 64 GB of eMMC flash so the availability of this upgrade option will be appealing to many users. The M.2 2230 form-factor is the smallest currently available measuring just 22 mm x 30 mm which does come with the disadvantage of less available products and higher prices compared to full size M.2 drives.

Valve announces Steam Deck, the first in a new category of handheld PC gaming devices starting at $399. Steam Deck is a powerful all-in-one portable PC. With a custom processor developed in cooperation with AMD, Steam Deck is comparable to a gaming laptop with the ability to run the latest AAA games. Your Steam library will be on Deck to play games wherever and whenever you want. Steam Deck is also an open PC, adding the ability to install any software or connect with any hardware.

"We think Steam Deck gives people another way to play the games they love on a high-performance device at a great price," says Valve founder Gabe Newell. "As a gamer, this is a product I've always wanted. And as a game developer, it's the mobile device I've always wanted for our partners." Steam Deck starts at $399, with increased storage options available for $529 and $649. Reservations open July 16th at 10 AM PDT; shipping is slated to start in December 2021.

We are thrilled to announce The International 10 - Dota 2 Championships will be held this October in Bucharest, Romania, and the epic battle for the Aegis of Champions will fittingly unfold inside the country's largest stadium—Arena Nationala. Group Stage will run October 7 - 10, with Main Stage play kicking off on October 12. Then on October 17, the two finest Dota 2 teams in the world will face off for the Aegis and their shares of the $40,018,195 prize pool that awaits. Additional information on ticket sales will come shortly.

We are grateful for the partnership we have formed with Romania and the city of Bucharest, and very much look forward to gathering with the global Dota 2 community, both in-person and virtually, to celebrate the elite players and amazing fandom at The International. Prepare yourselves. At long last, the battle begins.

Valve has released its Steam Hardware Survey results for the month of June, and as always, it is a pretty good indication of the gaming market and market trends, showing us just how well the companies providing hardware are doing. On the CPU front, there are two companies constantly fighting for market domination: Intel and AMD. A bit over a month ago, we reported that AMD made serious progress in taking the market share away from Intel, using its latest Ryzen 5000 series of processors. However, this time, the effect seems to be reversed by its competitor, Intel.

All the gains AMD has made in the past few months have been sort of "erased" by Intel, as team blue managed to get back to a point where AMD now holds 28.41% of the CPU market, while Intel is back to over 70% share, more specifically 71.58%. What this means is that there are some fluctuations happening right now, and we are eager to see more reports to analyze in what direction is the market moving and how the two competing companies are performing. AMD seems to be held back by their ability to produce enough CPUs, while Intel is happily filling that void, fueled by a more aggressive pricing strategy.

Valve, the company behind the Steam gaming platform, will be making an appearance at this year's E3 gaming event. The E3 is taking a form of a virtual trade event this year, which is standard for all of the previous events we had in the past, like Computex 2021. The special appearance this year will come from Valve. According to PC Gamer, Valve will have something to share, more specifically a "message regarding Steam". Usually, Valve doesn't make a lot of appearances at E3 and is not considered a regular there, so this year's E3 show will have the honor to host the company at the PC Gaming Show. This means that we are getting a possibly big announcement from Valve.

The current rumors are suggesting that the company wants to present the SteamPal, a Switch-like portable gaming console that aims to bring gaming on the go, powered by Valve. The exact details of what is to be presented will be unveiled on Sunday, June 13 at 2:30 PM PST / 5:30 PM EST and we will be sure to report about the happenings at E3, so stay tuned for more details.

Today, Valve has updated its Steam Hardware Survey with the latest information about the market share of different processors. Steam Hardware Survey is a very good indicator of market movements, as it surveys users that are spread across millions of gaming systems that use Valve's Steam gaming platform. As Valve processes information, it reports it back to the public in a form of market share of different processors. Today, in the Steam Hardware Survey for May 2021, we got some interesting data to look at. Most notably, AMD has gained 0.65% CPU market share, increasing it from the previous 29.48% to 30.13%. This represents a major move for the company, which didn't own more than 30% market share with its CPUs on Steam Survey in years.

