Valve announced today that Queasy Games' stylistic shoot-'em-up Everyday Shooter is now available on its downloadable PC gaming service Steam.

Originally designed by indie developer Jonathan Mak as a downloadable game for the PlayStation 3, Everyday Shooter is a top-down, non-scrolling shooter with eight levels that feature differing gameplay dynamics. The game's music is procedurally generated by player actions such as shooting, dying, and destroying foes.

The title is priced at $9.99, with a 10% discount for those who purchase it within its first week of availability.

Valve also revealed that it has redesigned Steam's interface to "better showcase the growing number of titles and publishers."

Valve announced today that Q Entertainment's acclaimed music-based puzzler Lumines is now available for purchase on Steam, Valve's digital distribution platform.

Created by designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Lumines features block-dropping puzzle gameplay in which music plays a key role, similar to other Mizuguchi-developed titles Rez and Every Extend Extra. The game originally appeared in 2005 as a launch title for Sony's PSP, and later as a downloadable game for the Xbox 360 and PC.

Similar to the game's Xbox 360 incarnation, Lumines can be purchased as a standalone Base Pack—which includes a challenge mode with 21 unlockable skins and a skin edit mode—and upgraded with the Advance Pack, which adds 21 challenge mode skins, Puzzle Mode and Mission Mode.

Both the Base Pack and Advance Pack are available now on Steam for $9.95 and $7.95, respectively. Players who buy the games before April 25 will receive a 10% discount off their purchase.

French publisher Ubisoft has revealed that it is latest publisher to make its PC titles available via Valve's digital distribution platform Steam, with the upcoming PC release of Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition currently available for pre-purchase.

The stealth title Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Crytek's non-linear shooter Far Cry mark Ubisoft's initial offerings, with Far Cry priced at $9.95 and Splinter Cell going for $19.95. Both will sell at a 10% discount until April 8.

Over 40 titles will be eventually be available, including Tom Clancy games, the Heroes of Might & Magic series, the IL-2 Sturmovik collection and more, along with upcoming releases such as Far Cry 2. According to Valve, bundles packaging franchise entries together will be available in the coming weeks.

"Ubisoft will be delivering the largest library of titles available from any single publisher or developer to Steam," said Valve business development director Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve.

"We look forward to working with Steam and continuing to strengthen our commitment to the PC gaming community with innovative products and wider distribution channels, added Ubisoft senior sales director Andy Swanson.

An exclusive version of Nunchuck Games' Ninja Reflex (NDS, PC, Wii) built with the Steamworks tool set is now available on Steam, Valve announced today.

Retitled Ninja Reflex: Steamworks Edition, the new revision of the reflex-testing game comes equipped with Steam-exclusive features including 50 achievements, as well as a slew of Half-Life and Portal-themed Easter Eggs to be discovered.

Ninja Reflex: Steamworks Edition is available now on Steam at a 10% debut discount for $8.95.

Unreal creator Epic Games today joined the ever-growing ranks of game studios that sell their products through Valve's PC digital distribution platform Steam.

Epic's initial offerings constitute five titles: Unreal Gold, Unreal II: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition, Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Choice Edition, and Unreal Tournament 3.

Each title will be sold for 10% off until March 24. An Unreal Deal Pack is also available, containing the five titles for $59.95--a savings of over $46. The discount applies to the Unreal Deal pack as well, making it $53.95 until March 24.

"Epic is a leading developer of game engine technology and has produced some of my favorite games of all time," said Valve president Gabe Newell. "It's an honor to be working with them and offering their current and classic titles to the millions of Steam gamers around the world."

Valve Software today announced that Atari is the latest publisher to put many of its games up for download on Steam, Valve's popular digital distribution service.

Beginning today, Atari-published titles such as Bohemia Interactive's ArmA: Combat Operations and Frontier's RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum will be available for purchase via the Steam store.

Valve also announced that CD Projekt's highly-rated RPG The Witcher will be added to the Atari catalog in the coming weeks, along with other Atari-published RPGs such as Obsidian Entertainment's Neverwinter Nights 2 and its expansion Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer.

While Team Fortress 2 players wait with bated breath for the new Goldrush map and class-specific achievements, yesterday's update for Valve's colorful multiplayer shooter provided PC gamers with a nifty consolation prize: Tournament Mode.

