Valve announced today that it plans to expand Steam’s offerings to “creativity to productivity” software come September. This follows a leak on the Steam mobile app, which advertised software categories such as photo editing, design, and video editing. Valve says many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features — like automatic [...]

The mandatory binding arbitration clause found in Valve’s updated software service agreement (SSA) for Steam is not valid in Canada, according to a specialist lawyer who has spoken with Hardware Canucks. Mandatory binding arbitration clauses are put in place to prevent a class-action lawsuit from being leveled against a company. Electronic Arts has a mandatory [...]

In the wake of EA offering to settle a class-action claim regarding its Madden NFL and NCAA exclusivity deals, Valve has modified Steam’s Subscriber Service Agreement to effectively prevent a class action suit from being leveled against the company. “It’s clear to us that in some situations, class actions have real benefits to customers In [...]

NVIDIA has given Hardware Canucks 50-keys for a closed beta (taking place on August 10 through 12) of the hotly anticipated apocalyptic MMO, End of Nations, to give away to you, our loyal readers. Set during a persistent global war of unprecedented scale, players in End of Nations team up in massive 50-player online battles [...]

EA announced today that Battlefield 4 is in development, and a beta will be available in the Fall of 2013. The announcement was made as part of a promotion for Medal of Honour: WarFighter, and EA has announced that those who preorder the game will receive a beta for Battlefield 4. “Though Battlefield and Medal [...]

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Steam Greenlight, a new platform feature that enlists the community’s help in selecting some of the next games to be released on Steam. Steam Greenlight will allow developers [...]

According to a number of reports on Blizzard’s official forum, Diablo 3 players who game on Linux via WINE are being banned for using “unsupported third-party software”. These banned users claim Diablo 3’s cheat detection system mistakenly identifies WINE as a bot or a trainer and auto-bans the user. WINE is not an emulator or [...]

Bloomberg and CNN Money are reporting that South Korean, though Tokyo headquartered, game company Nexon has made a bid to take over Electronic Arts. Maeil Business, a major South Korean business publication, first reported the possible takeover earlier this week, citing unidentified industry officials. “Nexon has a policy of never commenting on rumors,” the company [...]

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the free Portal 2 DLC titled “Perpetual Testing Initiative” will be available for the PC and Mac on May 8th. The “Perpetual Testing Initiative” allows players to easily create, share, and play Portal 2 [...]

There’s a school of thought that points to High Times magazine as a major contributor to the continued prohibition of marijuana. As the arbiters of a certain kind of marijuana culture — the giggling, dreadlock wearing, post-hippie navel-gazing segment — they represent the face of anti-prohibitionists for better or worse. High Times presents an immature [...]