Back in November of last year, Valve’s Gabe Newell sent out a notice to Steam users that the Steam database had been breached, and that some user data had possibly been taken. Details on what exactly happened were slim, but now we know a little more.

Newell once again sent out an email today to update Steam users on the situation, and in the email he said that company confirmed that some personal data was compromised in the breach, including usernames, email addresses, and possibly even encrypted billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. However, Newell said that hackers didn’t take information directly from the database, but rather a backup file containing Steam transaction information–this means that your Steam passwords appear to be safe.

Fortunately, Newell went on to say that, as of now, there has been no evidence to suggest that hackers were able to gain access to the encrypted billing addresses and passwords. Still, he suggests that you keep a close eye on your credit card statements just to be on the safe side.

Below is the letter from Gabe Newell in full.

Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users

We continue our investigation of last year’s intrusion with the help of outside security experts. In my last note about this, I described how intruders had accessed our Steam database but we found no evidence that the intruders took information from that database. That is still the case.

Recently we learned that it is probable that the intruders obtained a copy of a backup file with information about Steam transactions between 2004 and 2008. This backup file contained user names, email addresses, encrypted billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. It did not include Steam passwords.

We do not have any evidence that the encrypted credit card numbers or billing addresses have been compromised. However as I said in November it’s a good idea to watch your credit card activity and statements. And of course keeping Steam Guard on is a good idea as well.

We are still investigating and working with law enforcement authorities. Some state laws require a more formal notice of this incident so some of you will get that notice, but we wanted to update everyone with this new information now.

Gabe

Gabe Newell updates users on Steam hack situation is a post from: The Inquisitr

After a couple months of waiting, modders can now finally get their hands on Skyrim‘s Creation Kit and get to work on making all sorts of mods.

Bethesda released the modding tools earlier today, as promised, and they also threw in a little surprise to go along with it: a high resolution texture pack. The download for the hi-res texture pack is a pretty large one, but those with capable PCs will definitely want to give it a download, as just about all of the game’s textures are noticeably improved over vanilla Skyrim.

Before you download the hi-res texture pack, you may want to make sure that your PC is up to par or else you may notice a significant performance hit. Bethesda says:

“Make sure your system requirements exceed Skyrim’s recommended specs before attempting to install, including Windows Vista or 7 operating system, a minimum of 4GB of system RAM, and a DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with at least 1 GB of RAM and the latest drivers.”

If you’d like to download the Skyrim Creation Kit, you can do so by going to your Steam library and selecting “Tools” from the dropdown. From there, simply install the Creation Kit, and you’re good to go. For the Skyrim high resolution texture pack, you can download that by heading over to Skyrim‘s DLC page.

Skyrim Creation Kit, High Resolution Texture Pack available now is a post from: The Inquisitr

Skyrim patch 1.4 was recently released on Steam, and with it came support for Steam Workshop–but the tool that would make use of the Steam Workshop, the Creation Kit modding utility, wasn’t released along with it.

According to Bethesda’s Pete Hines, that is set to change next week. After several months of waiting, Hines said in a tweet that the Creation Kit is on track to release on Steam next Tuesday, February 7.

Hines also teased a surprise to go along with the Creation Kit. He said: “For our Skyrim PC fans, the Creation Kit is on track for release on Tuesday. And, we also have a special surprise with it. #whatcoulditbe!?”

To give you an idea of what you can expect to be able to do with Skyrim‘s Creation Kit when it launches next week, Bethesda recently released a video that runs you through the program’s basics, and how the Steam Workshop integration will work.

For more information on that, check out the Skyrim Creation Kit developer diary below.

Skyrim Creation Kit coming next week, Bethesda says is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a FAQ posted over on the official Alan Wake website, Remedy dropped a few details on the PC version of Alan Wake by way of a FAQ, confirming that the port will see a release on Steam next month.

In the FAQ, Remedy confirmed that Alan Wake PC will not be using Games for Windows Live, with the company “fully supporting the Steam platform”.  In other words, you can expect to have Steamworks features including cloud saves and Steam achievements.

Details on pricing, bundles, and an exact release date weren’t shared in the FAQ, but Remedy did say that gamers can expect more news on that as we near closer to Alan Wake‘s February release window. They did, however, confirm that both The Signal and The Writer DLCs will be included in all copies of the game at no extra charge.

Lastly, the developer also shared the minimum system requirements to run Alan Wake ideally, which you can find below. For even more information, you can head over to the FAQ.

