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Oh no...

Valve's Steam Machine is now available for purchase and that is the extent of the good news here. Starting today, there are four different configurations to choose from with the cheapest coming in at an eye watering $1,049.

That $1,049 will get you a Steam Machine with just 512GB of internal storage and no controller. If you want that same 512GB model with a controller, the price goes up to $1,128.

Besides the 512GB options, Valve is also offering...

Digital only moving forward.

Valve says that they will no longer release new stock of Steam Gift Cards at retail outlets. This surprising news was shared somewhat quietly through an update to the Support page for the Steam Wallet.

As part of the FAQ on that support page, Valve says that the supply of physical gift cards will not be replenished once the current supply is sold. Valve says that scammers are to blame for the end of the physical Steam Gift Cards at retailers....

Prices still haven't been announced yet though.

Hold onto your butts and wallets, because the Steam Machine and Steam Frame are expected to ship this summer. This news come directly from Valve in a new Steam news posting about an expansion to the Steam Verified program.

Valve says that they expect both the Steam Machine and Steam from to begin "shipping this summer." Beyond that brief statement, they did not provide any specific date for either device. Valve...

The 1TB model is now almost $1,000.

If you thought that Valve would magically escape the tech component shortage and rising costs, you had best think again. Valve just increased the prices of the current Steam Deck models by as much as $300.

The 512GB Steam Deck OLED is now $789, an increase of $200 from its previous $549 price tag. The 1TB Steam Deck OLED is now $949, which is a huge $300 increase from the $649 it was previously retailing for. Both models are still...

Surprise!

Valve is still being sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The lawsuit, filed in February 2026, accuses Valve of "promoting illegal gambling and threatening to addict children through its use of 'loot boxes'." James and the state of New York is seeking "full restitution" for players, claiming that "loot boxes pose the same dangers as casino gambling, especially for children."

Valve already issued one response to this...

Been a while since we did one of these.

Valve pushed out a small update for Counter-Strike 2 today. As this one wasn't made super late, as most of their updates have been, I figured I'd pass along the news.

The update seems to just include a few fixes to the game, namely for some issues on the newly released Cache map. There really isn't too much else to say here. ...

The first of Valve's trifecta of new hardware has a release date.

Valve will officially release their new Steam Controller on May 4, 2026 at 10 AM PT for a price of $99 (USD). This new controller was announced in November 2025 alongside their new Steam Machine and Steam Frame VR headset.

Valve says that the Steam Controller was designed "with all the inputs to play all your game son Steam however you like to play them." The Steam Controller is compatible with...

And Valve is caught not enforcing their own policies.

Crimson Desert features generative AI (genAI) art assets in the final build of the game that released to everyone just yesterday. While I have yet to see the obvious genAI art assets myself, several examples have already been posted to social media and Reddit across a number of discussion threads.

According to some media outlets, there is "debate" about if the assets were made with generative AI or not....

Why though?

Valve just made one of the biggest gameplay changes ever to Counter-Strike since the addition of the riot shield. As of today's update for Counter-Strike 2, Valve made it so that when you reload your weapon, you will drop the used magazine and discard all of its remaining ammo.

Previously, and this was the case for literal decades now, when you reloaded your weapons the ammo was just dumped back into a total "pool" of ammo. Sure, it wasn't realistic...

It doesn't take much to be Steam Machine verified.

As part of a presentation at GDC (PDF link) this week, Valve clarified what it takes for games to be given the "verified" status across their current and upcoming hardware lineup.

When it comes to their upcoming Steam Machine, Valve says that if a game is already verified for the Steam Deck, it is then verified for the Steam Machine. In other words, if a game can run at 1080p at 30 FPS it's technically Steam...

Valve is "disappointed" by this lawsuit.

Valve, in an extraordinarily bizarre move, just released a public statement in which they voice their "disappointment" over a recent lawsuit filed against them. Of the four lawsuits Valve is currently facing, the Steam developer took a moment to publicly rebuke several of the claims levied against them from New York Attorney General (NYAG) Letitia James.

James filed a lawsuit against Valve on February 25, 2026...

The total number of high-profile lawsuits against Valve in 2026 is up to four.

Valve's legal team is surely earning their paychecks these days. In late February, Valve was sued by New York with allegations that their loot box mechanics promoted illegal gambling and could get children addicted to gambling. Just earlier today, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Valve in Washington state that claims Valve has been "knowingly operating unlawful gambling through its loot box...

Valve is accused of running an illegal gambling operation.

On Monday, March 9, 2026, a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington against Valve. The lawsuit says that Valve has been knowingly operating an illegal gambling operation through their loot box system integrated that has been integrated into several titles available through Steam.

This is a class-action lawsuit led by the Hagens Berman firm. Steve Berman, founder and...

That would be 100,000,000,000,000 MB, or about 8,781,173 years of scrolling TikTok.

Valve just shared their "Steam Year in Review 2025" on Friday. This is the company's annual summary of improvements and data that is mainly geared towards developers, but does sometimes include some facts and details that everyone may find interesting.

This year's review is no exception.

Valve says that since 2020, Steam grew at a pace of about 3.4 million concurrent...

Valve accused of promoting "quintessential gambling."

Valve is being sued yet again. This time it's from New York's attorney general Letitia James. According to reporting on this lawsuit from Reuters, James is accusing Valve of "promoting illegal gambling and threatening to addict children through its use of 'loot boxes'."

The suit was filed earlier in the day on February 25 in a state court in Manhattan. James says that the loot boxes violate the...