As the Steam Survey tracks even the market share of graphics cards, we got to see a slight change there as well. As far as GPUs go, AMD now holds 16.2% of the market share, which is a decrease from the previous 16.3%. For more details about Steam Hardware Survey for May 2021, please check out Steam's website here.

We have recently seen an influx of rumors about an upcoming "SteamPal" portable gaming computer under development by Valve. The first indication that this new device is real was a recently uncovered "SteamPal" device name referenced under the unreleased "Neptune" controller in the latest Steam Client Beta. This SteamPal device name reportedly refers to an upcoming portable gaming computer with a similar controller design to the Nintendo Switch albeit unremovable featuring a standard set of gamepad buttons and triggers, dual joysticks, at least one thumb-sized touchpad, and a 7"-8" touchscreen display. The SteamPal is still in the prototype stage so final hardware configurations are not confirmed and are subject to change.

There is good reason to believe these rumors are true after a recent cryptic comment from Gabe Newell about bringing Valve games to consoles with him stating that we will have a "better idea by the end of this year" which is in line with rumors stating that Valve is targeting a Q4 2021 announcement for the SteamPal. The device will reportedly feature a quad-core Van Gogh APU from AMD with 8 RDNA2 compute units which would allow gamers to run their entire Steam library on the portable device. Valve is reportedly targeting a 399 USD price for the device however as with all these rumors take it with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Valve's head, Gabe Newell, has on Monday talked to the students at Auckland, New Zealand's Sancta Maria College. While Mr. Newell spoke to students, one of them has asked Mr. Newell about the company's plans for consoles and has recorded the response. The student then proceeded to upload the recording to Reddit, but, it was later deleted. However, we are in luck as Ars Technica reported on this and we have managed to get a bit of new information about what's coming from Valve and what we can expect. During the talk, a student asked Mr. Newell: "Will Steam be porting any games on consoles, or will it just stay on PC?"

To that, Mr. Newell responded by saying: "You will get a better idea of that by the end of this year... and it won't be the answer you expect. You'll say, 'Ah-ha! Now I get what he was talking about.'" This is a rather vague answer to a question and it doesn't give us much information, other than the fact that we can expect something towards the end of 2021. This could mean anything, so we are not sure yet. However, we will keep an eye on it and make sure to report every new information as it appears.

HTC VIVE, the global leader in premium virtual reality (VR), today set a new benchmark for business and consumer VR, bringing 5K resolution and a 120-degree field of view as standard to the two new VR headsets announced today at VIVECON 2021, HTC's global VR conference. VIVE Pro 2 pushes the boundaries of PC VR for incredible gaming, creating, and experiences, while VIVE Focus 3 redefines business VR with a purpose-built All-in-One with no compromises. HTC also announced VIVE Business, its comprehensive range of tools designed to support businesses of any size to get the most out of VR.

"Today's launch marks a major milestone in our strategy to create the very best immersive experiences. We have listened to our customers, from well-known global companies to smaller firms and professional users, and have designed these premium headsets from the ground up to meet the challenges they face, adding a professional range of software, platform and services to make implementation as smooth and effective as possible," said Cher Wang, HTC Chairwoman and CEO. "In line with our mission, we've combined the very latest technology with the needs and aspirations of our customers, enabling them to unleash their imagination to improve people's lives and solve problems for business and society."

A new fan-made mod for Valve's classic (I think we can say classic) Portal 2 has been made available on Steam, bringing a plethora of new content to the fine wine puzzle game. The mod, named Portal Reloaded and available on Steam for anyone who already owns a copy of the original game, adds a grand total of 25 new test chambers to out-think and out-puzzle, alongside a brand new mode for the Portal Gun - a Time Travel one. This Time Travel portal joins the classic blue and orange ones, and gives players the ability to jump 20 years into the future so as to be able to wreck havoc with the time continuum all in hopes of solving just... one... more... test chamber.

