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As confirmed by leaks some time ago, this evening has brought about the start of the 2016 Steam Summer Sale, dubbed the "Steam Summer Picnic Sale". From June 23rd through July 4th 2016, Steam users will be able to view and purchase over 12,000 pieces of discounted content, including games, software, and DLC.

Aside from a few new sections to highlight Steam Hardware devices and virtual reality, the sale and its layout are largely unchanged from previous years, with a "Highlighted Deals" area showing off some of the biggest discounts on a daily basis and an updated Discovery Queue which provides up to three Steam Trading Cards per day for those who explore it.

The simplification of these big...

After one big mess-up and three short weeks, we're finally back with a new episode of the ValveTime News Round-Up! In this episode, we're talking about Steam Dev Days 2016, The International 2016, the Steam Controller, Dota 2, The Lab, Destinations,...

With the exciting conclusion of ESL One Frankfurt 2016 earlier today, Valve have announced the six teams that have been directly invited to the fast-approaching The International 2016 in early August. The top six teams have been determined largely by recent performances at the Manila Major and ESL One Frankfurt over the past few weeks, with the following teams impressing Valve and the community enough to receive direct invites.

Quietly, and without much fanfare, Valve have this evening announced and released the 6.88 balance patch for Dota 2. The unexpected update comes only a day after the conclusion of the Manila Major tournament, and is therefore only a minor patch featuring small gameplay tweaks with no major changes to hero abilities or item capabilities.

While a few overly-powerful heroes have been nerfed, including Beastmaster and Death Prophet, most of the changes introduced with 6.88 are actually buffs. Buffs include Enigma's Black Hole being changed to deal Pure damage through Black King Bar immunity, increased slows for Lich's Chain Frost and Ice...

While definitely not a "game" by any traditional definition, Valve's latest foray into the virtual reality software space is certainly an interesting new release. Known as "Destinations", this free, VR-only piece of software allows Steam users to create, share, and explore 3D environments similar to the photogrammetry experiments highlighted in "The Lab". In fact, the SDK included alongside Destinations is actually a slightly modified version of the Source 2 editor used to create custom games within Dota 2, and was reportedly heavily involved in the development of Valve's own 3D environments.


Like the Dota 2 Workshop Tools, Destinations is designed to be easy to use, with full...

After a hiatus of a year and a half, Valve's extremely successful Steam Dev Days are once again returning to Seattle! As the follow-up to the 2014 event, this year's Steam Dev Days will take place on October 12th and 13th 2016 and will once again feature numerous talks and events designed to connect professionals in the video game industry while discussing and advertising a bunch of Steam's current and upcoming functionality.

Topics set to be discussed at this year's event include Virtual Reality, Steam Business and Marketing, Steam Hardware, the Steam Workshop and User-Generated Content, and more which have yet to be revealed. Alongside the main talks, attendees can also expect plenty of networking and sneak peaks at future Valve concepts and projects. For context, 2014's event had select attendees preview prototypes of the then-named "Steam Sight" virtual reality headset, with...

While I'm thankful I've never had to make a post like this before, I am extremely frustrated (at myself) that I now have to make one at all.

Context
Earlier this evening, we aired a Round-Up episode claiming Erik Wolpaw, one of the senior writers on Portal and Portal 2, had left the company to continue working more closely with Double Fine Productions on Psychonauts 2. In this particular instance - we were wrong, and follow-up emails to Erik himself have confirmed he is still indeed at the company.

In this scenario, we failed to take the necessary and ridiculously basic steps to proving or disproving the news story before running it as big, high profile reveal. This mess-up is amateurish and unacceptable, and I sincerely apologise for spreading false stories of this nature.
Email Evidence
Here is Erik's reply to us.

Fittingly, it would seem Erik is...

With "The Lab" having been out for a little over a month and a half at this point, it's definitely the perfect time for Valve to re-inject some life into their freely available virtual reality title. Today's "Appliance of Science" update, available free of charge, adds a bunch of extra functionality into The Lab's three most replayable mini-games, Longbow, Xortex, and Slingshot.

Global leaderboards, endless modes, and minor gameplay tweaks are among the changes that Valve hopes will keep players coming back to The Lab time and time again much in the same way simple yet replayable games such as Audioshield and Space Pirate Trainer...

Although slightly later than planned, this week's Round-Up episode covers an interesting and wide spread of news and discussions. Headlines from the past week include a huge sexual discrimination legal case against Valve, the release of early Vulkan support for Dota 2, and claims by Valve engineer Alan Yates that the Oculus Rift is just a big copycat!

To stay up to date with all things Valve, subscribe to our...

Alan Yates, who likes to refer to himself as Chief Pharologist at Valve, is one of the senior engineers working on the Lighthouse tracking system and other VR technologies for the HTC Vive. According to him, both the Vive and the Rift use the same core features from Valve's research program.

Yates took to Reddit yesterday and declared, "the CV1 is otherwise a direct copy of the architecture of the 1080p Steam Sight prototype Valve lent Oculus when we installed a copy of the 'Valve Room' at their headquarters." He went on to say, "I would call Oculus the first SteamVR licensee."


