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Valve Corporation, the company behind the Steam PC distribution platform, has been found guilty of breaching Australian Consumer Law due to Steam’s lack of a refund policy, as ruled by the Australian Federal Court and reported by Kotaku Australia. Steam did not have its current refund policy in place when proceedings commenced in 2014, involving allegations that Valve was in direct breach of Australian law which states: "It is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law for businesses to state that they do not give refunds under any circumstances, including for gifts and during sales." Today, the Australian Federal Court ruled that Valve had made "false or misleading representations in the terms and conditions contained in three versions of its Steam Subscriber Agreement and two versions of its Steam Refund Policy". These include: Consumers were not entitled to a refund for digitally downloaded games purchased from Valve via the Steam website or Steam Client (in any circumstances); Valve had excluded statutory guarantees and/or warranties that goods would be of acceptable quality; and Valve had restricted or modified statutory guarantees and/or warranties of acceptable quality. Although Valve sells games to Australian consumers through Steam, it does not have a physical presence in the country, which was a major cause of contention. Kotaku Australia reports that Valve stated that it did not officially trade in Australia, but only provided online access to video games through a client, which they felt did not fall into the definition of 'goods' as it is defined in Australian Consumer Law. Valve also stated that its Steam Subscriber Agreement is based in the law of the State of Washington, USA, and not that of Australia. Today, Justice Edelman ruled that Valve was indeed conducting business in Australia, due to the three aforementioned representations in the Subscriber Agreement, which involve conduct in Australia. In a press release, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman Rod Sims stated that: "The Federal Court’s decision reinforces that foreign based businesses selling goods and/or services to Australian consumers can be subject to Australian Consumer Law obligations, including the consumer guarantees." "This is also the first time Courts have applied the extended definition of 'goods' to include "computer software" in the ACL. It will provide greater certainty where digital goods are supplied to consumers through online platforms.” "Consumer issues in the online marketplace are a priority for the ACCC and we will continue to take appropriate enforcement action to hold businesses accountable for breaches of the ACL." Kotaku reports that a hearing on relief is currently scheduled for April 15, but there is no set amount for liability. Source http://www.gamespot.com/articles/valve-found-guilty-of-breaking-australian-law-with/1100-6436074/ -
On the surface, the 2015 Steam Winter Sale seems fairly mundane as these things go: Good deals, cute comic, but nothing we haven't seen before. But maybe—just maybe—there's more to it than meets the eye. The Steam Sale Detectives on Reddit have discovered a rabbit hole, and at this point there's no telling how deep it goes. The “rabbit hole” is actually a hidden password prompt that can be reached by going to any Steam store page and typing “search” (without the quotes) and pressing enter. The prompt is apparently handled by this bit of “nothing to see here” javascript, which includes a link to store.steampowered.com/actions/clues. Entering the correct password will presumably lead to a different page, but there's no hint as to what it might be. Or is there? Of course there is! The first page of the Northpole Noir comic originally featured a barcode, which closely—but not perfectly—matched the barcode tattooed on Agent 47 of Hitman fame. Entering that code on the Steam store page for Hitman: Codename 47 results in another code, and that, appended to the Winter Comic URL, leads to an audio file: "I was on the right track. I could feel it. Tomorrow, I was going to search again." That's not all: The “incorrect” Hitman bar code replaces three numbers—6, 0, and 4—with three 9s, which also happen to figure prominently and in a similar sequence in a string of text hidden in the Northpole Noir “Sending a Message” trading card: 794E2CEA991. There are other potential clues as well, like the “nesse” printed very faintly in the bottom-left of the first page of the Northpole Noir comic, which just happens to be under the part of the cover that was torn away. Some or all of them may be red herrings, but one thing's for sure: There's a mystery here, and we need to solve it. Source http://www.pcgamer.com/something-strange-is-afoot-in-the-steam-winter-sale/
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Valve's PC digital gaming platform Steam has reached a new concurrent user milestone. According to Steam's "Stats" page, 10,761,566 people were logged in at the same time on October 18. That represents a new all-time high, surpassing 10 million in June, which was up from 9.5 million in May. Steam is one of the most prominent platforms in all of PC gaming. By Valve's latest count, it had more than 125 million registered users and 6,000-plus games. The top five Steam games right now, based on current player count, are Dota 2 (free), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2 (free), Ark: Survival Evolved, and Grand Theft Auto V. In other recent Steam news, Valve has said it has no plans to bring advertisement to the platform. "It would be a bad business decision, let alone just dumb," Valve's Erik Johnson said. Looking ahead, Valve hardware--including the Steam Controller, Steam Link, and Steam Machines--go on sale in November. Source http://www.gamespot.com/
