It would seem that Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360, PC) just keeps surprising Valve. "I thought Left 4 Dead 2 would get the same treatment as Left 4 Dead 1 (Xbox 360 and PC)," said Gabe Newell. "So I was a little surprised [by the decision]." He would be referring to the recent refusal of Australia's OFLC to classify the zombie sequel. No matter, though, they're out to get that approval, and yes, they have officially appealed the decision.

Here's a bit of semi-good news for Australian gamers. Even with Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360, PC) effectively banned in Australia, Valve is not giving up. They're still in the process of making sure that gamers in the region will get something come the game's supposed launch date.

Valve is confident that Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360, PC) will give them a hefty return of investment so much so that they have no qualms forking out US$ 25 million for their consumer advertising plan. And why shouldn't they be confident? Their pre-orders alone already guarantee the game's success.

Members of the Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360, PC) Boycott committee dropped by the Valve offices for a visit, wherein they were given a tour, a small chat with Gabe Newell, and news that the Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360 and PC) team is still very much interested in beefing up part 1's universe, so much so that they are, in fact, cooking up another DLC to come after Crash Course.

Valve has been working overtime trying to quell the backlash surrounding the announcement of Left 4 Dead 2 last week. Project lead Chet Faliszek has already said earlier that they won't stop support for the original game, and now Valve president Gabe Newell has said his piece on the subject.

We all know how Valve doesn't dig Sony's PlayStation 3. We've all heard Gabe Newell bash the console public on more than one occasion, after all. But what's this going on? Valve Corporation is having a change of heart? No less than Doug Lombardi confirms as much.

We all know that Valve's Half-Life 2: Episode 2 kicked some serious booty last year, and it's still among today's favorites because of its superior gameplay. The only downside in this scenario is that fans are asking for more, and they've started looking at E3 2008 as the possible birthplace of the next episode. Valve says "not yet", but they've got another thing for itchy trigger fingers. More after the jump.

As the world draws closer to affordable broadband service and does away with easily scratched optical media, online distribution services, such as Valve Software's Steam, continue to reach a wider audience. Valve was able to look back to 2007 and discovered that their user base has just topped off to over 15 million registered accounts. And what's more, their sales growth peaked to approximately 160% year-on-year over the holidays.

If you've hummed to the tune of Still Alive one too many times, or fantasized going into war with the invigorating sounds of Team Fortress 2 (Xbox 360, PC, PS3), then you might want to consider buying the original soundtrack of The Orange Box.

This disc full of unique audio goodness can be yours for the paltry sum of US$ 9.95. Check out the newly-released product in the full article.

It's always a wonder why gaming is not so big in Macintosh as much as it is in Windows operating systems, and its just a shame why there's so many games that don't make it to Apples and Macintoshes. Case in point: the Half-Life franchise. Kikizo talked with Valve's big boss Gabe Newell about the issue, and things aren't looking so cool with the future of gaming in Apple's operating systems.

Newell said that he tried to talk with Apple about how to improve gaming on the Macintosh, and while they gave a positive response, he said that Apple didn't follow up on what was agreed upon:

Well, we have this pattern with Apple, where we meet with them, people there go "wow, gaming is incredibly important, we should do something with gaming". And then we'll say, "OK, here are three things you could do to make that better", and then they say OK, and then we never see them again.

An even sadder fact is that whenever Newell meets with another group sent by Apple, they were most likely unaware on what was agreed upon in previous meetings. Because of this, Newell is now convinced that Apple is not serious on gaming at all. "None of the things developers ask them to do are done," he said. "And as a result, there's no gaming market there to speak of."

It truly is a sad outlook for Macintosh users hoping to get more games in the future. Hopefully Apple will listen this time: Newell does seem to know what he is talking about after all, with his valuable inputs about managing a company as well as dealing with customers.


Check out the Read link for the entire interview!