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."

An extended PC demo of Valve Software's 2007 hit (and Shacknews Game of the Year by both readers and editors) Portal (PC, PS3, X360) will be made available for free to gamers with NVIDIA graphics cards, the developer announced today.

The demo, called Portal: First Slice, comes as part of a recent agreement between Valve and NVIDIA to "collaborate on development, distribution, events, and more." Gamers equipped with NVIDIA graphics cards looking to give the test chambers and deathtraps of the Aperture Science labs a trial run must allow Steam to auto-detect their NVIDIA cards to unlock the demo.

First Slice and the collaborative campaign between the two companies marks a departure from the former marketing team-up between ATI and Valve, shifted by an increase in NVIDIA hardware use among Steam gamers. "More Steam gamers, including myself, play on NVIDIA hardware than any other GPU," said Valve marketing VP Doug Lombardi, citing Valve's frequent gamer hardware surveys.

Portal: First Slice is available for immediate download from Steam—provided, of course, that you've got an NVIDIA card under the hood. Like Valve's previous free game offer for ATI users, this download also includes Half-Life 2: The Lost Coast and Half-Life 2 Deathmatch, as well as Peggle Extreme.

The entirety of Rockstar Games' PC offerings arrived on Valve's Steam service today, with a 10% discount on titles purchased within the launch week. Though each title is also available individually, the entire Rockstar Collection of 10 titles can be purchased as a package for $53.95 during the first week.

"Rockstar Games brings some of most viscerally engaging games the industry has ever witnessed to Steam's expansive library of titles," said Steam business director Jason Holtman in an announcement heralding the addition. "We're delighted to provide a place where gamers across the globe can discover all the fine work Rockstar Games has produced."

The collection comprises the PC versions of Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto II, Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Max Payne, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Midnight Club II, Manhunt, and Wild Metal Country. Steam users can browse the titles at the service's Rockstar Games page.

Gamers in Deutschland wanting to try the full version of Valve's Team Fortress 2 (PC, PS3, X360) can give the class-based multiplayer shooter a multiday tryout this weekend.

After downloading the title, the normally $29.95 PC game can be played for free from Friday through Sunday. Like many Steam-purchased titles, the game can be downloaded and preloaded by German gamers before Friday and played once the free weekend begins.

Although this free weekend doesn't include North American gamers, Valve representatives have previously stated that a free Team Fortress 2 weekend would be coming in the States as well.

Valve has announced that every game in the Steam store is now on sale. Titles in the catalog are discounted between 10% and 50%, which means you can now get games like The Orange Box for $38, BioShock for $41, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl for $22.

There's no need to get on this right away; the sale lasts until January 1st.

Unprotected links on the InstantAction.com website, a browser-based gaming platform in development by GarageGames, have today lead to the discovery of several alpha-level videos showing off the company's upcoming team-based online shooter.

A source close to GarageGames stressed that the videos--depicting Tribes-like combat on an alien world--represent early work, and were meant for internal use only. The clips are viewable below, edited into a single silent movie. We have also isolated a batch of screenshots from the footage.

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GarageGames was founded in 2000 by four former employees of Dynamix, the developer responsible for the popular multiplayer shooter Starsiege: Tribes.

The identity of the new InstantAction project was uncovered in October, along with the news that GarageGames had ramped up its employee count in advance of development.

Announced earlier this year, InstantAction is set to launch sometime in... Read more

Valve has released the first significant update for the PC version of Team Fortress 2 in about a month, making several gameplay tweaks and bug fixes. If it has not already patched itself in your copy of Steam, Team Fortress 2 will update automatically when you attempt to launch it.

Particularly interesting changes include Sudden Death now being a server option that defaults to "off," the Spy doing slightly less damage to buildings with his weapons after sapping them, the Medic healing at a faster rate during the pre-round setup time to offset the need for players to self-inflict wounds and boost the heal rate, as well as some fixes to SourceTV and the Source engine. There are also a number of changes specific to the Dustbowl map.

A recent round of reports indicated that Valve has an Xbox 360 patch in the works for TF2 as well (no word on the PS3 version), with new maps for both versions being developed and plans to freely release the studio's own PC character animation tools.

Continue to the full story for the rest of the patch changes. ... Read more

In the spirit of the holidays, Valve has added a new gift-giving option to its Steam online content service. When purchasing a title on Steam, any game can be given as a gift to others, regardless of whether they have a Steam account or not.

After checking the box next to, "Yes, it's a gift," when making a Steam purchase, generous gamers can send the gift to anyone with a valid e-mail address. If an intended recipient is a Steam member who already owns the title, the user will be filtered out on the list of valid recipients.

Sega has teamed with Valve to bring more Sega-published titles to the PC download service, the companies announced today. The recently released offroad racer Sega Rally Revo (PC, PS3, PSP, X360) is available for download now, with titles like Petroglyph's Universe at War (PC, X360), Sports Interactive's Football Manager 2008 (PC), and Shiny Entertainment's The Golden Compass (PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, NDS, X360) coming soon to the service.

Other Sega titles like The Creative Assembly's Medieval II: Total War (PC) and Rome: Total War (PC) that were already available in North America can now be downloaded by Europeans and gamers in most other territories as well.

Both Universe at War and The Golden Compass will be coming to the service this month. Gamers interested in Sega titles can browse the full list of available and upcoming games on Sega's Steam page.

Update: Valve has sent along a shot of the Thai Orange Box packaging, which bears a warning on the front cover that reads: "For Sale In Thailand Only."

Original Story (published Oct 26): Some consumers who purchased Valve's Orange Box from vendors located outside of their home country--mainly in an attempt to save on cheaper products--have recently reported that their otherwise legally-obtained games have since been deactivated by Valve's Steam software for territory violation.

