The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Curratum]

Broski, please!

 

[Caim]

So I've been giving Portal Reloaded a shot, a free mod for Portal 2 that can be downloaded through Steam. The main attraction is that you can now fire a third portal, a green one that connects the present (clean like Portal 1) and the future (messy like Portal 2). You use this new portal to solve new puzzles, where everything you do in the present affects the future, but not the other way around. This lets you place portals in the present to get around force fields in the future, where you can then use your portals to dodge obstacles found only in the future. The time portal has the same "speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out" thing that the regular portals have, but it'll also send you to the other time. The puzzles are a bit more tricky because of the third portal, but I'm definitely going to play this all the way through to see what it's like.

Trailer:

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/gabe-newell...-console-plans-to-new-zealand-high-schoolers/

Gabe Newell refuses to divulge Steam console plans to New Zealand high schoolers
The Valve boss said that the answer is not what you expect, but I have no idea what to expect now.

Valve boss Gabe Newell has been living in New Zealand for more than a year now, and I'm starting to think that maybe he's getting bored. A few months ago he went on NZ television to talk about brain interfaces that could create games "superior" to reality, and more recently he trucked off to an Auckland high school for a Q&A session, where he teased the possibility of Valve bringing Steam games to consoles.

"Will Steam be putting any games on console, or will it just stay on PC?" a student asked during the Q&A session.

"You will get a better idea of that by the end of this year," Newell replied. The answer brought a wave of "ooooh" and some laughter from the audience, which led Newell to add, "And it won't be the answer you would expect."

It's not a very informative reply to say the least. The end of the year could arrive with absolutely no movement toward bringing Steam games to consoles and then, as promised, we'd have a better idea: The answer is "no." I'm also not sure what Newell thinks we're expecting, especially now that he's fired off this oblique tease. Maybe now we're leaning toward yes? Which would mean that the actual answer is, as previously anticipated, "no." It's all very confusing.

To me, though the most interesting thing here isn't the tease itself but that Newell decided to lay it all out not at a big trade show or in a promotional livestream, but in a high school gym—specifically, Sancta Maria College. And he didn't even put socks on! All the kids at the school have to wear jackets and ties to class, and Newell shows up looking like he woke up on the beach three minutes ago.

As for Newell's tease, if Valve is indeed planning some movement on the console front, it could be just about anything: Maybe it's going to port Half-Life: Alyx to PSVR, maybe Half-Life 3 is going to be a timed exclusive on the Xbox Series X, or maybe Valve wants to take another crack at a platform of its own— Steam Machines Redux, perhaps. Or maybe it's something else entirely, like an Orange Box re-release, which would actually make some sense, now that I think about it.

To be fair to Newell, the original question wasn't very clear either. It's possible the student may have mixed up Steam with Valve, and he really just wants to know if he'll ever be able to play Dota on his PS5. Whatever's going on, we'll apparently find out (or not) within the next six months or so.

According to redditor Odysseic, who recorded Newell's appearance (and apologized for the bad audio), Newell also said that CS:GO will be getting new anti-cheat updates, and more updates are coming to Team Fortress 2 as well. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

For some reason everything was deleted.

 

[Dexter]

 

[LESS T_T]

Maybe Valve's answer to Oculus Quest 2 (that is, a wireless, standalone VR device that can run apps its own)?

 

[Caim]

Huh, I can see the GabeBoy actually working out. Imagine playing the good shit on the go. Or maybe put on porn games if you want to jerk off somewhere.

 

[A horse of course]

Huh, I can see the GabeBoy actually working out. Imagine playing the good shit on the go. Or maybe put on porn games if you want to jerk off somewhere.

I can already jerk off anywhere

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Fedora Master]

Everything looks exactly the same.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com...on-steam-controller-patent-infringement-case/

Valve loses $4 million Steam Controller patent infringement case
STEAM FIRM TOLD TO PAY DAMAGES IN FIRST EVER VIRTUAL PATENT INFRINGEMENT JURY TRIAL

Valve has lost the first ever patent jury trial to be conducted remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The trial, which saw attorneys for Valve and plaintiff Ironburg Inventions giving evidence from various locations via Zoom, began in late January.

Ironburg alleged that Half-Life and Portal maker Valve was warned in 2014 that a prototype of the Steam Controller shown at the CES trade show featured the same rear-side controls it had recently patented.

The patent, for additional controls on the back of a pad to be operated by the user’s middle fingers, would later be licensed by Microsoft for use in its Xbox Elite controllers, which feature rear paddles.

Despite the warning, Valve went on to launch its controller and reportedly sold 1.6 million units before the product was discontinued in 2019.

“Valve did know that its conduct involved an unreasonable risk of infringement, but it simply proceeded to infringe anyway — the classic David and Goliath story: Goliath does what Goliath wants to do,” Ironburg’s lawyer, Robert Becker, had argued.

