Steam has now officially hit 15 million subscribers and has witnessed year-over-year sales growth of 158% through the holiday season. Pretty impressive figures there for Valve. Some words from Gabe.

“PC gaming is thriving, and has evolved into an era of constant connectivity,” said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. “That connectivity gives us the ability to have a much better relationship with customers, not just for delivering our games, but across all aspects of our business - including the design, development, and support of our games. Features like Guest Passes, Free Weekends, Gifting, and the Steam Community have been very well received both by customers and the developers who are using Steam. We are accelerating our release of new functionality in the next year as well as finding new ways to work with our partners such as the release of Steamworks, which allows them to bring the many benefits of Steam to their packaged products.”

More information here.

Now we shall bow down to our overlords of Valve and Google! All hail! All hail! But seriously, congratulations to Valve, this is a great landmark, and to carry on trouncing World of Warcraft numbers wise is always good!

It seems that Casual Gamers are supportive of in-game advertising if they get to play for free. A survey by RealNetworks reveals that in a survey of 1500 RealGames gamers almost 90% said they were willing to watch video ads before and during game breaks so as to play for free. Furthermore the survey reveals that 34% of those involved said they clicked on in-game adverts to learn more about the product or service.

The survey also showed that over 80% of respondents were female and of this 65% were in the 35-64 age range, considered the key demographic in casual gaming.

Players Will Watch In-Game Streaming Video Ads for Free Game Play (90 percent)

- More than half, or 55 percent, of survey respondents said that they would watch any ad regardless of the topic.

- An additional third, or 34 percent, said they would prefer to watch ads that are relevant to their needs.

Casual Game Players Actually “Like” the Video Ads

- Nearly a third, or 31 percent, of game players surveyed say they actually “like” watching the video ads for various reasons, including the relevance of the ads to their needs and the short break from game play that the ads provide.

This kind of information must be encouraging for companies such as EA who are moving into the casual games market with ad-supported games.

[RealNetworks via GamaSutra.]

NextGen.biz is reporting that the ESRB has published details and statistics on game ratings handed out for 2007. This is the low-down according to the ESRB.

ESRB assigned 1,563 ratings in 2007, the largest amount in our 13-year history. While a handful of M-rated titles tend to garner a majority of media attention, the E (Everyone 6+) rating category continues to dominate. The E category saw the largest increase over last year, accounting for nearly 60% of ratings assigned overall.

The M (Mature 17+) category represented 6% of the overall ratings assigned, down from 8% in 2006 and 12% in 2005. The E10+ (Everyone 10 and older) and T (Teen 13+) categories accounted for 15% and 20% respectively.

This just goes to show that claims by many ‘mass media’ outlets like Fox News that ‘M’ rated games are a large proportion of the gaming market are just plane wrong. ‘M’ rated games may get the most publicity, but they are clearly in the minority.

At the beginning of the month I pondered on how EA is Changing and now it seems that I was right. In an interview with IGN EA Sports boss Peter Moore talks about a new strategy for EA titles.

Moore: There will be more announcements that will be, if you will, licensed intellectual property that will be, quite frankly, looking at the more casual consumer that we see as a bigger force in the business. We need to do better on the Nintendo platforms, and we intend to do that. It’s a different type of game mechanic that the Nintendo Wii consumer, in particular, can play. Fight Night is a great franchise, you bet we’re gonna continue to create games like Fight Night. Round 3 was a phenomenal game for us and did around $140 million in revenue on a worldwide basis, but we think there’s a different type of consumer that loves boxing games and doesn’t want the authentic simulation game that we currently offer.

Interesting little interview, catch it here.

Puzzle Quest, well I finally got round to doing a proper review for it. I must say, despite all the things that irritate and annoy me about this game it is really quite good….and addictive.

Anyway find my review of it on 411 Mania right about here.

A new feature from PC Zone has David Speyrer and Doug Lombardi talking in-depth on Episode 2 and Spreyrer talks a bit about Episode 3 and how they still don’t exactly know the plan for it.

“We don’t know entirely what’s happening in the next episode, but we’re gonna figure it out!” laughed Speyrer.

“There are always things we want to do that we can’t because of the constraints of either the story or the arc we’ve laid out for the gameplay - or just time. So we shelve them and carry on. Ideas fly around here quite a bit, so we have this huge laundry list of things to try for the next thing…”

This is a very good read, so head here for the whole article.

Quick update on the Duke Nuke Affair - Shacknews have heard from 3D Realms that in the interview with the Dallas Journal at the heart of the matter they did not confirm release dates or platform releases. Shacknews aim to have more information later.

In a move shamelessly stolen from Dan at Graffiti Gamer I am introducing my ‘Review in a Pie Chart’ or ‘What a game is made up of in a Pie Chart!’

Below is Peggle Deluxe…Pie Charted!

I haven’t mentioned much of Yahtzee’s work here…don’t think I ever have actually *head scratch* however I thought his latest take on a game was worth talking about. Well he is spot on about Call of Duty 4. Now go watch the awesomeness unfold!

Following the blow given to all PC gamers wanting Assassin’s Creed following the extra high system requirements we get a little bonus with four new missions! Whether this is to make up for needing a monster PC to run it is yet to be seen…

Ubisoft have also confirmed that it will be landing in March and will be known henceforth as ‘Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut.’ Should be called the ‘Director’s “PC Killing” Cut’.

[Thanks to CVG