Valve

Is the world ready for yet another digital card game? Is it ready for one that is both closer to physical card games but also so different from them? But more importantly, are players ready to pay $20 for a game and more for additional cards? Those are the questions that are bound to be raised with Valve’s launch of Artifact, its first major non-VR game since Dota 2. Naturally, Valve’s answer to that is a resounding “yes!” but the jury will take a few days before it can make a verdict.

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By the time you read this, Steam Link may already be dead. This week Valve announced they'd soon no longer have physical hardware units for their Steam Link system available for sale. This was true of both stock in the UK and in the USA, and final stock will likely leave the official Steam store soon. For those users that already have a Steam Link, there's good news. For those that are just hearing about Steam Link now - you're not alone! Also, there are alternatives for what's basically the exact same service.

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Valve is arguably great at software, both its own games as well as its game publishing and distribution platform. It seems to have worse luck, however, when it comes to making and selling its own hardware. Steam Machines, both its own as well as its partners, have long been considered a failure now the other parts of its ecosystem are also falling to pieces. The latest to join that Valve hardware graveyard is the Steam Link box, which, admittedly, may have been way ahead of its time.

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Valve may now be best known for the Steam platform but it also has a few original titles under its belt. One of the earliest, which gave birth to not a few sequels, spinoffs, and remotely related games (like Portal), is Half-Life which is celebrating its 20th birthday. And what better way to celebrate a 20-year legacy than by “remaking” one of the games most unpopular and final levels. And who better to breathe new life into Xen than the dedicated people who made the Black Mesa remake a reality as well.

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The HTC VIVE Wireless Adapter is a bit of technology that changes the overall feeling of reality in a room-scale VR experience. This is an add-on to the original HTC VIVE and the HTC VIVE Pro. This adapter isn't required to enter virtual reality, but it'll make the process a lot less painful if you're not particularly sure-footed. Less painful, that is, if you didn't have a rough time setting up the VIVE in the first place.

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Valve, best known for the Steam game distribution platform and Half-Life titles, has a rather unusual approach when it comes to hardware. At times it partners with hardware manufacturers and at times it makes its own. It has adopted the former strategy when it came to promoting its SteamVR virtual reality technology via HTC’s Vive platform. Soon, however, it might be switching gears and will be selling its a VR headset and controller pair under its own name, at least based on the latest photos to leak out to the press.

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There were whispers about it just last week but now it’s totally official. Steam Play, which was originally intended as a single-purchase system for buying games that run on Windows, Mac, and Linux, is taking cross-platform compatibility to the next level. Yes, Valve is now testing running Windows games on Steam on Linux. And, much to the satisfaction of Linux and open source advocates, it’s doing it the right way by building on and supporting initiatives that will benefit not just Steam but the entire Linux ecosystem as well.

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On Friday the world got an early peek at a Twitch-like live streaming platform from Valve. The site Steam.tv went live for a brief period of time, showcasing a stream from Valve's own annual Dota 2 tournament, The International 2018. Shortly after, the site was pulled and left with a blank page, although Valve has confirmed that the platform is real and was only made public by accident.

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Valve took quite a risk with its Steam Machines which, for the most part, are meant to run the Linux-based SteamOS. While highly praised by Linux gamers, the dearth of notable titles on the platform was almost like a death sentence to the PC-turned-console product. Valve, however, refused to throw in the towel and assured believers that it is still working on improving the situation. It turns out that its solution might involve finding a way to run Windows games on Linux Steam Machines.

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Valve is perhaps best known for the Steam PC gaming platform but for those old enough to remember, the company has also been making games. As if going back to its roots, Valve announced last year that it was making a new game, one that built on its existing franchise but something it has never tried before: a trading card game. That is Artifact and Valve’s first new game in five years will head to PCs in November and eventually to mobile as well.

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Today the Steam Chat system went live for the whole entire world, all at once. This system wasn't necessarily built specifically to destroy any other system for chat - like Discord, for example - but it might well put a dent in their usership. For Steam games anyway. This system was in play in Beta mode for quite a while and just went fully live just today.

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The current big challenge for virtual reality technology is to work in large rooms. The next dream for the future, however, is likely to be multi-room experiences, where users can wander between rooms or other connected spaces without issue. This is probably still a couple of years away, but HTC has shown off a small example of how it could work, with a demonstration featuring a Vive Pro, multiple base stations, and a beta of SteamVR 2.0.

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