Valve experimenting with gameplay that changes depending on perspiration

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Imagine yourself playing a first-person shooter. As the gameplay gets intense, your heart starts racing. The game detects your pulse and the beads of sweat dripping down your face and in response, speeds up the action and gives you less time to complete a mission. But, if you’re calm and not perspiring, everything remains normal…. Read More…

Game of the Year? Vote here in the GeekWire Awards

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The Seattle region may be known for operating systems, airplanes and coffee, but video games play a huge role in the technology scene, and today we’re pleased to present a new GeekWire Awards category that recognizes this important field. Below you’ll find the five finalists for Game of the Year — the top video games… Read More…

VIDEO: What makes Seattle such an awesome gaming city

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The list of game development companies in the Seattle area, from Valve to PopCap to 343, is certainly impressive. And to show how awesome the Emerald City’s gaming scene is, GameSpot just put out a really well-done video showcasing the talent here. They spoke with several of the city’s leading game devs, from Pete Parsons… Read More…

‘Dear Valve, Hire Me’: What happened to the woman who wrote that song

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Do you remember Erin Michael Vondrak? She really, really wanted to work at Valve. So much, in fact, that she wrote a song with an accompanying YouTube video, titled “Dear Valve: Hire Me” — her unique way of supplementing her application to work for the maker of Portal and Half-Life. It has been nearly two years since… Read More…

Gabe Newell: Valve saw business spike 50% in 2012 thanks to ‘open platforms’

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Business is booming at Valve. The Bellevue-based gaming company is thriving, according to CEO Gabe Newell, who said that Valve saw a 50 percent spike in sales in 2012. He credited the success to having open platforms and gave an example of a recent Dota 2 update. “We were generating 3.5 TB per second — that’s… Read More…

Xi3 responds after Valve tries to distance itself from Piston gaming console

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Two months ago at the Consumer Electronics Show, a new partnership between hardware manufacturer Xi3 and Valve seemed bright and happy. The two companies had announced a “development stage system optimized for computer gameplay on large high-definition television monitors” — a device called the Piston that can run Steam-based games on your TV. Xi3 even said it received an investment… Read More…

Valve CEO Gabe Newell: Steam Box controller may measure your heart rate

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Imagine playing an intense horror game and having your gaming experience change depending on how quickly your heart is beating. That could very well be possible with Valve’s new Steam Box controller, as Valve CEO Gabe Newell shed some more details on his company’s first console, the “Steam Box,” a PC designed to connect to your… Read More…

Xbox chief: Main rivals are Nintendo, Sony, Apple and Google … but not Valve

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The competitive landscape for Microsoft’s Xbox console is expanding to include Apple and Google, but the company’s top game and entertainment executive doesn’t see Valve’s move into the living room as particularly competitive with what Microsoft is doing. That was one of the more interesting tidbits from media event on Microsoft’s Redmond campus yesterday. The… Read More…

‘Portal’ sitcom: Machinima hosting web series based on Valve’s classic game

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Portal fans rejoice: Online video network Machinima is hosting a ‘Portal’-themed live action web series set to debut later this month. The show, produced by Wayside Creations, is called Aperture R&D and will premiere March 15. It’s based on workers at Portal‘s Aperture Laboratories and, based on the trailer, seems to mimic the game’s vibe and dark humor. “Based… Read More…

Valve founder Gabe Newell on Linux; geeky maps; and other top posts of the month

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Well, GeekWire readers really must have a burning desire to study cartography. Maps were the hot topic on GeekWire during the month of February, from a rendering of the streets of Seattle post Zombie apocalypse to the tech startups in Pioneer Square to what Tweets have to say about Seattle neighborhoods. Those were three of… Read More…