Steam News has an
official statement on the problems on
Steam on
Christmas, explaining why some users were able to see details from other
accounts. They explain the incidents stemmed from issues with a caching solution
that was implemented to combat a denial of service attack, and offer the
following outline of exactly what happened:
On December 25th, a
configuration error resulted in some users seeing Steam Store pages generated
for other users. Between 11:50 PST and 13:20 PST store page requests for about
34k users, which contained sensitive personal information, may have been
returned and seen by other users.
The content of these requests varied by page, but some pages included a Steam
user’s billing address, the last four digits of their Steam Guard phone number,
their purchase history, the last two digits of their credit card number, and/or
their email address. These cached requests did not include full credit card
numbers, user passwords, or enough data to allow logging in as or completing a
transaction as another user.
If you did not browse a Steam Store page with your personal information (such as
your account page or a checkout page) in this time frame, that information could
not have been shown to another user.
Valve is currently working with our web caching partner to identify users whose
information was served to other users, and will be contacting those affected
once they have been identified. As no unauthorized actions were allowed on
accounts beyond the viewing of cached page information, no additional action is
required by users.
GOG.com announces the
rerelease of
TrickStyle,
an arcade hoverboard racer first released for in 1999 for windows and as a SEGA
Dreamcast launch title.
Gamasutra has the explanation for the game's reappearance, saying this was
one of the final batch of assets sold off
in 2006 following
the bankruptcy of Acclaim
in 2004. They note a post
on NeoGAF
noting that Throwback Entertainment also recently
announced plans to
rerelease Gladiator- Sword of Vengeance for Windows Phone and Xbox One, so they
seem to be actually doing something with these IPs they've owned for almost a
decade. Here's more on the rerelease of TrickStyle:
Zoom zoom zoom.
TrickStyle, an arcadey
hoverboard racer, is available now, DRM-free on GOG.com.
It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's your next-door neighbor!
In a distant future where jobs are few and hardly necessary, people have to keep
busy somehow. Some watch television, some hop on rocket-powered hoverboards and
make an afternoon out of it. TrickStyle is a game where speed and style reign
supreme. Here, you'll zoom along twisted, neon-laced futuristic landscapes (a
pleasant change of pace from the grungy dystopian settings we're so used to),
master increasingly more complex tricks, and get to play around with each
hoverboard's unique physics. Beautifully animated tricks and tons of personality
make TrickStyle an absolutely unique, and certainly still worth trying, classic.
Eat your heart out, pro-skaters,
TrickStyle is in town - DRM-free on GOG.com.
There's another story brewing about game comings and goings on GOG.com besides
the above and
the recent
report of the imminent departure of Duke Nukem games. A
post on reddit notes that though the Interplay catalog is
now on sale on
GOG.com, the Descent series is not part of this, and is no longer offered on
the service (thanks
PC Gamer).
This forum post from rights-holder Parallax Software explains that this is
due to an ongoing royalty dispute with Interplay. Here's word:
Hey,
Folks. Here's the story.
Parallax Software still exists and still owns the copyrights to the Descent
games. Under our 21-year-old agreement, Interplay has the exclusive rights to
sell Descent and Descent II, and they have been doing so on Good Old Games and
Steam.
The problem is that Interplay has not paid to Parallax any royalties since 2007.
We've talked to them about this numerous times over the years, and finally took
action this fall. We served Interplay official notice that they were in breach
of the contract, and when they still failed to pay we terminated the agreement.
This means that Interplay has lost the right to sell the Descent games, which is
why they came down from GOG. (We're not sure why they're still on Steam; they
shouldn't be.)
Interplay does, however, still own the Descent trademark, which they are free to
use or license as they see fit (such as for Descent: Underground) as long as
they don't violate our copyrights.
As for whether Descent and Descent II will be available for purchase again, we
hope so. We'd be very happy to work things out with Interplay.
Matt Toschlog & Mike Kulas
Parallax Software
War
Is Boring - ‘The Witcher 3’ Understands War. Thanks JDreyer.
"Many video games are power fantasies, and most that involve warfare
depict the glory of combat and put the player in the lead role. Not so in
The Witcher 3. Geralt has his own motivations, and he does his best to avoid
politics and the larger conflict between Nilfgaard and the Northern
Kingdoms.
And CD Projekt never depicts war as glorious or fun. Soldiers describe
combat as a lot of boredom and waiting punctuated by moments of frenzied
madness. The Northern War of the The Witcher 3 is all about waiting,
survival and boredom."
Gamasutra - Game dev veterans speak out against game industry ageism.
"It's a topic that's rarely broached, and during the ensuing discussion a
broad array of points were made about how "old" in the game industry is
often much younger than you think, and what game makers can do to keep their
skills sharp and find new ways to apply them as they grow older.
Everything from becoming a game development educator to crafting games for
new markets (including the small but growing audience of people over 50 who
regularly play video games) was discussed, and if you missed catching it in
person you should definitely
watch it for free now
via the official GDC YouTube channel."
What do you say today to the actress who played Jan on the Brady Bunch? Happy
New Year's Eve Eve, Eve!
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