Steam News & Updates Thread

[Raid]

I'm really happy that Stardew Valley did so well.

And yeah, I can't remember the last game I bought new on Steam either. CDKeys ftw.

[Lee]

Another dev team caught abusing the reviewing process on Steam and has been removed from selling games on it now

http://steamcommunity.com/games/ArtOfSt ... 7309027725

Concerning Art of Stealth 17 JANUARY - JASON

We (Valve) have identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the developer of this game, Matan Cohen. The developer appears to have created multiple Steam accounts to post a positive review for their own game. This is a clear violation of our review policy and something we take very seriously.

For these reasons, we are ending our business relationship with Matan Cohen and removing this game from sale. If you have previously purchased this game, it will remain accessible in your Steam library.

[DjchunKfunK]

The EU have opened an investigation into whether Valve broke their anti-trust consumer laws by employing geo-blocking practices to stop people from using digital content because of their country of residence.

In particular, an "activation key" can grant access to a purchased game only to consumers in a particular EU Member State (for example the Czech Republic or Poland).
This may amount to a breach of EU competition rules by reducing cross-border competition as a result of restricting so-called "parallel trade" within the Single Market and preventing consumers from buying cheaper games that may be available in other Member States.

If they find Valve guilty it could lead to people being able to buy games from a different market at cheaper prices, at least until we leave the EU.

[Mantis]

You'd think this would also be applicable to Sony and Microsoft for their digital distribution services.

[Lee]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-profile-exploit-phishing

He keeps the details of the exploit “intentionally vague” due to its nature, but a user named DirtDiglett, who claims to be a web developer, has replied with a little more insight. DirtDiglett says “with the right know-how, a malicious user” could do the following to you, if you view his or her profile:

Redirect you to any non-Steam page. This could be used as part of a phishing scam, wherein you see a non-Steam page disguised as a legitimate Steam profile. Navigate away and you're shown what looks like a Steam login page. Nothing too unusual about that, if you think you're still on Steam, so you enter your details.
Utilise scripting to use your Steam Market funds on any item the malicious user chooses; you wouldn't even need to confirm anything as you're on a valid login session.
Manipulate elements on the page as they see fit.
DirtDiglett suggests you triple-check the URL of any website you navigate to before doing anything with your information, enable ‘display Steam URL address bar when available’ in Steam’s settings, and avoid viewing profiles of anyone you don’t know.

R3TR1X’s advice is similar:

“I would advise against viewing suspicious profiles until further notice and disable JavaScript in your browser options,” says R3TR1X. “Do NOT click suspicious (real) Steam profile links and disable JavaScript on browser.”

If you think you might be affected, R3TR1X advises changing your Steam Account password, enabling mobile authentication if it’s not on already (otherwise deauthorise Steam Guard on all systems), and then restart your modem/change your IP and consider a malware/virus scan.

R3TR1X and DirtDiglett both seem confident Valve will be taking action. Until we hear more, though, take extra care when using Steam’s social features. Here's the announcement in full.

[Mantis]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017- ... his-spring

Greenlight is going. In with Steam Direct.

Absolutely anything can be submitted to Steam without requiring curation, but the application fee is going up from $100 per developer to an as yet unset higher price per title. Whether this will slow down, speed up or not have any effect at all on the vast amounts of shite that gets added to Steam on a daily basis, who knows. More worryingly is that if they set the price too high they will likely price out a lot of genuine possible indie developers.

[Edwin]

So no sequel to the Donald Trump game then?

[Edwin]

Gabe wants paid mods to come back, despite the previous clusterfuck.
http://www.pcgamer.com/valve-modders-ab ... o-be-paid/

[DjchunKfunK]

A handy way of seeing all the new releases on Steam.

http://www.whatsonsteam.com/index.htm

[Lee]

Is anyone else getting the window popup that usually links to games as you load up steam. Just showing nothing or a error message lately?

[DjchunKfunK]

I sometimes get that, usually as one of the pages as I scroll through the list.

[Subway Diet]

I just assumed it was some deal available only to the Americans.

[Lee]

I get it with just about all of them DJ. Thought maybe something was blocking or fubared with steam. Tried a fresh reinstall so will see if it happens again.

Not sure we would be seeing such deals though Subway, doesn't make much sense to show a empty box.

[Eny]

Are you talking about the news pop-up, with anything up to 7 pages to click through type thing? I've been getting that too...it isn't a slow loading thing either.

[Lee]

Aye that bit of steam Eny. If it's pretty common then nothing but to wait on Valve to fix it then, cheers all