The 
competition is getting more intense for Facebook’s Oculus Rift.
Valve Software, the videogame developer and creator/operator of the industry’s largest PC game digital distribution platform, will unveil its own virtual reality hardware next week at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. The company has not yet announced whether the system will see a commercial release, but it is actively meeting with content partners at the show, generally an indicator that it does plan to do so.
Hang 
onto your wallet. Valve’s coming after your money again.
The annual Steam Summer sale, a blowout event designed to trigger the impulse nodes of your gamer brain, is on. And, as always, the deals are tempting.
The 
New Year is off to a lousy start for some of the gaming industry’s largest digital distribution sites.
Valve’s Steam, EA’s Origin, and Blizzard’s Battle.net were the target of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks Thursday night, which overloaded servers and took the sites offline. All three have adjusted their firewalls and are back online at this point.
On 
Monday, video game powerhouse Valve Software introduced an operating system based on its Steam digital distribution service. Then on Wednesday, it announced hardware that would run that OS in the living room. So it wasn’t a big surprise when the company’s third mystery unveiling this week was a controller for that system.
Until we saw the thing.
Two 
days after announcing a new operating system based on its Steam digital distribution service, Valve has announced the hardware that will run it.
Steam Machines — the official term for the long-rumored ‘SteamBox’ — will start hitting stores next year from multiple partners, Valve said Wednesday. It stopped short of naming the companies it’s working with on the hardware.
Steam — 
Valve’s popular digital game distribution service — is outgrowing your home office.
The publisher announced plans Monday to launch a Linux-based standalone operating system called SteamOS. Due in 2014, the platform is designed to help further the service’s move into the living room.
Jason 
Holtman, who spearheaded Valve’s Steam business for eight years before leaving the company in February, has a new job.
The former lawyer has taken a job with Microsoft, with a focus on PC gaming and entertainment strategy. Because he has just started at the position, Holtman declined an interview request, but confirmed the move.
Gabe 
Newell, latest inductee in the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame, has helped revolutionize the videogame industry.
The co-founder and managing director of Valve Software has overseen development on several beloved and influential franchises, including “Half-Life,” “Portal” and “Left 4 Dead.” And he led the charge in digital distribution efforts with Steam, Valve’s online sales and digital rights management platform. With more than 54 million users, Steam’s sales have doubled every year since 2005. Forbes estimates Steam sales make up 50%-70% of the $4 billion downloaded PC game market — and give publishers a much bigger profit margin.
Valve, 
the creators and caretakers of the incredibly successful PC game distribution service Steam, has been hinting around its plans to move into the living room for more than a year. Apparently, the company has finally put its money where its mouth is.
Valve has invested in the fledgling hardware company Xi3, the maker of small desktop PCs, to create a mini gaming PC.
Console 
gaming might have commanded center stage for the past six years, but the PC is stealing back the spotlight.
How? It could be because of the sequelitis that’s running rampant in the console world these days. Or perhaps it’s due to the extended lifecycle of the current consoles, which no longer offer the best technology on the block. Whatever the reason, the PC — which many wrote off as a dead gaming system — is back, and it’s back in a big way.
If you’re not playing games on your PC (and we’re not talking about Farmville here, people), you’re missing out. Still sitting on the fence? Here are seven reasons you might want to consider investing in a PC gaming rig.
Chris Morris: Journalist 