OS: Windows Vista or Windows 7 (see below for Windows XP)
PROCESSOR:A dual core processor is required:

• AMD: Athlon X2 2.8GHz
• Intel: Core 2 Duo 2GHz

MEMORY: 2 GB
HARD DRIVE: 8 GB
VIDEO CARD:DirectX 10 compatible or later with 512MB RAM

• AMD: ATI Radeon 3650, 4450, 5550, 6450 or higher (per series)
• NVIDIA: GeForce 8600GT, 9500GT, GT120, GT430, GT520 (per series)

SOUND CARD: DirectX 9.0c compatible
INPUT: Mouse and keyboard, Xbox360 controller also supported

Alan Wake coming to PC in February is a post from: The Inquisitr

Like a lot of other folks I am waiting for the release of one of this year’s most anticipated games – Mass Effect 3; but if Electronic Arts, the game’s publisher, goes ahead with their rumored distribution plans they are going to have a lot of anger consumers on their hands, myself included.

According to an EA employee post on the Bioware SocialNetwork the company will require that both the digital and physical media for the game will have to have contact with EA’s Origin distribution platform in order to be played. On top of that there will be no distribution of the game via Valve’s Steam platform. That fact alone could have some serious repercussions when it comes to sales of the game.

From the EA employee post:

Is Origin required for the retail versions of the game?
Origin is required for the PC versions of Mass Effect 3, both physical and digital.

Will ME3 be available on Steam?
During initial release Mass Effect 3 will be available on Origin and a number of other 3rd party digital retailers, but not on Steam at this time. Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content.  We are intent on providing Mass Effect to players with the best possible experience no matter where they purchase or play their game, and are happy to partner with any download service that does not restrict our ability to connect directly with our consumers.

I know myself that if I can’t buy the game on Steam then I won’t be buying it even though it is one of my most wanted games for the year. Add in that the game will need to communicate with EA’s Origin platform in order to be playable and I would have to think twice about getting it even if it was available on Steam.

This is still fairly fresh news so I imagine that as the news spread so will the uproar and EA could have a real PR mess on their hands as more and more gamers take to the web to voice their disapproval over this move.

via Techie Buzz

Mass Effect 3 could be a PR disaster in the making for EA is a post from: The Inquisitr

I am a big fan of the Steam game buying, and playing, platform and have been a user for some time so it was nice to see this news coming out from the company that it had set a new record.

It seems that over the holiday’s Steam recorded the momentous number of 5 million concurrent users logged into the system at one time. Of course part of this surge could be attributed to their big holiday sale which apparently has left some users less than happy.

Now with over 35 million active users this marker was bound to happen sooner or later but with the added benefit of two top games: Skyrim and Call of Duty:MV3, being launched just before the holidays this record was almost guaranteed to happen sooner rather than later.

With Bioshock Infinite, Metro: Last Light, and Darksiders II pegged to launch in 2012 bets are that they will see this record beaten at some point but for now congratulations to the Steam team for reaching this goal and doing it with some equally great low number of hours of server downtime.

via PikiGeek

Steam hits a milestone: 5 Million simultaneous users is a post from: The Inquisitr

A good many critics were singing the praises of Supergiant Games’ digital treat, Bastion, when it launched back in July of this year, but how many people actually bought it? As it turns out, quite a lot.

Supergiant Games announced today that in the roughly five months since its release, Bastion has sold a respectable 500,000 copies. Considering that Bastion was the product of an indie developer and it only saw a digital release, I’d say that’s quite impressive.

“We’re happy to have this many people playing and to be in a position to make more games on our own terms,” said Bastion creative director Greg Kasavin. “When we set out to make Bastion, a sales number like that seemed astronomical to us, so it feels great to have hit that mark. It goes to show that a lot of folks out there like what we’re doing and want us to keep going, which is great, because we intend to stick together as a team and do just that.”

Bastion is easily one of the greatest digital titles of the year, if not the greatest, so it’s nice to see that it got – and hopefully will continue to get – the recognition from gamers that it deserves.

Source: Supergiant Games

Bastion hits the 500K sold milestone is a post from: The Inquisitr

Hopefully you’ve managed to save some cash from the onslaught of deals we’ve had over the past month, because Valve, as expected, kicked off their 2011 Steam Holiday sale today, and just about everything is discounted.

Now through January 1, Valve will roll out a new set of deals each day. The highlights of today’s round of deals includes Fable III for $12.49, Just Cause 2 for $4.99, Metro 2033 for $4.99, and Orcs Must Die for $3.74.

That’s not all of the deals to be had, however. You have the publisher pack deals, including the entire Id pack for $44.99 and the 2K Complete Pack for $74.99. There are also discounted items that aren’t on the featured list as well, so chances are you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for on the cheap.