With Valve's technology in their possession, it would have helped Oculus to acquire the engineers behind it, too. Michael Abrash was a key piece in that acquisition strategy, but they failed to grab much more. "Unfortunately for them they did not succeed and...

In this very Dota-centric Round-Up episode, we're talking about the introduction of The International 2016 Battle Pass and the amazing success it has garnered thus far, before briefly discussing the welcome return of the Dota 2 Short Film Contest!

To stay up to date with all things Dota and Valve, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook and...

Following the enormous success of last year's Dota 2 Short Film Contest, Valve are bringing back the now-annual tradition to allow for a whole new set of videos to be created and submitted. Between May 20th and July 26th, Valve will be accepting Dota-themed videos of no longer than one minute, which will then be voted on by the Steam Community and Valve's staff to potentially win one of ten top prizes. These include $25,000 for first place, $10,000 for second place, $5,000 for third place, and $500 for each of the other seven finalists.

As you might except, using non-Valve IP without permission is not permitted, nor is using ads on your YouTube upload. Despite Source Filmmaker being one of Valve's highest profile tools, it is not actually required to enter the contest, meaning live action or totally...

As part of the run-up to this year's International 2016 tournament for Dota 2, Valve have today released the event's Battle Pass and Compendium. Available for $9.99 / £7.19, the Battle Pass provides players with access to the statistical compendium from previous years and the usual host of cosmetic items, challenges, and rewards. These rewards include three Immortal Treasures, Spring-themed terrain, a weather effect, a music pack, "evolving" wards and couriers, a cursor pack, numerous emoticon packs, a custom HUD, a Crystal Maiden announcer pack, various loading screens, and a TI6-themed Effigy block. Like all previous compendiums, more rewards of increasing rarity can be acquired by levelling up the Battle Pass, either by paying for extra points or by earning them....

Following yet another very quiet week from Valve, this week's short Round-Up episode is discussing a recent hat-filled patch for Team Fortress 2 and revisiting a bunch of neat improvements to the Steam Reviews and Broadcasting features added a few weeks back!


Like we say every week, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to make sure...

After accidentally missing last week thanks to one of my own blunders, we're back to recap the past two weeks of Valve news! With Valve once again quiet, the biggest news we have to discuss revolves around the on-going Dota 2 / Warhammer cosmetic item contest, the re-tweaking of the 6.87 balance update, and a mind-blowing new speedrun of Half-Life 2!

We're hoping news should pick up again sometime soon, so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on...

We may have skipped releasing an episode last week due to the annual mid-April news drought, but the same cannot be said for this week - with interesting new headlines for both Valve's biggest games and Steam! Is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's classic map Inferno about to be remade, what effect will the changes of 6.87 have on Dota 2, and is Steam about to enter the digital film market in a big way? Come find out in this week's News Round-Up!

We should be able to return to a normal video schedule from now on, so don't forget to...

After several weeks of speculation about the community, this evening finally saw Valve announce "6.87", the latest balance patch for Dota 2. Like most balance patches, the update focuses on finely tweaking the gameplay experience of Dota 2 with both small and large brush strokes, changing values by decimal places or introducing totally new items and abilities. We won't be going over most of the contents of the changelog here as there's way too much to cover, but here are a few of the highlights!

A total of 7 new items have been added to the game with this patch, a number of which feature as end-game combinations or early game components for existing items. They include Bloodthorn, the game's most expensive item which features as a combination between...

While the release of traditional films onto Steam has been a slow and inconsistent trickle since the functionality was introduced with Valve's own Free To Play Dota 2 documentary back in 2014, things should start speeding up considerably thanks to a new partnership announced today via a press release. The partnership is between Valve and Lionsgate, the Canadian-American entertainment giant, which will see "over 100" feature films made available on Steam over an undisclosed period of time.

The press release references The Hunger Games, Twilight, Saw, and the Divergent franchises as a few examples of the blockbuster series which should soon hit the platform. As you would expect, more titles will also be added in the future as their long term partnership continues, with...

The first update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in a month has introduced a small number of minor changes, the largest of which hints at a continuing trend. Following the release of an overhauled Nuke back in February, the map has been added to the Active Duty map group, allowing it to be played both in competitive matchmaking and professional tournaments, starting at ESL One Cologne 2016 in July. It replaces classic map Inferno, which has instead been moved to the Reserves map group.

While this may not seem particularly important at face value, the last two classic maps to be relegated to the Reserve pool were later re-released by Valve with all new visuals, overhauled layouts, and a subsequent resurgence in the competitive scene. This...

In an overdue Round-Up episode, we're taking a look at the recent announcement of "The Mayann Project" community update for Team Fortress 2, the launch of the HTC Vive and The Lab, and the first details for The International 2016 Dota 2 tournament! We're also recapping some of own content, some of which may or may not be real...

To stay up to date with all the latest news regarding Valve, don't forget to...