News Blips: Steam is valuable, GamesCom's best, new Grasshopper game, and more

Whenever a dispute arises among the Bitmob staff, we never hesitate to resort to competition/violence to resolve the issue. Our go-to games include: Call of Duty: Black Ops' Wager Matches, bar trivia, and slap game -- first one to cry after continuous slaps to the face loses (Note: I do not endorse the use of slap game...and I'm not crying!).

News Blips:

Valve Managing Director Gabe Newell says that Steam must prove its value to EA. A new policy that requires all future content for a game to be sold through the digital-delivery service is the primary reason that many of EA’s games are disappearing from the online store. The Battlefield publisher doesn’t want to allow Newell’s retailer to take a cut off the top of its DLC sales. “We have to show EA it’s a smart decision to have EA games on Steam, and we’re going to show them that,” Newell said to Develop in response to the situation. Essentially, Valve isn’t going to change their policy. It hopes to convince EA that, even with Steam taking a percentage, both companies stand to make more money if they work together. With the launch of Origin, it’s unlikely that we’ll be seeing many of EA’s games return anytime soon.

GamesCom’s organizers have revealed their show awards; Battlefield 3 takes the top honor. When E3 shrunk a few years back, it was predicted that GamesCom would expand to fill in the void. That didn’t happen. Now the show has matured, and this year’s expo was easily the biggest in the European convention’s history. Here are the official GamesCom best of show selections.

Best hardware: PlayStation Vita (Sony Computer Entertainment)
Best mobile game: Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Sony Computer Entertainment)
Best family game: Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster (Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment)
Best browser game: The Sims Social (Electronic Arts)
Best online game: Star Wars: The Old Republic (Electronic Arts)
Best PC game: Diablo 3 (Blizzard Entertainment)
Best console game: FIFA 12 (Electronic Arts)
Best of Gamescom: Battlefield 3 (Electronic Arts)

This reminds me of the year that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare won several Best of E3 awards right before making the genre worship at its feet. Back then people were sick of World War II games in the same way they are sick of Call of Duty now. It feels like the door is open for Battlefield 3 to come in and dominate a huge portion of that market.

Grasshopper Manufacture announces Black Knight Sword for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. It looks like Suda51 and his team have wrested the title of “busiest studio” from Double Fine. Black Knight Sword, Lollipop Chainsaw, and Sine Mora make three games in development for the inventive company. Their latest is a downloadable game with a nostalgic side-scrolling style. The paper-cut-out visuals are reminiscent of a few levels from Shadow of the Damned, Grasshopper’s latest release. Of course, you wouldn’t know about Shadows of the Damned, because only around 20,000 of you bought it. Yes, I’m judging you. Look for Black Knight Sword this winter.

Mojang’s big boss looks to settle the Scrolls lawsuit with Bethesda on the virtual battlefield. “Remember that scene in Game of Thrones where Tyrion chose a trial by battle in the Eyrie?” wrote Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson on his blog. “Well, let’s do that instead.” Yes, instead of having a long, boring legal battle over who can rightfully use the word “scrolls,” Notch wants to “challenge Bethesda to a game of Quake 3.” The indie darling put up his best three warriors against Bethesda’s best three warriors to settle this petty dispute. “If we win,” writes Notch, “[Bethesda] drop the lawsuit. If [Bethesda] wins, we will change the name of Scrolls to something [it’s] fine with.” As a person who is responsible for video-game news, I am in full support of this and would be willing to mock and taunt Bethesda with calls of “bawk, bawk, bawk, chicken” until they agree to this noble resolution.