The NPD Group has found that 29% of games purchased in the last three months were done so digitally. 47% of the digital buyers the group surveyed said they purchased their games from services like Steam. 42% bought their games through app stores or mobile phone carriers and 30% used console services like Xbox Live. People answering the survey said that they bought on average 3.1 (we’ll take that as   Read More ...

No, we haven’t gone back in time. Valve has just launched a new open, public beta for Team Fortress 2 just over three years after its release. The move is similar to that of the Football Manager Live beta. Valve will use the beta to test class, item and weapon changes “without the risk of breaking the game”. Also expect some “higher level, game-wide experiments” to contend with too. “As   Read More ...

Valve has launched the “Recommend For You” referral services on Steam. The services are available on both the PC and Mac clients. Essentially, it’s a recommendation thingy on Steam that will throw you info about new games and DLC based upon your tastes, recent purchases and games recommendations from friends. The recommendations will have their own page and will be chucked on your Steam Community News Blotter. Game pages will   Read More ...

Valve has announced that they have delayed Portal 2 to “the week of April 18th 2011”. Valve sent us a witty passage which we thought we would share with you. Observe: “This two month slip not only marks the shortest delay in Valve’s proud tradition of delays, it represents the approaching convergence of Valve Time and Real Time. Though this convergence spells doom for humanity, it will not affect the new   Read More ...

Telltale has confirmed that Poker Night at the Inventory will allow players to unlock items in their Team Fortress 2 inventory. If you pre-order the game from the Telltale Store, you will unlock the Heavy’s poker visor. More are available in-game when you take part in special “Item Rounds”. The items you are able to unlock include Max’s Lugermorph handgun for the Scout and Engineer, a Freelance Badge for everyone   Read More ...

Valve has sent word that they have released Left 4 Dead on the Mac. Mac gamers are now able to download the game through Steam. Valve also confirmed that they have a Halloween sale going down on Steam right now too. They seem to think that it features “savings up to 75% off select titles”.

Valve has released a Halloween-themed update for Team Fortress 2. The update adds the first ever NPC in Team Fortress: the Headless Horsemann. The Horsemann is a randomly generated boss monster and appears in Mann Manor, a new attack/defend map scattered with exploding pumpkins. The update also adds new achievements, a Halloween department of the Mann Co store, and new community items from 10 new contributors. There are probably more   Read More ...

Valve and Activision have announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops will be coming to Steam’s PC contingent. The game is now available for pre-purchase on the service. Those that pre-purchase it will be able to start playing immediately upon the game’s November 9th release. The game also uses Steamworks, so expect to see auto-updating, achievements and clever cloud things. Steamworks will be a part of both the digital and   Read More ...

Valve has today announced that Steam has achieved new account growth of 178% over the past 12 months and sales growth of over 200%. Over 200 Steamworks games have been shipped so far. The total number of active accounts now totals over 30 million with over 1200 games available to download. Peak simultaneous player numbers have also increased to over three million, with over six million unique gamers accessing Steam   Read More ...

Valve has announced DOTA 2 (Defense of the Ancients 2). Apparently, the original is deemed as “one of the most played games in the world” by Valve. DOTA 2 will be released on the PC and Mac in 2011. It continues with the same blend of online RTS and RPG action of its predecessor. Apart from that, not much else is known about the game.

Valve has released a new update for Team Fortress 2. The update adds a new in-game marketplace to buy/sell/trade goods with Valve and the community. Community item contributors will get paid based on the sales of their items. The company has put a FAQ up online to deal with some of your questions about it, and they seem to cover a broad selection of topics for TF2 fanatics. The update   Read More ...

Valve has announced a Steam Wallet system for Steam. Gamers will be able to fill it with a bit of real-money funds in small lumps: £4, £8, £18, £35 and £70. Valve will be staying with real currency and won’t be entertaining the notion of a “Steam Points” system. The Steam Wallet funds can be bought with prepaid cards and promotional codes as well as with credit cards.

Some kind folk have uploaded a 9 minute long gameplay video of Portal 2′s co-op mode from PAX. It shows off some interesting portal mechanics and the ability to tag your environment to tell your co-op partner where you would like a portal. Have a watch:

Valve has released an update for its free co-op shooter Alien Swarm. The update adds an “Onslaught” mode, which features a Left 4 Dead-esque AI Director. The director will dynamically generate swarms of aliens based on several factors, like the squad’s stress level. The update also delivers a brutal difficulty setting and a “Hardcore Friendly Fire” setting.

Valve has announced a new downloadable campaign for Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. The DLC is entitled “The Sacrifice”, and includes three maps. It’s due to be released on 5th October for 560 Allards on the 360 (PC and Mac users will get it for free). The Sacrifice lets you play as the characters from the first game and reveals how the survivors from each game met   Read More ...