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Valve's "Get It Early" scheme offered advance access to the company's forthcoming range of hardware to those willing to throw down cash before anyone else. But "only while supplies last," Valve warned earlier this month, when it announced that 35 percent of the stock had already been sold. And now it seems that the remaining 65 percent is gone too. Head over to their respective store pages and you'll notice that the Controller and Link now list an availability date of November 10, rather than October 16, which is when "get it early" preorders will start shipping. You can still put down your money on them, but you'll have to wait in line with the rest of us before you'll get your hands on the gear. Interestingly, as Ars Technica noticed, while the Alienware Steam Machine also lists November 10 as the date of availability, the Syber models have a shipping date of "on or after Oct. 15." That date comes from Syber's own website, however, and not Steam, and it's vague enough to mean just about anything. The remaining Steam Machines carry a less-precise availability date of "November 2015." Valve still hasn't said how many of these devices it has actually sold so far, meaning we have no idea if 500 Steam Controllers have been preordered, for instance, or 5000, or 50,000. It's not unreasonable to assume the kit is selling briskly, but without solid numbers it's impossible to get an accurate picture as to just how popular it really is. The one thing we can say for sure right now is that if you wanted to be early, you're too late. Source http://www.pcgamer.com/
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Valve has announced a major update coming to Dota 2 called Dota 2 Reborn, which is moving the lane-pusher to a new engine (the long-awaited Source 2?) with support for custom matches. Here’s the description, straight from Valve’s blog: "Today we are announcing the Dota 2 Reborn Beta, which brings with it a new interface, new engine and Custom Games. Everything in the dashboard has been completely redesigned utilizing a new UI framework, and the engine that powers the game has been fully replaced. On today’s update page we will be giving you a preview of the new interface. Early next week we’ll be talking about Custom Games, and later that week we’ll conclude with various details about the new engine and launch the open beta. Throughout the beta we’ll be releasing frequent updates in order to fix bugs and make changes based on the feedback you provide. As you browse around in the new client, you’ll notice a few things that aren’t fully functional yet. Additionally, our focus has been on the dashboard so you’ll find the in-game HUD currently looks the same." Among the coming changes detailed in this first announcement: players will more easily be able to find friends to play with thanks to a ‘one click’ invite and a 'party beacon' to broadcast their availability, as well as a feature that allows two existing teams to merge with one another. Valve also promises a new chat interface and chat rooms that will support up to 5,000 people. They’ve also redesigned DotaTV to present more options for watching streamed matches, both live tournaments and games your friends are playing. Finally, they’re adding new tutorials and bot matches in an effort to help new players learn the game. Details on custom games will be posted early next week, and later in the week we’ll see more on the new engine along with the launch of the open beta. Dota 2 Reborn will leave beta “some time after The International.” Source http://www.pcgamer.com/
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After nearly two years of waiting, Valve has finally lifted the curtain on the final version of the Steam Controller. With one-to-one positioning, the controller can "virtualize familiar controls, like a trackball, a mouse, or a scroll wheel," providing a degree of precision that controllers generally aren't known for, according to Valve. The triggers are dual-stage, with a digital switch at the end of an analog pull, and there are also grip buttons, so your ring and pinkie fingers can get in on the fun too. Typing with the controller in Steam Big Picture has been made less of a hassle, says Valve, and control setups can be customized on a per-game basis. We tried the new version at GDC 2015 and it certainly felt like an improvement over the prototype Evan tried last year. Some controllers will ship early in October, and it sounds like the rest will start going out sometime in November or December. "A limited quantity of orders will be shipped October 16th, weeks in advance of our official launch," Valve wrote. "Pre-order now and be among Steam Hardware’s first wave of users." You can get a closer look at the Steam Controller on its store page, where pre-purchases are available for $50/£40 in the US and UK. They don't seem to be available for purchase through Steam in Canada or Australia yet. The Steam Link, a device for streaming games from your PC to your TV over your home network, is also on sale for the same price. Source http://www.pcgamer.com/
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Sniper Elite 2 is free on Steam for 24 hours. Once you download it for free, you can keep it forever. http://store.steampowered.com/app/63380/ BTW, the size of the game is 6GB.
