The Steam Review

Valve have begun to use region restriction as a front-line selling point for Steam when promoting it to publishers.

Last Friday, Valve began preventing retail copies of their Source (i.e. post-2004) games bought in Thailand and Russia from being played outside their country of origin. The internet has exploded the story in the way only the internet can, and it’s high time for some rationality.

You may be forgiven for feeling a touch of déjà vu this week…

Computerandvideogames.com have posted a well-rounded Steam interview with Valve’s PR chief, Doug Lombardi, which looks ahead to 2007.

Zeh Fernando’s Online Gaming Zeitgeist has posted a partial analysis of Valve’s Free Week/Weekend promotions, using DOD: Source’s player-count statistics as a sample.

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.