Also, Valve kicked off a contest to coincide with the sale, with some very, very interesting prizes up for grabs; 1,000 winners will receive the Valve Complete Pack, 100 will get the top 5 items on their wishlist, 50 will get the top 10 items on their wishlist and, for the grand prize, one incredibly lucky person will receive every single game available on Steam. For free.

In order to enter, you have to participate in day-to-day activities. For every piece of “coal” you earn in your Steam inventory, which is rewarded by completing various activities, you’ll get an entry into the drawing. For more details on how that works, see this page.

Valve kicks off 2011 Steam Holiday sale is a post from: The Inquisitr

Supergiant Games announced today that new DLC, titled “Stranger’s Dream”, is on the way for Bastion next week on both PC and Xbox 360.

Those who downloaded Bastion on Steam for free automatically when the DLC is made available on December 14. Xbox Live players will have to pay for it, but not much – all you have to do is download a Title Update and purchase the content on the Marketplace for a measly $1.

The DLC will add in a new “fully narrated Who Knows Were sequence, bigger and more challenging than the others. You’ll gain a bit more insight into Rucks’ backstory as well as the history of Caelondia if you can survive this fight.”

You’ll also get a new Score Attack Mode that starts you off at level one with all Spirits and Idols. You’ll be graded on your combat performance, and you’ll also have the option of repeating an area to boost your score.

Lastly, the DLC will add in a “No Sweat Mode” for, well, people who suck at the game, to put it honestly. You’ll be able to experience the Bastion story without having to worry about losing any progress when you’re beaten down by Bastion‘s enemies.

In related Bastion news, Supergiant Games just launched the game on the Google Chrome meaning, if you were so inclined, you could play it straight from your Chrome browser right now. The game costs $14.99 on Chrome and will also be getting the Stranger’s Dream DLC when it releases next week and, like the PC version, it will also be free on Chrome.

Bastion getting ‘Stranger’s Dream’ DLC next week is a post from: The Inquisitr

Bethesda rolled out Skyrim patch 1.3 on PC today, and with the patch we get fixes for the two little bugs Bethesda (mistakenly) added in to the previous patch, as well as various other bug fixes.

A console version of patch 1.3 is in the works as well, but Bethesda says they don’t have a timeline just yet for when that will be made available.

Here are the full patch notes, straight from Bethesda:

Update 1.3 Notes (all platforms unless specified)

• General stability improvements
• Optimize performance for Core 2 Duo CPUs (PC)
• Fixed Radiant Story incorrectly filling certain roles
• Fixed magic resistances not calculating properly
• Fixed issue with placing books on bookshelves inside player purchased homes
• Fixed dragon animation issues with saving and loading
• Fixed Y-look input to scale correctly with framerate

In related good news, Bethesda says they will be rolling out support for “4-Gigabyte Tuning” (Large Address Aware) next week, which should solve the issue that crashes the game when it runs out of memory which, as you’ll have noticed if you have any mods installed, is quite easy to do.

We’ll let you know when Skyrim patch 1.3 is headed to consoles.

Skyrim patch 1.3 out now on PC is a post from: The Inquisitr

What with the recent Steam sale and the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals over the past week, chances are you’ve already picked up a game or two that was on your Steam wishlist. Thanks to a promotion Valve kicked off today, you may get the chance to get even more – and for free.

Every day for the next several weeks, starting today, 10 lucky winners will be able to their top 10 games from their wishlist. In order to be entered in, log into your Steam account, make sure you have 10 items in your wishlist, head over to the daily deal each day and you’ll automatically be entered to win.

Today’s entry in the giveaway is indie title Terraria, which had its price slashed down by 75%, making it $2.50. You don’t have to actually buy the game to be entered in to win, however – all you need to do is visit the game’s page on the Steam Store.

Valve didn’t say exactly how long the promotion is expected to last, but we presume it will at least last until Valve kicks off the holiday sale later this month.

Source: Steam

Steam kicks off Daily Wishlist Giveaway is a post from: The Inquisitr

Batman: Arkham City has been out for a couple of days now on the PC in the US, and in that time users have been noticing some significant performance issues when running the game in DirectX 11 mode, regardless of how beefy their computer may be.

Fortunately, it looks like Warner Bros. Interactive and Rocksteady Studios are aware of the issue, and a patch is in the works. The studio didn’t provide a timeline for when we can expect the patch, only that it would release “in the near future”.