Valve claimed there was no infringement, but the jury found otherwise and Ironburg was awarded $4 million in damages, Law.com reports.

While the award is on the low end of the damages range sought by Ironburg, the possibility of enhancements remains as jurors decided that Valve had wilfully infringed the patent.

In January the European Commission fined Valve and five publishers of Steam games €7.8 million ($9.4m) for anti-consumer geo-blocking practices, which restrict access to content or products based on which country a person is in.

https://esportsobserver.com/valve-scuf-patent-trial/

Valve Fails to Nullify $4M Jury Verdict in Steam Controller Patent Infringement Case

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Washington state denied a motion by Valve Corporation to throw out a jury verdict that awarded gaming peripheral maker SCUF Gaming $4M USD on Feb. 1.

The jury found that Valve’s now-discontinued Steam Controller infringed on SCUF Gaming/Ironburg Inventions’ “rear-fitted paddle lever controller” patent. Ironburg Inventions/SCUF filed the lawsuit in 2017, and earlier this year the trial served as a bit of a milestone for another reason – it was the very first patent infringement jury trial to be held via Zoom due to the pandemic.

The Steam controller was part of a larger and mostly unsuccessful effort by Valve to build a console-like ecosystem using third-party PC manufacturers to build hardware that used its digital game distribution platform, Steam.

The Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive maker filed a post-trial motion asking the Western District Court of Washington in Seattle to nullify the verdict, but U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Zilly ruled Wednesday that the company failed to prove that there was insufficient evidence presented at trial because that evidence, according to the ruling, was straightforward and easy for the jury to understand. Zilly also denied a motion by SCUF, who was seeking enhanced damages.

Darius Gambino, a partner at Pennsylvania-based law firm Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP and an attorney specializing in intellectual property litigation, spoke to The Esports Observer about the lawsuit on Thursday.

First, we asked Gambino why he thought the jury found that Valve infringed on SCUF’s patent. He said that Valve really didn’t know about the patent when it started the design process for the Steam Controller – the company was in the dark. The lead designer for Valve’s Steam Controller testified in court that he wasn’t aware of it during the design phase and by the time he learned of it, the company was deeply invested in continuing with its development.

“Once the litigation began [in 2017], they had really deeply invested in it,” Gambino said. “I think that if you read between the lines, it was that they came up with what they thought was a great design, not realizing this patent was out there. I think they thought they could argue around infringement in the litigation, but that didn’t prove to work out for them, so we are where we are today.”

Gambino says that Valve’s motion for a new trial was rejected because it ultimately failed to convince Zilly that the evidence at the first trial was insufficient.

“What happens at the end of a trial, whether it’s a jury or a bench trial, is that you have the opportunity to file post-trial motions. And one of the things that you can ask the judge for is a new trial, or judgment in your favor despite the jury’s verdict.’ So you can call into question things like expert testimony, and pieces of documentary evidence. And basically, that’s what Valve did, they said: ‘We don’t think the evidence supports this infringement verdict or the damages award. And a couple of things that they attacked were expert testimony regarding damages and whether or not their controller actually infringed the patent.”

Likewise, Gambino said that SCUF failed to convince Zilly that it was entitled to more than the $4M the jury awarded in its verdict because of the Valve designer’s ignorance of the existence of the patent.

“Ironburg/SCUF Gaming came back with their own post-trial motion. This happens a lot – parties file post-trial motions trying to get the things that they didn’t get during the trial. And SCUFcame back and said, ‘Alright, we believe that Valve/Steam did this intentionally and therefore under the patent laws, we’re entitled to treble damages for willful infringement,’ which would mean the jury’s verdict of about $4M would be tripled to $12M.”

Gambino went on to say that the judge weighed two important things when it considered SCUF’s motion:

“Two of the things that the judge focused on was that the lead designer of the Steam controller testified that he didn’t see the patent until well after he began the design process, he didn’t see it until after the commercial version of the controller was fully developed. The other thing that the judge found to be important is that this case started out with four or five patents being asserted by SCUF against Valve. But everything was narrowed down to a single patent because Valve had attacked the validity of SCUF’s other patents at the Patent & Trademark Office. So the judge looked at that because the Patent Office invalidated some of the claims of the other patents.”

When asked if this successful lawsuit by SCUF will lead to other controller makers becoming targets of subsequent infringement lawsuits, Gambino thinks it probably won’t be any major players in the industry, but smaller start-ups trying to enter the market that may inadvertently or unknowingly utilize some patented technology.

“I haven’t taken a look at SCUF’s other patents – I’m sure they have quite a few – but I’d say the targets for them would be independent controller companies who are looking to go out into the market or maybe Microsoft or Sony the next time they develop a new controller redesign. Microsoft already holds a license from SCUF for their Xbox ‘Elite’ controller.”

Finally, while it’s usually a given that lawsuits are appealed, Gambino doesn’t think either party in this case wants to take the matter to the Ninth Circuit.