Other changes include class-balancing ammunition tweaks, stability fixes, a custom tab in the server browser, and protection against voice command spam. For all the details, scope out the full patch notes.

As is typical with games on Valve's Steam platform, Team Fortress 2 will be automatically updated to the latest version when users log in.

Music and video downloads may be headed to Valve Software's digital distribution platform Steam before the end of the year, according to the company's marketing VP Doug Lombardi.

"We're also looking at other types of content like video and music," said Lombardi to Tom's Games.

"We're definitely having those conversations and meetings, and we're reaching out to folks with other types of digital entertainment. I think before the end of the year, you'll probably see some pilot programs with other digital entertainment on Steam."

Lombardi also mentioned that while the Xbox 360 version of The Orange Box sold over a million copies, and the PlayStation 3 edition sold an additional "few hundred thousand," sales of the PC version were much stronger.

"I'd say significantly stronger, at least a two-digit percentage increase... Read more

Online retail giant Amazon.com is looking to incorporate video game downloads into its digital distribution service, as revealed by a job posting on Gamasutra.

The posting calls for a software development engineer for a position in video game and software downloads. "The Software and Video Games Digital Technology Team ... is responsible for digital distribution of software and video game products from the Amazon website," the listing reads. At present, no official announcement of digital game distribution has been made.

A significant portion of PC gaming sales have shifted towards digital distributors such as Valve's Steam platform over traditional retail channels, as reflected in recent sales trends and analyses. Amazon currently only provides digital download service for MP3s, movies, and PC software applications.

Dylan Fitterer's innovative rhythm-racing title Audiosurf is now available for purchase on Steam, Valve announced today. One of the first titles to make use of Steam achievements via Valve's recently released Steamworks tools, Audiosurf is a simple racer which analyzes user-provided audio tracks and integrates the rhythm and tempo of the song into the course. Valve has provided the entire Orange Box soundtrack, including Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive", for use in the game.

Gamers on the fence can download a free demo of Audiosurf on Steam to give the game a shot prior to purchase. Audiosurf is available at a $9.95 price point.

Update: The patch is now live on Steam.

Original story: Valve has announced that the first major update to the PC version of its hit multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 will go live tomorrow morning at 11 AM PST.

The free update adds the new vertically-oriented map "Badlands," a reworking of a classic TFC battleground. Three previously released maps--Dustbowl, Granary, and CTF_Well--will also receive performance and gameplay tweaks.

In addition to map changes and additions, the patch will include further improvements to networking and graphical performance, player statistics, and Source TV. A full list of the changes can be found here.

Valve made no mention in its release of the forthcoming unlockable items or the previously-announced Goldrush map.

For a look at Badlands, check out Shacknews' recent preview of the map.

Valve today announced that Dylan Fitterer's innovative rhythm-racing title Audiosurf is now available for pre-order on Steam.

Audiosurf is a simple racing game that allows users to import their own audio tracks. The game then analyzes the tracks and integrates the rhythm information into the race course in the form of tempo-synced blocks, which players collect for points.

The Orange Box soundtrack will come free with the title, including Jonathan Coulton's hit Portal track "Still Alive." Audiosurf will also be one of the first Steamworks-supported games, with plenty of achievements built-in to the radical pipeline.

An award finalist at the Independent Games Festival, Audiosurf will be available on Steam this Friday, for a price of $9.95. Pre-ordering will shave a totally tubular 10% from said fee. A public beta is currently available at FileShack.

Valve's PC digital distribution platform Steam now has over 15 million user accounts, with the company reporting a 158% growth in holiday sales over those of the last season.

In today's announcement, Valve trumpeted Steam's free community features, the upcoming release of the cooperative zombie shooter Left 4 Dead, and the recent revelation of Steamworks--Valve's free offering of its internal server tools to all PC developers.

"PC gaming is thriving, and has evolved into an era of constant connectivity," said Valve president Gabe Newell. "That connectivity gives us the ability to have a much better relationship with customers, not just for delivering our games, but across all aspects of our business--including the design, development, and support of our games."

During yesterday's third quarter conference call, EA CFO Warren Jenson mentioned that the PC version of Valve's value-packed Orange Box would be unbundled and released at retail as separate titles.