In the meantime, Warner Bros advises PC gamers to set the game to run in DirectX 9 mode rather than DirectX 11, at least if you don’t want any jarring frame drops to hit you out of the blue. If you have no idea how to do that, the publisher was kind enough to provide instructions on how to make the change on the Arkham City forums. You can find the instructions below.

Games for Windows LIVE:
Start > All Programs > Games > Right click on Batman: Arkham City and select Launcher > Settings
1. Open the Start Menu
2. Select All Programs and then the Games folder
3. Right click on Batman: Arkham City and select Launcher
4. Choose Settings then click on the arrow next to DX options to change

Steam:
Launch Steam Client > Library > Right click on Batman: Arkham City > Configure PC Options
1. Open Steam
2. Select Library
3. Right click on Batman: Arkham City and select Configure PC Options
4. Choose Settings then click on the arrow next to DX options to change

Batman: Arkham City experiencing issues with DirectX 11 on PC, fix inbound is a post from: The Inquisitr

Developer Frozenbyte announced today that Trine 2, the sequel to 2009′s puzzle platformer, will be getting cross-platform play – but there’s a bit of a catch.

Trine 2 is set to release on just about every digital distribution service out there, but cross-platform play will only work on the Steamworks versions, and it will only work between PCs and Macs. In other words, no cross-platform play between Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

“The cross-platform multiplayer between Windows and Mac makes it easier to find people to play with, allowing everyone to enjoy the full co-op potential of the beta and the upcoming game,” said Lauri Hyvärinen, CEO of Frozenbyte.

If you’ve pre-ordered a copy of Trine 2, you can get access to a beta version of the game right now on both PC and Mac. The beta includes the cross-platform co-op functionality, so you’ll get the opportunity to give that a test run before the game comes out as well.

Trine 2 is priced at $14.99 and is expected out on Mac, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 “later this year”. A DRM-free PC version will be released at some point in early 2012.

Trine 2 will feature cross-platform co-op between PC and Mac is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’re the type of person who can’t help but buy everything Valve puts on sale on Steam, you’re probably going to want to hide your wallet / credit card / PayPal account for about a week. Yep, it’s that time again.

Valve kicked off the ‘Autumn Sale’ over on Steam today with quite a few impressive deals, and there’s plenty more where that came from; each day up until November 27, Valve will be rotating in new deals.

Today’s round of deals include Portal 2 for $10.19, Mass Effect 2 for $4.99, Duke Nukem Forever for $6.79, Test Drive Unlimited 2, and Orcs Must Die for $3.74, just to name a few. Many more titles are being offered up for a discount beyond what’s in the featured list, so you’re sure to be able to find something you like that’s on sale.

Even if you can’t, there’s always tomorrow’s round.

To see what all is on sale for today, head over to the Steam Store or boot up your Steam client.

Valve kicks off Steam’s ‘Autumn Sale’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

Gamers eager to give Counter-Strike: Global Offensive a test drive were disappointed when Valve announced earlier this month that the beta had been delayed, but it looks like fans won’t have to be disappointed for much longer.

Over on the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Twitter account, Valve revealed that the beta is expected to kick off on November 30 for anyone who has received a key through various promotions, events, or through an invite straight from Valve.

Valve also noted in the feed that the beta will start with only two maps, de_dust and de_dust2, and will only be available initially to those who already have a key. For those of us not fortunate enough to have a key yet, Valve promises more opportunities to get into the beta lie ahead, and there will even be a full-on open beta down the line.

The beta was originally scheduled to launch for a select few back in October, but Valve had to hold off on the beta due to feedback received from competitive Counter-Strike players at several events.

Valve has set no date for when the full version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will be released. The beta is expected to last through several months, and as more and more people are invited into it, more and more changes and additions will be added in. The goal, apparently, is to keep adding things in, collecting feedback, and then releasing it when Valve feels it’s ready.

Source: Valve (via Joystiq)

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta kicks off this month is a post from: The Inquisitr

Bad news, Steam users. As it turns out, the Steam forums wasn’t the only thing that was breached in the recent hack – Valve boss Gabe Newell confirmed today that the database for Steam itself was also accessed by the hackers.

According to Newell, some personal data was accessible by the hackers, including user names, “hashed and salted” passwords, purchase history, email and billing addresses, and there’s even a possibility that encrypted credit card data may have been accessible. However, Newell is quick to note that there is no evidence to suggest that the hackers were able to grab the credit card information.

Here’s the statement in full:

Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users,

Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6. We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums.

We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums. This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked. We are still investigating.

We don’t have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely.