“They have been litigating this case for a long time. Valve is not making the controller anymore. I don’t think that the denial of the willful infringement damages on behalf of SCUF is something that they would probably want to appeal. Just from reading Judge Zilly’s order, I don’t know that there will be an appeal. Valve may just pay the $4M and be done with it since it’s not an ongoing product that they’re continuing to generate sales from.”

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[Infinitron]

 

[tritosine2k]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com...on-steam-controller-patent-infringement-case/

Valve loses $4 million Steam Controller patent infringement case
STEAM FIRM TOLD TO PAY DAMAGES IN FIRST EVER VIRTUAL PATENT INFRINGEMENT JURY TRIAL

...b.b.but bbbbut "HW is worthless":

bkraz on Jan 17, 2017 | parent | favorite | on: Oculus accused of destroying evidence, Zuckerberg ...

It fits a pattern. I was a hardware engineer at Valve during the early VR days, working mostly on Lighthouse and the internal dev headset. There were a few employees who insisted that the Valve VR group give away both hardware and software to Oculus with the hope that they would work together with Valve on VR. The tech was literally given away -- no contract, no license. After the facebook acquisition, these folks presumably received large financial incentives to join facebook, which they did. It was the most questionable thing I've seen in my whole career, and was partially caused by Valve's flat management structure and general lack of oversight. I left shortly after.

bkraz on Jan 17, 2017 [–]

Overall, I think Valve is a good place to work, and I learned a lot from all of the incredibly smart people there. The main reason that I left was the difficulty in merging hardware development with the company's exceptionally successful business model. The hardware team was pressured to give away lots of IP that could have been licensed, with the explanation that hardware is just so worthless anyway compared to online software sales, there was no other choice. It's possible that this was a good faith gamble, however it still doesn't preclude the use of business contracts that would have protected our investment. It also isn't so great for morale to hear everyday that your years of work are going to be given away to another company, and then watch that company get acquired for $2B. This is especially the case since many employees strongly voiced concerns about just such a scenario.
Growth at Valve is a little funny. It's like an oil-rich nation. Gaining more citizens is not really desirable since the wealth will just get spread more thinly, and there is no way that new employees will be able to make more money than Steam already does with a very limited number of employees. I know the company is trying new things, and making honest investments in new areas, but it's hard to shake the bottom line.

lol @ that echo chamber

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[tritosine2k]

Good to see this done so dutifully, it really drives the point home in my sig about these doorknob level errand boys.

 

[tritosine2k]

@SerratedBiz Yes! RPGcodex has its share of snake-oil errand-boys , who want to see you fleeced into stuff, and invent ordeals like , "monitors are a scam" , "perfect absolute blacks" etc . Beware.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

anyone know why steam still shows me games that have tags I set to ignore?

 

[LESS T_T]

I think it's been pointed out here and other sites, but the filter does not totally filter out games with tags you choose to ignore. It probably has some algorithm behind, probably counts factors like how relevant the tag is for that game, why the game is pushed on that place (for example that Spellbreak game is obviously featured due to recent big update. That game is the first thing I see on the main page too.), tendency of games you actively chose to ignore, popularity, and more whatever variables.

 

[Bad Sector]

AFAIK the games in Featured, Recommended, etc are not filtered out, the excluded tags are filtering normal searches and grids. Also AFAIK a similar approach applies to Discovery Queue where things are not completely removed but only weighted down.

I think the thinking behind this is that games aren't going to stay there for long anyway and Valve wants to give a chance for them to be seen regardless since people do tend to buy games with tags they have excluded anyway (you can also think of it as allowing a few less fitting individuals -games in this case- to avoid local optima in genetic algorithms - i.e. by occasionally showing you a game you may otherwise have not seen you may end up buying it anyway and can end up expanding your interested tag list even if you wont remove that particular tag from your exclusion list).

In addition even with normal searches and grids, the excluded tags do not apply uniformly but based on their popularity for a specific product (ie. some game having 'Single Player' tagged 1000 times and 'Anime' tagged 2 times wont be excluded if you exclude Anime - as the tooltip says, this is only for "highly tagged" games). Note that this also applies to tags used for inclusion globally: a generic tag like 'Indie' is much less useful than something very specific, so Steam will give it little weight for recommendations, etc than it would give something more specific like 'Music-Based Procedural Generation'.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

why won't steam stop recommending me "Horse games"? This is all from my frontpage right now:

 

[mediocrepoet]

That explains more about you than I ever thought possible.

 

[Bad Sector]

why won't steam stop recommending me "Horse games"?

The answer is right up there, "Due to your recent playtime in other Horses games" :-P.

My guess is that "Horses" being non-generic (like, e.g. "Action" would be) is given greater weight.

 

[OSK]

...which horse games have you been playing?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

...which horse games have you been playing?

MGSV, apparently.
Wasn't that great, wouldn't recommend.

 

[Jenkem]

you've blocked so many tags all that's left is horsecock for you