The Orange Box, which includes Team Fortress 2, Portal, and Half Life: Episode Two, is currently only available on retail shelves in bundled form for the PC and console alike. The games were available on Valve's digital distribution platform Steam from day one. The plan comes as part of EA's strategy for the current fiscal quarter.

Distributor EA is quite pleased with the Orange Box's performance, noting in the conference call that the title "exceeded expectations." The move to break up the Orange Box may be a result of the difficulties marketing a bundle that contains three radically different games featuring unique themes, graphical styles and gameplay schemes.

No mention of pricing for the individual games was mentioned during the conference call, but the retail versions will likely be made available at prices comparable to Steam: Portal at $19.95, and Team Fortress 2 and Half Life: Episode Two for $29.95 each.

Valve Software today announced Steamworks, a suite of tools freely available for any developers to use with retail or online PC releases.

The tools include real-time sales, gameplay, and product activation statistics, an encryption system, territory control, auto updating, voice chat, multiplayer matchmaking, social networking services such as leaderboards, and other development tools. The full list of features can be found on Shacknews.

Many of the features are already integrated into the Steam Community platform. The tool set is similar to what Microsoft offers to developers--for a fee--in both Windows Live and Xbox Live.

"Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today's market," said Valve president Gabe Newell. "Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing."

The latest Team Fortress 2 update has been released, most notably including the map CTF_Well, a capture the flag variant of the existing control point map.

Along with the new map, other features were added, including some graphical optimizations and the ability to autosave a scoreboard screenshot each time a game ends. Valve also fixed numerous glitches, such as a recording problem with SourceTV, exploits on CP_GravelPit, a custom spray-related crash, stat recording bugs, and more.

(Update: We are now hosting a CTF_Well screenshot gallery courtesy of re4ctor.)

Simply sign into Steam and launch Team Fortress 2 to download the update. The full changelog can be found below: ... Read more

After tallying figures from sales tracking firms across the world, publisher Activision now claims that Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, X360) was 2007's best selling game worldwide.

In all, the game sold in excess of 7 million units, according to data compiled from the NPD Group, Chart Track, and the GFK Group. Incredibly, that figure represents less than two whole months of sales, as the game deployed to stores in early November.

Of the overall figure, North American sales of the Xbox 360 version accounted for 3.04 million. The PC version, meanwhile, only sold 383,000 units at North American retailers, though that number does not include sales made... Read more

Valve announced today that GSC Game World's S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (PC) will be made available as a digital download exclusively on Steam, and unveiled a handful of new screenshots of the upcoming standalone prequel.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is tentatively scheduled for simultaneous retail and digital release later this year.

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CCP's MMO in space, EVE Online, was announced today as the first massively multiplayer game to be available on Valve's Steam downloadable service. It will be promoted with a 21-day trial for "all Steam gamers." Shacknews confirmed with CCP that the promotion applies only to new EVE subscribers.

New players will receive a $5 discount for the first month. Like many MMOs, EVE subscriptions run $14.99/month, with discounts when purchasing multiple months. Pricing information for the purchase of the game itself is not yet available on Steam, but CCP sells it online for $19.99, which is likely to be the price point used.

EVE Online has some 220,000 subscribers worldwide, a number that is dwarfed by more convention MMOs such as World of Warcraft but which has given the niche game a dedicated player base and made it a considerable success for its developer.

Previously CCP had offered gamers a 14-day trial, but in an interview with Shacknews, community manager Mike Read expressed doubt as to whether that... Read more

Valve has snapped up Left 4 Dead (PC, X360) developer Turtle Rock Studios, the company announced today.

The studio, responsible for parts of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and various Counter-Strike: Source maps, will remain in Orange County, California.

"We have been seeing very strong growth with Steam and Source, our content distribution and development platforms, up over 150% over the last 12 months. Given our expectations for Left 4 Dead and our long-standing relationships with members of the Turtle Rock team, this was an easy decision. It also gives us a base from which to expand our development activities in the Los Angeles area," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve.

Added Turtle Rock Studios CEO Michael Booth, "Valve has had great success bringing in projects and teams such as Team Fortress and Portal. As I spent time working and talking with the creators of those products over the past several years, it became clear that this was the right next step for myself, my colleagues at Turtle Rock, our customers, and our products."