While we only know of a few forum accounts that have been compromised, all forum users will be required to change their passwords the next time they login. If you have used your Steam forum password on other accounts you should change those passwords as well.

We do not know of any compromised Steam accounts, so we are not planning to force a change of Steam account passwords (which are separate from forum passwords). However, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password.

We will reopen the forums as soon as we can.

I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Gabe.

Valve confirms Steam database hacked is a post from: The Inquisitr

As you may have noticed if you went to check out the Steam forums this morning, Valve has taken down the Steam forums “temporarily” to perform “maintenance”. According to reports from individuals who were browsing the forums before it was taken down, however, the forums being offline may be the result of the Steam forums being hacked.

Before the forums were taken down, several Steam forum users noticed a new category in the Steam forums directing people to a site called “Fkn0wned” (image here). Additionally, many other users reported that their email addresses tied to their Steam accounts were spammed with advertisements for the site.

The group that would appear to be responsible for the hack, Fkn0wned, took down their site in light of the Steam forums breach, and they claim that they weren’t responsible for it.

Valve has yet to make a comment on the potential breach, but for the moment it doesn’t look like any personal data was compromised. Still, it probably wouldn’t hurt to change your Steam account password if you used the same password on the Steam forums, just to be safe.

We’ll let you know when we hear more.

Source: Reddit (via Destructoid)

Steam forums reportedly hacked is a post from: The Inquisitr

Valve announced today that Portal 2 will be receiving new DLC early next year, but this time the DLC is going to be different.

Rather than cook up a new set of challenge maps for players to take on in singleplayer or co-op, Valve is working on creating an in-game map editor to allow users to create, edit and share maps of their very own, all from a slick, intuitive in-game interface.

Not much is known about it at this point, but Valve did say that users will be able to use the “easy-to-use” map editor to create both singleplayer test chambers and co-op test chambers. Once uploaded, other players will be able to check out your map, and even rate it if they like it.

Not only do we not know much about it, we also don’t know as of yet just what platforms Portal 2‘s second helping of DLC will be available on. It’s more than safe to say it’ll be arriving on PC, but a console release is up in the air at this point. We’ve reached out for comment on that.

Valve says that it’s aiming to get the Portal 2 map editor out by early 2012 which, when converted to Valve time, could be just about anything. Maybe sooner, maybe later. Who knows, it may be on time!

Just kidding, Valve. You know I love you.

Portal 2′s next DLC: In-game map editor is a post from: The Inquisitr

Interested in seeing what all the fuss is about with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve’s update to the classic, iconic FPS? If you have an hour’s worth of free time on your hands, you can do just that.

There was a recent tournament for the yet-to-be-released FPS held at Intel Extreme Masters recently, and the result is that we get to see nearly an hour’s worth of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive footage – and not just any footage, footage of the pros in action.

I never was able to get too heavily into Counter-Strike, mostly due to the fact that I’m apparently horrible at it, but I have to say that I’m really looking forward to at least trying out Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

You can check out the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive footage from Intel Extreme Masters and ESL TV below.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is due out sometime early next year. Valve will be running a beta up until release.

Here’s an hour of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive footage [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

When Half-Life 2 released in 2004, the Source Engine really was something to behold. The textures were beautiful, the lighting was great – especially when HDR was added in – and you didn’t even need a particularly high-end PC to get those visuals.

Seven years later, however, the engine is starting to show its old age. Valve continues to push the engine, opting to update it as technology progresses rather than building up a new engine from scratch, but even Portal 2, as gorgeous as it was, betrayed the engine’s age at times.

Valve is aware of this, but that doesn’t mean that they’re in a rush to get started on Source Engine 2. Not yet, at least.

In an interview with GamingLives, Valve’s Chet Faliszek explained why we haven’t seen a Source Engine 2 (yet), saying:

“[We] just update [Source] – not just replace it,” he said. “At some point we may say there’s Source 2 or whatever, but really for us there’s been a pretty easy way to keep it and understanding the tools. When you replace an engine, you’re replacing the tools and the way that people work, there’s an expense in man hours and people learning and people getting up on it right.”

Personally, I’d be willing to wait as long as it takes for Source Engine 2, or whatever it will be called. Portal 2 looked great and Left 4 Dead 2 didn’t look half bad either, but that’s not what’s really important in the end; What’s important is that Valve continues making games that are a blast to play, and there’s no signs of them stopping anytime soon.

What do you think? Are you tired of the Source Engine?

Source: GamingLives (via PC Gamer)

Valve explains why there is no Source Engine 2 (yet) is a post from: The Inquisitr