Talking with Shacknews, Valve's Doug Lombardi now says that the Steam software is merely carrying out this function by design.

"Valve uses Steam for territory control to make sure products authorized for use in certain territories are not being distributed and used outside of those territories," said Lombardi.

"In this case, a Thai website was selling retail box product keys for ... Read more

During a recent venture to the relatively far out west, this Indiana farm boy got a sneak peek at GarageGames' latest project, InstantAction.com. Meant to fill the void left by traditional casual gaming portals, InstantAction aims to provide hardcore gamers bite-sized nuggets of addictive, skill-based gameplay.

Backed by a variety of talented independent developers, including Wideload Games and Frozen Codebase, and featuring games such as Marble Blast Online, Cyclomite, and Screwjumper, it's looking like InstantAction has a good chance of meeting GarageGames' ambitious goals.

But as I came to find out, InstantAction is more than just a standard gaming portal. When it launches next year, the site will offer a variety of community features that rival those of Steam Community and Xbox Live....Better yet, this all occurs in a web browser, meaning it will be accessible from almost any location with a computer. That means no more waiting to get home from work to play a quick game with your friends, and no more fussing about as you all decide you want to play a different game and have to invite everyone all over again. Read more...

Valve has announced that Codemasters is the latest publisher to put part of its game library on Steam. Available right away is the Mercury Steam horror action game Clive Barker's Jericho, with the fantasy action adventure game Overlord from Triumph Studios and off-road racer DiRT following later this month.

Future games from Codemasters will be on Steam day and date with their retail release. The agreement only covers new and future games, older Codemasters titles will not find their way onto Steam for the time being.

"With major new content in the portfolio, Codemasters continues to expand its publishing and distribution reach," said Peter Chan, Director, Business Development, Codemasters. "As the industry's leading online platform for digital delivery of PC entertainment, Steam is a natural addition to the suite of leading platforms Codemasters is targeting with its leading new and recent releases."

GameTap, the Turner Broadcasting-owned PC digital distribution platform, will celebrate the addition of its 1,000th game on November 15. With the milestone less than a month away, the lead-up will be marked by a number of high profile game releases for paying members.

Subscribers will gain access to Mercury Steam's creepy shooter Clive Barker's Jericho (PC, PS3, X360) on October 23, the same day it hits retail. The conclusion to the current season of Cyan Worlds' episodic series Myst Online: Uru Live (PC) follows November 1, with the second season of Telltale Games' episode-based adventure franchise Sam & Max (PC) beginning November 8.

Along with its new and original games, GameTap will continue adding older PC and console titles to its lineup each week. Codemasters' ... Read more

Recently, we asked Shackers to create an 11th hour addition to The Orange Box, to help elevate its current poor value.

Up for grabs we have a copy of The Orange Box via Steam for the winner, along with a poster and Santa-hat Vortigaunt, with the runners up receiving their choice of either. Did Shackers come through for Valve?

• Creeping-judas chooses a more analog adventure
• Jaspr180 tells us why Dr. Kleiner hasn't saved the world yet
• PenicillinX57 provides meta-commentary on Gordon's life
• Vangoghs Ear opens a fourth dimension of pun abuse
• Helvetica presents us with a text adventure
• UseAbuse wields alchemy to produce this unholy chimera

We really had a lot of great entries. Given the direction given for the contest, tools used and final execution, the first prize nod is given to UseAbuse with the others as runners up. It wasn't easy to choose at the end, but we hope everyone enjoyed the contest and will stick around for the next one. Want to see all the results? Check out the gallery.

With Valve's The Orange Box soon approaching on PC and Xbox 360, the venerable studio has listened to gamers' concerns that five games in the package isn't good enough. Adding Peggle was a good start, but there's still something missing. Shackers, will you wield the power of Microsoft Paint to depict this mystery game that The Orange Box clearly needs? Your task is to create the best or funniest box artwork that such a mysterious addition would have if published separately.

First place will receive a free copy of Orange Box via Steam, a Team Fortress 2 poster signed by Valve staffers, and a holiday Vortigaunt plushy. Runners up will have the choice of a Vortigaunt or a poster. You have until Tuesday, October 9th at 5pm EST, and winners will be announced tonight.

Valve has now started the pre-load process for Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Those who pre-purchase the game via Steam, either as part of The Orange Box or all by its lonesome, can now begin downloading game assets in anticipation of its October 10 release.

Episode Two's Orange Box buddy, the brain twisting puzzler Portal, began pre-loading yesterday. The other previously unreleased game in The Orange Box, the colorful team-based shooter Team Fortress 2, has been in open beta for pre-purchasers since September 17.

Along with Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2, The Orange Box packs the original Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One, both of which have been available to Orange Box customers since the package debuted on September 11. Those who already own either of both of the two games can give or sell away their extra copies on October 10 via The Orange Box gift program.

Update: Though no specific date has been set, a Valve representative tells Shacknews that Half-Life 2: Episode Two will be available for pre-load later this week.

Original Story: Those who pre-purchased Valve's first person brain twister Portal through Steam, either in the $44.99 ultra compilation The Orange Box or by its separate $19.99 listing, can now begin downloading the game's assets.

Commonly referred to as pre-loading, the idea is to let gamers gradually download a game in advance so they only need to download a small enabling file on the day of its release, preventing owners from being held back by slow download speeds and clogged servers.

While buying a physical copy of The Orange Box at a retailer sidesteps the pre-loading process, retail consumers will still need to go through the same Steam-based activation process in order to play the included games.

With The Orange Box gone gold and confirmed to release on October 10--that's next Wednesday--for PC and Xbox 360, the pre-load for Half-Life 2: Episode Two is expected to begin shortly.