Shadow Warrior Classic, an updated version of 3D Realms' 1997 game Shadow Warrior, is now available for free on Steam. The free game has been released by developer Flying Wild Hog and publisher Devolver Digital, who are also working on a "reimagining" of the game. The remake will also be called Shadow Warrior, and is set for release later this year on Windows PC and next-generation consoles.

Valve announced six new titles to be greenlighted by the Steam community. The new games that will eventually make their way to Steam thanks to the community's support are Bleed, Game Dev Tycoon, Riot, Stardew Valley, The Legend, and Legends of Eisenwald.

Valve Software announced that the very first game to make use of its freshly launched support for subscriptions is the MMO Darkfall Unholy Wars, with "additional subscription-based games to follow."

Valve has announced the latest batch of games and application software to be approved for sale on the digital distribution platform as part of its Steam Greenlight program. Eighteen new games and two new software programs join the 90 titles Greenlit since Steam Greenlight launched in August of last year.

Valve has refunded the money of a man who says that a certain choice in Bioshock Infinite goes against his religious beliefs. We won't mention the specifics of the choice beyond saying that it relates to a Christian religious rite, so as to avoid giving any spoilers. Breen Malmberg, who says he is a Christian, found the choice to be unacceptable.

Valve Software today revealed a new feature for Steam users called "Early Access" which allows consumers to roll the dice and buy a game still in development and play it early. Valve calls this an opportunity to "go behind the scenes" and experience the development cycle of games first-hand. They'll also be able to interact with game developers and provide the feedback that could potentially make the game better.

Update: We didn't have to wait long to hear Vblank Entertainment's thoughts on WiiWare. Speaking to Nintendo Life exclusively in an interview to be published in full over the weekend, Brian Provinciano called the WiiWare release a $20,000 gift to Wii fans. He asks everyone to go buy it so he can recoup some of those costs.

The War Z has returned to Steam a full two months after Valve made the decision to pull Developer Hammerpoint Interactive's online zombie apocalypse game from its digital distribution platform. The game, which was released on Steam December 18, 2012 was later pulled after consumers who bought the game said that it lacked features that were listed on the game's product page. Some went so far as to accuse the game's developer of false advertising.

Listening to its users, Valve pulled the game from the virtual storefront a day later and issued the following statement:

Valve has revealed the next 12 software titles that have been approved by the community as part of its Steam Greenlight system.

Valve CEO and co-founder Gabe Newell will be honored by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) with the Academy Fellowship at this year's British Academy Games Awards. He'll be honored with this prestigious award at a ceremony taking place on March 5 at the London Hilton, Park Lane.

After a long wait, Linux users can finally use the Steam Client on their favorite open sourced operating system. Linux users can download the free Steam client from the Ubuntu Software Center right now. Steam for Linux client is fully compatible with Steam's Big Picture mode, which allows users to play games on their high definition television sets using a controller. At launch the client supports around 50 Linux compatible games including Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life, Team Fortress 2, and more.

Valve's Gabe Newell took the unusual step of breaking his silence on recent developments inside Valve after it was reported yesterday that as many as 25 employees have been let go. Valve did not confirm that that number was accurate. Among those confirmed to be leaving the company are Valve’s director of business Jason Holtman and hardware engineer Jeri Ellsworth.

The German consumer advocacy group The Federation of German Consumer Association has filed an official complaint against Valve Software for its Steam's end-user license agreement because it does not allow consumers to resell digital content. The European High Court ruled last year that digital content games can be sold. The complaint against Valve filed with the German courts is directly related to that ruling.

Valve has officially launched a Guides tab in its community hub, allowing players to get some much needed hints, tips, and tricks from fellow gamers. The new tab allows the Steam community to share helpful guides for their favorite games using text, video, and screenshots.

Recently Valve Software co-founder Gabe Newell sat down with Chris Hardwick of The Nerdist Podcast to talk about the company's plans to take over the living room entertainment space with Steam's Big Picture Mode and with hardware like Steam Box. Some of that conversation was transcribed by Games Industry International.

