Comment and discussion on Valve Software’s digital communications platform.
Strings for two new system requirements were added to steamui_english.txt in Monday’s platform update. One warns that unspecified games will “within the next few months” no longer be able to run on CPUs without SSE, and the other regards Steam itself.
Computerandvideogames.com have posted a well-rounded Steam interview with Valve’s PR chief, Doug Lombardi, which looks ahead to 2007.
Another dry spell of Steam news is coming to an end. Next week will see the release of the “Steam Winter Update”, the first such ‘seasonal’ release and a departure from Valve’s previously iterative release schedule.
SimBin’s upcoming RACE is the first game in a long time to really use Steam–in fact so keen are the developers that, for the first time since Half-Life 2, they are releasing a retail-led game with Steam as a requirement for boxed copies.
PayPal is now available through Steam, as part of a not-beta ‘preview’ phase.
Regards to Andy S, who spotted a series of new strings added to Steam’s interface in the recent platform update. ‘Guest Passes’ are on the way: you’ll be able to hand out free copies of participating multi-player games to your friends, through Friends or via e-mail, for them to play online with you.