The Mac OS version of Valve's digital distribution platform Steam will be released on May 12, the company confirmed today.

No other details on the launch were given--the announcement was a brief two sentences--though it will presumably debut alongside the native Mac versions of Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal and the Half-Life series originally slated to launch with the Mac client in April 2010. Read more »

After some heavy-handed hints, Valve today confirmed that it will be bringing its previously Windows-only digital distribution platform Steam to the Mac in April 2010.

Said the company: "Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April." Read more »

Along with its list of the most-played consoles in 2008, research group The Nielsen Company has provided its list of the past year's most popular PC games in the US.

Of the ten titles, none were released in 2008, and only 2 debuted in 2007. The list is based off data from January through October 2008, meaning that the impact of the second World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, was not taken into account. Read more »

Beloved developer Valve has released lifetime retail sales figures for some of its more popular games, including the Half-Life and Counter-Strike series, revealing that the studio has sold over 32.8 million games since the 1998 release of the first Half-Life.

Sales from Valve's digital distribution client are not factored in, with the figures only accounting for worldwide retail sales. With Half-Life 2, Valve began simultaneously releasing all of its PC games at retail and via Steam. The numbers were originally printed in the November issue of Game Informer, then republished by Gamasutra. Read more »

The topic of a full Counter-Strike sequel has been cautiously broached by Valve during a series of interviews with GameTrailers TV.

"We will never abandon Counter-Strike," asserted Valve director of marketing Doug Lombardi, who went on to explain why the game hasn't received a major update since the release of Counter-Strike Source in 2004. Read more »

Valve let us know that guest passes are now available for Counter-Strike: Source owners. Should you have friends who don't have the game, you can now invite them to play the full game for 3 days. Obviously they will need to install Steam to use their guest pass.

As expected, an update for Counter-Strike: Source is now available. Here are the changes: "Increased ES57, Compact 228 and Dual Elites damage by 25%", "Lowered allowed number of dropped weapons in a level to prevent gun spamming" and "Updated foliage quality in cs_militia".

According to the latest Valve news update, available through Steam, Valve will be changing the pistols in Counter-Strike: Source. Right now pretty much everyone uses the Desert Eagle causing a dramatic increase in price since the introduction of dynamic weapon pricing. Valve will attempt to rectify the situation by making the other pistols more effective. All pistol prices have been reset while Valve prepares the update.

CS-Nation has posted an interview with Valve's Doug Lombardi, asking him about Valve's plans to introduce advertising to Counter-Strike 1.6 early next year. Ads will be on walls in levels, the scoreboard, and the letterboxed area of Spectator mode though Lombardi notes "levels aren't going to turn into Times Square or a Nextel Cup racecar". There are no plans for ads in Counter-Strike: Source for now.

CS-Nation: Any change to the basic Counter-Strike formula tends to send shock waves and produce what can best be described as "community riots" that reach far and wide. I've experienced this first hand as a former mod at Steampowered and a staff member at CS-Nation, just as I'm sure most every Valve staff member has experienced via emails. How is Valve prepared to address these sorts of concerns? Will the ads remain if the community collectively voices their displeasure to the ads, or will you keep them in no matter what? Essentially, will there ever be a point where you go "alright guys, this isn't going to work" and you pull the plug? Doug Lombardi: Community feedback will be an important input in to how judge the success of advertising in our games, when we do it and when we donÂ’t, and how we implement advertising in games. Initially, when ads move into a space where they havenÂ’t existed before, like onto a Web site that hasnÂ’t previously advertised, they are pretty noticeable for a while. But as long as the ads donÂ’t interfere with the use of the site (like those annoying ones which sit on top of the content youÂ’re trying to read) they quickly become part of the accepted experience.

The latest Steam news update mentions that Valve has recently banned 10,000 Steam accounts after new Valve Anti-Cheat technology found people cheating in Counter-Strike: Source and other games. 'We expect to see a surge of forum posts laying blame squarely at the feet of "my little brother."'.

According to the latest Valve news update available through Steam, they'll start beta testing the Counter-Strike: Source weapon pricing change on Wednesday. The news item mentions that major CS websites should soon have information on how to join this beta.

Valve has added this page to the Steam website, outlining the upcoming weapons pricing changes for Counter-Strike: Source. On October 11, the game will switch to a dynamic pricing model with updated prices every Monday based on the amount of purchases the previous week. Here a few samples from the page

Assault Suit current price: $1,000 projected price: $1,104 (+10.4%) Total purchases this week: 12,373,054 Dollars spent this week: $12,373,054,000 Maverick M4A1 Carbine current price: $3,100 projected price: $3,390 (+9.35%) Total purchases this week: 3,571,778 Dollars spent this week: $11,072,511,800 Nightvision Goggles current price: $1,250 projected price: $1,084 (-13.26%) Total purchases this week: 141,883
Dollars spent this week: $177,353,750

According to the Steam website, updates to Counter-Strike: Source, the Source Engine and Source TV are now available. The CS:S update fixes two exploits, while also adding zoom/scope to the first person view for Source TV spectators.

According to the Steam website the promised Counter-Strike: Source update is now available. It features the new radar system and a HDR version of de_train. Other changes

- The players eye height while crouching now matches their in-game player model eye position more closely - SourceTV now shows the weapon in first-person view - SourceTV supports the tv_transmitall command - Assorted exploit fixes

According to the latest Valve news update that's available through Steam, the Counter-Strike: Source radar change (coming out next week) won't be the only change being made to the game. After the radar update, "we'll be taking a look at the economy of Counter-Strike and how we're pricing weapons."