When you’re a content creator or a content provider, the battle against piracy really comes down to one thing: Competing against free. Naturally, this is a difficult thing to do, but it’s not impossible. It might actually be easier than cramming more DRM and IP law down everyone’s throats. Need a proof-of-concept? Just look at Steam, whose intiuitive and user-friendly platform has made buying games an absolute joy. This infographic by Video Game Design School does a blow-by-blow breakdown of exactly how well Steam is doing and how they’re pulling it off. Take notes.

Steam, the online gaming distribution system we know and love, announced back in November that they’d been the victim of a security breach. At the time, it was reported that the hacker had accessed the Steam user database, but that no information appeared to have been compromised. However, the ongoing investigation seems to indicate that it might be worse than originally thought.

Other than a few instances of playful trolling, Valve has been utterly — painfully — silent about the future of the Half-Life franchise for years now. The Half-Life 2 episodes, while not exactly you may have wanted, at least provided that I.V. drip fans so desperately needed until it cruelly ended at Episode 2, and on no less than the  largest ever cliffhangers in the series. Now, members of Steam Group “A Call for Communication,” who number around 28,000, are planning to play Half-Life 2 this Saturday as a way of half-demanding, half-begging Valve to talk about Half-Life again.

Q-Games, makers of the PixelJunk games, has revealed today that PixelJunk Eden will be breaking out of its PSN exclusivity and hitting Steam. Though PixelJunk Eden has been released since 2008, the game remains absolutely excellent, and the Steam version will include its Encore DLC pack, which adds new levels, and the whole package will only cost $9.99, which after having played through both Eden and Encore, I personally consider a steal.

Everyone’s favorite PC game distribution platform Origin Steam is rolling out a mobile app. Get ready to spend 200% more on Steam sales. The new app, for both iOS and Android will allow users to chat with friends, check and update their friends list, and most importantly, buy games. Gone are the days of rushing to your computer to buy Steam games before the sweet deals expire. Also gone are they days of you having any money.

Steam, the premier PC digital distribution suite, experienced a security breach on November 6th. On its face, it appeared to be just some garden-variety forum vandalization, but on looking into it further, Valve found that a Steam user database was compromised as well. The server contained some actual Steam users’ account information, which is distinctly seperate from Steam forum account information, but Valve says it has found no evidence that any of the encrypted information was taken.

Everyone’s favorite game featuring portals that make a “blowmp” sound is free on Steam for the next few days, until September 20. So, if for some reason you haven’t played Portal and the generally super cheap entry fee hasn’t been cheap enough, now you have no excuse.

The minimum system recommendations are pretty low, not even requiring DirectX 9. The Windows version recommends a 1.7 GHz processor and a measly 512MB of RAM, while the Mac version recommends a OSX 10.5.8, 1 GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce 8 or higher, or an ATI X1600 or higher, or an Intel HD 3000. So, basically, if you have a Windows computer from five years ago, you can play Portal for free, and if you have a MacBook from the Leopard days, you can play Portal for free. What I’m saying here, is if you haven’t yet played Portal, you should go play Portal. It’s free for the next few days. Get it here.

(via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

Super Meat Boy fans have been waiting for this for a long time (and, truth be told, they’ve weathered some delays), and it’s finally here: A full level editor for the popular indie platformer has been released on Steam, allowing players to create their own devilish levels.

Here’s what you’re getting: You can create levels, upload them to Super Meat World, and then vote on your favourites. You can create and upload whole chapters with custom par times, titles and music. You can choose which Super Meat Boy characters are used in your levels, selecting from the whole cast of 20 characters. The best levels and chapters will be periodically chosen by Team Meat and featured for maximum exposure.

The editor is currently available in beta, and can be accessed by PC users in Steam’s “Tools” section. It won’t, however, be coming to XBox Live Arcade: “No, we cant legally do a non-regulated editor on Xbla, but we will try to continue to upload new chapters to xbla via the internets.”

(Team Meat via IndieGames)

Back at E3, Valve honcho Gabe Newell said the PlayStation 3 was going to be the platform with the best Portal 2 experience available. A bit after that, it was revealed that the PS3 title would be receiving Steam integration. Now, continuing to back up Newell’s statement, Valve has announced that if one buys the PS3 version of Portal 2, they’ll receive a free voucher for the PC and Mac Steam versions of the game as well, simply by linking one’s PlayStation Network account to their Steam account. If that weren’t enough, all these platforms will be able to play and chat with one another, as well as store save files on the cloud, which can be accessed by any of the platforms. Valve also promised to add “more Steam features and functionality in DLC and future content releases.”

Portal 2 is currently set for an April 20 release. I apologize, but it has to be said. This is a triumph.

(via Ars Technica)

Prepare Your Wallet: Steam Now Recommends Games For You (That Videogame Blog)

Why The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Don’t Use Their Weapons (CollegeHumor)

The Trailer for Source Code (Bleeding Cool)

The LAPD’s Stolen Art Database (BoingBoing)

Mr. Peanut Speaks, Is Product of Impressive Stop-Motion Animators (Motionographer)

The First Page of Watchmen Goes For $33,500 (Bleeding Cool)

Amazon Expands Its Game Downloads Service (Joystiq)

(pic via Reddit.)