The mod includes 100 new voice lines and an original soundtrack, and should bring veterans or newcomers to the Portal series a new reason to stay awake until dawn breaks. Be careful when bringing cakes from the future, however - we all know what happens to people who want their cake and eat it too. Check some of the trailers explaining the new mechanics after the break.

Steam Link is a program developed by Valve which allows gamers to remotely play games from their main computer on other devices. The program originally launched for Android before expanding to iOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi, tvOS, and now macOS. The Steam Link application relies on Steam Remote Play technology which performs real-time H.264 video streaming over a low-latency protocol to the connected device, resolutions of up to 4K 60 FPS are possible if enough bandwidth is available. The Steam Link app is now available to download through the official Mac App Store and comes in at just 30 MB. Steam Link for Mac requires macOS 10.13 or higher along with a PC to host the games running on the same local network.

Apple and Epic Games have had quite a turbulent history of legal issues in the past year. Fortnite, the world's biggest battle royale game, got removed from the Apple store because its developer, Epic Games, had refused to comply to store rules. If a developer is listing a game on the Apple store, all in-game payments must be processed through Apple, with the company taking a 30% tax cut for it. Epic Games didn't like that idea too much, so the company just used an external system that gave players the option to pay for in-game goods using different ways. However, that represented non-compliance to Apple store guidelines, and Apple took the Fortnite game down.


Update February 26th 07:50 UTC: In thecourt hearing on Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson ordered that Apple's subpoena was considered valid. Valve's lawyers urged the judge to not force the company to produce the requested data, however, Apple's lawyers have said that the request is doable and the company is only requesting data on a few hundred games, and it could have been worse by requesting data on over 30000 games instead.

Valve has recently been ordered to pay 4 million USD in damages after they knowingly infringed on patents owned by Ironburg Inventions with the Steam Controller rear grip button design. Ironburg Inventions is the IP-holding arm of controller manufacturer SCUF who was acquired by Corsair in late 2019. Valve was warned by Ironburg Inventions in 2014 that their Steam Controller infringed on their patent relating to rear-side control surfaces. Valve ignored the warning and went on to produce 1.6 million units before discontinuing the device in 2019. The Jury awarded Ironburg Inventions 4 million USD in damages and found that Valve willfully infringed on Ironberg's patents which opens them up to further litigation. Corsair has published a statement on the case which can be found below.

Gabe Newell who is currently residing in New Zealand has recently confirmed in a new interview that his company Valve "definitely has games in development that they're going to be announcing". With the positive release of Half-Life: Alyx the company plans to create further single-player games and Gabe noted that there is a lot of momentum within Valve to do so.

Gabe Newell has been living with his family in New Zealand since early 2020 when they decided to stay in the country after a holiday due to the countries successful management of COVID-19. He has now been granted New Zealand residency in principle and is actively considering transferring Valve operations and major events to the country. This includes hosting the companies DOTA 2 and CS:GO annual esports tournaments which had to be canceled in 2020 and "strong interest" from employees for relocation.

The European Commission has issued a fine to Valve and five game publishers (Bandai Namco, Focus Home Interactive, Capcom, Koch Media, and ZeniMax after an antitrust probe decided the companies violated EU antitrust laws. The Commission investigated regional pricing and geo-blocking practices that were put in place by valve and the hitherto fined publishers, and says that these rule-breaking pricing manipulations resulted from bilateral agreements between game publishers and Valve between 2010 and 2015, as well as from purpose-built licensing and distribution licenses between four out of five fined publishers between 2007 and 2018.

The European Commission found these practices to relieve "European consumers of the benefits of the EU Digital Single Market and of the opportunity to shop around for the most suitable offer in the EU". In particular, the offendants sold video game licenses relative to some 100 different titles at lower pricing in certain Eastern Europe countries, and which could not be activated in Western Europe. The fine's total amount of €7.8 million is shared between Valve (€1,624,000); Bandai Namco (10% fine reduction for cooperation, €340,000); Capcom (15% fine reduction for cooperation, €396,000); Focus Home Interactive (10% fine reduction for cooperation, €2,888,000); Koch Media (10% fine reduction for cooperation, €977,000), and ZeniMax (10% fine reduction for cooperation, €1,664,000). Valve didn't receive any fine reduction because the company elected not to cooperate with the Commission.