It was long rumored to be Valve's home console and now it's a reality. The home console system called "Steam Box" when it was just a rumor is real. Valve today announced during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas a new home console called the Xi3 Piston. Valve has teamed up with hardware startup company Xi3 to create a mini-PC.

A number of Activision's James Bond games have disappeared from Valve software's Steam digital distribution platform, Xbox 360's Games on Demand service and Activision's own store, according to GameSpot.

Valve Software announced today that the Steam Linux beta client is now available to all Steam users. The Linux client for the popular digital distribution platform had previously been available only to a select few Steam users. Along with access to the client for everyone, the beta is supported by a "growing catalog" of Linux-supported games, an "active" Steam for Linux community group, and a new GitHub bug reporting repository.

Hammerpoint Interactive's controversial zombie survival game The War Z has been removed from Steam. Earlier this morning we reported on the very vocal and public outcry of consumers who say that The War Z was falsely advertised by its developers and that it was missing features promised in the game's original product page - which was later revised. You can get the rundown on all those issues in this news story.

As part of its Steam Community Beta, Valve has launched its own Game Guides, a section not unlike what is offered over at GameFaqs. The new section will offer guides created by the Steam community using text, images or images and other stuff you might have hiding in your Steam Cloud. From the Steam Community Beta Page:

Valve Software has launched the Steam Community Market in open beta, allowing Steam users to buy and sell in-game items using Steam Wallet funds. Sale items can be listed on the Community Market page or in players' personal inventories. Currently only Team Fortress 2 is supported and only consumables and tools can be sold at this time.

As the beta goes on, Valve plans to allow other items to be sold in Team Fortress 2 and to add the Steam Community Market functionality to other games. That will start to happen early next year.

The rumors about Steam Box - a console-like system powered by Valve's popular digital distribution platform Steam may turn out to be true after all. Speaking to Kotaku recently Valve co-founder and top executive Gabe Newell said that custom PC packages featuring Steam that can go head-to-head with Sony and Microsoft will start shipping in the early part of 2013.

Valve Software has launched Steam Big Picture today, bringing its popular digital distribution platform to HD television sets everywhere. The new version of Steam allows gamers to bring their games in Steam to the big screen with higher resolution - and with some games - full gamepad support. Out of the gate, Steam Big Picture offers about 30 games that can be played on a gamepad.

Valve's digital distribution platform Steam has hit a major milestone, according to data found on the service's statisitics page. According to the data found there Steam recorded a record 6 million concurrent users over the weekend - up from the last record of five million concurrent users in January of this year. The exact peak simultaneous user figure was 6,046,314 at around noon we assume PT) on November 25.

Rockstar Games was forced to pull Grand Theft Auto: Vice City from Steam, according to reports from The Sixth Axis and Cinema Blend.

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) announced this morning that Valve president and co-founder Gabe Newell will be the 17th inductee into the AIAS Hall of Fame. He will also deliver the 2013 D.I.C.E. Summit as its Thursday conference keynote. The 2013 Hall of Fame Award will be presented to Gabe by Epic Games President Dr. Michael Capps, who serves on the AIAS board of directors and the AIAS awards committee.

While Ethereal Entertainment's Faceless has been a top vote-getter on Steam Greenlight since the platform's launch in September, Valve has decided not to publish the game on Steam because of copyright concerns, according to Joystiq.

Valve Software announced via its Steam Greenlight site that it will announce the next round of games that have gotten the "greenlight" to be released on Steam via its community-driven game discovery system. The next batch of titles to receive the Steam Greenlight treatment will be on November 30. Valve also said that it will reveal the "first graduating class of Software titles," with at least five Software (non-gaming) titles targeted for inclusion in this group.

At a presentation at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Denmark earlier this week, Valve Software's Drew Bliss told attendees that the open-sourced operating system Linux is more viable than Windows 8 for gaming at this point. Valve has been a vocal critic of Microsoft's new operating system because of its included app store. The store is not an open environment and requires approval by Microsoft to get products certified for sale within the closed marketplace.

Computer World reports that the way browsers and other applications handle the "steam://" protocol URLs can be exploited by hackers, according to researchers from ReVuln. The Steam client can run on Windows and Mac OS X. Valve is currently testing a beta version of the client that supports Linux.