The Humble Indie Bundle, where players could pay whatever they want for a bundle of games — which now includes Machinarium as well — has topped an impressive $1 million in revenue. The developers of four of the games — Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD and Penumbra Overture — have released their games to open source, as a thanks for the contributions. The total number: 125,415 contributors have put down $1,149,429 in total.
Apparently, someone at Valve realized that they operated Counter-Strike as well, in addition to Team Fortress 2 and Left For Dead. Valve has announced that they’ve updated CS Source with new features and new engine updates, and the whole thing is now in a beta for selected users. The new features include:
144 achievements added
New lifetime player stats and summary screens
New match player stats and summary screens
New end of round display with MVP and interesting fact about a player
Updated scoreboard with new icons, visual style, MVP stars, and avatar pictures
New cinematic death camera
New domination and revenge system
Added avatar icons to voice chat, scoreboard, and end of round display
Metro 2033 developer 4A Games has said they’ve almost wrapped up development on DLC for their successful post-apocalyptic game, and will unveil it next week. No details on the DLC were released, so it could be anything from new items and guns to new levels. We hope it’s a bit of everything. Check out our Metro 2033 review here.
According to a new report from Newzoo and TNS, Americans spent $25.3 billion on videogames in 2009, the number includes consoles, mobile, PC, MMOs and pretty much everything gaming related. However, compared to NPD’s numbers, which suggest that the 2009 revenues were around $20 billion, we’re not sure where the last $5 billion came from. While NPD surveys game retailers and outlets, the Newzoo report surveyed 13,000 gamers of different demographics.
After a successful beta period, Valve has announced that it plans to roll out Steam on the Mac tomorrow. The two launch titles so far only include Portal and Torchlight — both excellent games — and Valve’s other heavy hitters are to be released on the Mac as well, including Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike Source.
2K Games has confirmed that a multiplayer patch for BioShock 2 is on the way for all platforms, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, and will fix a number of issues and bugs, including the connectivity issues which have plagued the game since launch. The patch is in the final stage of testing and should be submitted for certification at Microsoft and Sony shortly. Expect it in a week or two.
Nintendo posted fiscal year 2009 profits of $2.43 billion, which, at most companies, would be quite impressive, and it is in Nintendo’s case as well. However, it’s the first time the Big N has posted lower profits in 4 years, as the Wii fever is finally ebbing out. One of the key reasons for the declining profit is the lower price on the Wii — $200 instead of $250.
Sony and Media Molecule recently confirmed that LittleBigPlanet 2 was indevelopment, and now, we get the first trailer of the game, which shows that LBP2 will be capable of a lot more than the original game.
Judge Judy is one strict lady, and in this case, she deals with a couple, one of whom claims he took a PS3, which was leased — at $2400. For a $400 machine.
Game developer David Rosen of Wolfire brings an interesting blog post with a different view on game piracy, one of the most talked about and controversial subjects surrounding the game industry today — especially the PC game industry.
Rosen makes some valid points, and we won’t try to recap his article here, you should really read it on his blog.