Valve has recently updated it's Steam Community Hub policies to prohibit the mentioning of non-Steam versions of games, this likely comes as competition increases in the largely stagnant PC gaming market from the likes of the Epic Games Store, and Xbox Game Pass for PC. This will mean that the Steam Community Hub will no longer include mentions to releases on other platforms. These new rules apply to both releases and DLC effectively stopping the promotion of other platforms on Steam.

SteamIn the game you ship via Steam, and in communications on Steam, you may only promote the Steam version and its availability via Steam, and not other distribution outlets. This applies both to full versions of your game and to content patches that change the existing version.

EA has recently decided to break away from the exclusivity of its games on Origin game launches and started to offer some games on Valve's Steam gaming platform. The move has turned out to be quite substantial for EA and Valve just reported some big news. Out of the top 20 best-selling games on Steam for the month of July, EA games accounted for eight of them. This rather massive share is all thanks to the new markets EA opened themselves to. Without a doubt, Steam is still the world's biggest gaming platform, so it was a smart move to expand the availability of games to it. The financial gains follow as well. EA saw a massive 74% surge in PC revenue it is a quarterly report, all thanks to expansion to Steam.

The Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition- the largest yet- is on now, featuring hundreds of free demos from games set to be released in the coming year.
From now until June 22 at 10am PDT, the Steam Game Festival showcases the newest games across every genre from developers in 65 countries. Fans have a chance to try out new projects from first-time devs and veteran developers alike, including the opportunity to be among the first to demo some of the most highly anticipated games of the coming year.

This is the third Steam Game Festival, and the largest yet. What began as a collaboration with Geoff Keighley and the Game Awards featuring a dozen titles soon branched off as a Valve-run event, with over 40 demos featured this spring- and now over 900 titles in the summer edition.

Today, HP Inc. unveiled its latest virtual reality (VR) headset, the HP Reverb G2, in collaboration with industry leaders Valve and Microsoft. The HP Reverb G2 is the world's highest resolution VR headset among major vendorsi, delivering cutting-edge optics, inside-out tracking, spatial 3D audio, natural gestures, long-wearing comfort, and plug and play support for Windows Mixed Reality and SteamVR.

"The power of collaboration is on full display with the HP Reverb G2, and alongside Valve and Microsoft, we engineered a no-compromises VR headset that's immersive, comfortable, and compatible across Windows Mixed Reality and SteamVR," said Spike Huang, vice president and global lead of VR, HP Inc. "The time is now for VR and the HP Reverb G2 brings high-quality VR to the masses with more immersion for gamers, interactive experiences for creators, increased engagement for collaboration, and higher retention rates for education and training."

Valve introduced "Play Next" as an experimental feature as part of Steam Labs earlier this year for testing. The feature previously known as "Experiment 008: Play Next" uses machine learning algorithms to provide suggestions to gamers with extensive libraries on what unplayed or very low playtime game in their library they should try next. This technology is also used in Valve's Interactive Recommender and works by identifying comparable games on Steam. The feature is now live for all users in the latest Steam client update and can be found under the Play Next shelf in library view.

SteamDB developer Pavel Djundik has uncovered evidence of a Steam loyalty scheme in some recent code strings. The developer detailed how the scheme may consist of a points system where users can redeem points for badge levels and possibly game discounts. This discovery comes just as the dates for the next Steam sale were leaked to be the 25th June - 9th July so this new loyalty scheme may launch alongside the sale and replace previous sale schemes.

Djundik has also discovered potential changes to the Steam review system with the introduction of user reactions. These reactions include deep thoughts, heartwarming, hilarious, hot take, poetry, and helpful. Djundik has an excellent track record for leaks regarding Steam just last week predicting the announcement of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, so it will be interesting to see if this new loyalty scheme gets released.