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Valve has earned itself a reputation among more devout Sony fans as a dyed-in-the-wool villain. The developer/publisher is despised for not putting its games on the PlayStation 3, a sore point that only got more sore once Steam came to Mac. Valve’s answer for these angered PS3 fans? The PS3 should be more like an Apple product and less like a Gamecube.

“Platform investments like the Mac are difficult because you have to be aware of what direction that platform is moving,” says Gabe Newell, explaining the difficulty in supporting a format. “We need to target platforms that do a better job of looking like where we want to be in a few years. We would love to see the PS3 be more open like a Mac than more closed like a Gamecube.

“It makes it easier to justify those investments if that were the case.”

Valve blows hot and cold with the PS3 all the time, and so far only The Orange Box has ever made its way to Sony’s system. Hopefully Valve can support the PS3 properly in time, although until that day, feel free to keep saying how crap Valve’s games are only to change your mind once Left 4 Dead gets released on Blu-ray. That’s how it works, right?

Valve wants PS3 “open like a Mac,” not “closed like a Gamecube” [ScrawlFX]

Ubisoft, never tired of finding ways to screw with its customers, is undoubtedly punching the air and rubbing its hands together at the news of EA Sport’s Online Pass initiative, a new scheme that charged secondhand buyers $10 to play its games online, while brand new copies offer it for free. Unsurprisingly, Ubisoft likes this, and may follow with its own plans.

“Most of the games we are releasing next year will have from the start downloadable content available,” explains Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez, ”and we are looking very carefully at what is happening with EA regarding what we are calling the $10 solution, and will probably be following that line sometime in the future.”

That’s all well and good, and I get that publishers don’t want people buying used games. However, this despicable victim complex from companies that still make millions upon millions of dollars and charge $60 per game really is getting trite and pathetic. I’m sick to death of publishers acting like the used market is exclusive to the industry and a dreadful cancer, especially as we’re edging ever closer to an all-digital market where these companies are gearing up for complete dominion over its customers and their wallets. 

Basically, STFU game industry. You’re not a unique and fragile little flower. Actually offering good incentives for paying customers, rather than holding expected features hostage, should be your focus. But of course, that would be the less dickish thing to do, and we can’t have that. 

Ubisoft will ‘probably follow’ EA’s Project $10 [Videogamer]

Time for some good old fashioned Sony logic, folks! The PS3 platform holder has earned itself a reputation of being arrogant with years of high prices and awful accompanying PR statements. However, the company believes that it’s not arrogant anymore, because Apple exists.  

“I don’t think we are arrogant anymore. I think we can name a company that is a fruit that is in the news a lot about their arrogance. I think they have taken the mantle from us, if we were ever arrogant,” says Sony Australia’s Michael Ephraim. ”I don’t think we were arrogant. We know there are a lot of challenges in this space, but we’re very comfortable, especially with 3D across the entire Sony group. There’s no company that can deliver that like we can.”

I’ve never heard of Apple claiming it was the market leader when it wasn’t, telling customers to take out a second job to afford its products, claiming Rumble was a last-gen feature or making fun of the world’s largest third party publisher when it threatened to pull support for the PS3, but I might be living in a strange alternate history where Germany won the war and humans evolved from dinosaurs. 

Not that Apple isn’t arrogant, far from it. But acting the prick isn’t suddenly alright just because you found somebody who’s worse. 

Apple more arrogant, says Sony [Brisbane Times via CVG]

We received an e-mail from GameStop with information regarding the pre-order bonus for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Following is the contents of that e-mail as well as the thoughts I had as I read it (in italics):

GameStop announced today a pre-order bonus for the upcoming installment in the biggest action video game series of all time, Call of Duty: Black Ops.

[Whoop-dee-doo. Probably nothing.] 

You have to wait until November to play the game, but if you want this bonus, you can’t wait to pre-order.

[What? Wait... I'm going to be that excited by this?] 

Only the first 300,000

[Christ, that seems like a lot of people] 

fans who pre-order at GameStop will get the exclusive two-sided Black Ops poster.

[Poster? Well, I'm motivated. Whoop-dee-doo.]

Yup. Pre-order Call of Duty: Black Ops at GameStop and get a free poster. A two-sided poster.

Remember Battle Chess? When I was a kid, that game was amazing. Watching the pieces march across the board and squeeze the life out of their opponents felt really epic. Lovechess Salvage has a different sort of spin on that.

Yep, I’m sure you can guess how this goes down. The game appears to be a male vs. female affair, which will no doubt disappoint some. It all seems more than a bit creepy to me. Probably because I’m visualizing the character models being animated and it’s just… weird. That said, if you can play a strong game of chess while naked people writhe around you, more power to you.

You can check out some less tasteful screenshots from the game at the link below. Needless to say, it’s totally NSFW.

New Lovechess Salvage screenshots! [Artmunk Games]

Nerd rage can be a powerful drug, as evidenced by a 16-year-old boy in Chile who recently stabbed his brother to death for turning on the PS3 without permission. 

The older brother, aged 18, infuriated his sibling when he turned on the console without asking, and was allegedly stabbed in the chest with a knife obtained from the kitchen. The youth would later tell police that things “got out of control” in what could be considered the “no sh*t” statement of the week. 

If charges are filed, the boy could face up to five years in prison, where he’ll likely find himself in a shower with plenty of folks who aren’t keen on asking permission. 

Chile boy ‘kills brother’ over PlayStation row [BBC, thanks Dan]

Do you remember PlayStation Room? That social networking service for the PSP that looked like a mash-up between PlayStation Home and Bratz dolls? No? Really, you don’t? We hardly blame you. Like so many things in this industry, the service was announced as something we all needed to have, and was then promptly forgotten. Now, the portable feature you did not care about has been killed quietly in the night. 

A beta was released in Japan but never made it overseas, despite being announced and hyped. Although Home is a total waste of time, Room could have provided a nice portable distraction, or at the very least something to do on the PSP for a few minutes. Since Sony can’t let people enjoy the PSP for long, development has ceased and the service won’t make it out of beta phase. 

So, that’s another big new idea for the PSP that’s fallen flat on its face. It comes to something when the iPhone has managed to be a better handheld gaming device in half the lifespan, but that is the world we live in.

Sony Pulls The Plug On PSP Social Network Service [Siliconera]

April hasn’t been off to a terribly strong start on Amazon. Today’s discount isn’t staggering, but the game seems to be drawing such attention from players that it probably doesn’t matter too much. Battlefield Bad Company 2 is listed today only for $46.49 on the consoles and $36.49 on PC.

I haven’t played it yet and I already bought a copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 that I lent to a neighborhood kid months ago and haven’t missed. So, I’m thinking maybe this game isn’t for me. It might be for you.

I could be wrong, though. Am I really going to miss out on a lot by not picking this one up? Let me know in the comments.

Amazon.com’s Video Game Deal of the Day [Amazon]