Just like last year, and not to let the rest of the competition reap all the benefits, Valve has started its massive Christmas sale. It can't be missed since the frontpage has been transformed into a massive ad, that is, there's no regular Steam page. In addition to savings up to 80% in most of the games in the store, each day until the 3rd of January, a set of daily deals will be published, with even greater savings over the Christmas discount.

Word of advice: Do not buy anything else except for the daily deals you might be interested in, since it may be possible that one day you find out Valve is offering such game for a lower price. Considering that some of the games offered during the past Thanksgiving Sale are available for much lower prices, I would not rule out such possibility. Heck, even I feel a little scammed after seeing some games I bought not that long ago now available for almost nothing.

Of course, once you know it's the last day of the sale, buy anything else you want without remorse! :D

Looks like game developers took notice of the potential lying within the indie scene, and they're increasingly making things easier for them to get into the market. If a few days ago Unity Technologies released a free version of its engine targeted towards hobbyists and aspiring developers, today is the turn for the very same Epic Games, who released what essentially is a non-commercial version of its Unreal Engine 3, perhaps the most widely used engine in commercial games during the last years, including some really big hits like Gears of War, BioShock or Mass Effect.


Unlike Unity, this looks to be a full-fledged version, except for its non-commercial use (those wishing to publish the game later, can take a look at the licensing terms), and the limited compatibility scope. While the engine can usually target games developed either for the PC, the XBOX 360 or the PlayStation 3, the UDK is restricted (for now) to the PC. There's more information about other things at the official website listed above, and a good summary over at ShackNews, along with the tools available for download.

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via ShackNews

Earlier this morning, Google introduced a beta version of its new phone application, Google Maps Navigation. As the name suggests, this is nothing more than a turn by turn navigation app, using all the information Google has accumulated over the last years and made available via Google Maps. Nothing really special, except for the fact this is a free application for Google's own Android OS, with versions for other smartphones coming at a later date. The rest of the app details have been covered by Gizmodo in a neat post.

As noted there, Google faces no competition with its newest toy. Similar apps for the iPhone run around $25 per year, while Google is totally free (at least for the time being). Gizmodo is concerned with the severe lack of competition at the same price level, and wrote another piece detailing what's in in for the rest of navigation software makers, who also offer navigation devices that could end up being replaced by the same smartphones Google is offering this app for.


The criticism expressed in the article can easily be applied to any other venue Google is or may be involved in the future. It has been commented several times how most Google products face little to no competition, with most pressure coming from other behemoths like Yahoo or Microsoft, instead of innovative startups like RTM, and one wonders where all that venture capital money went. But I never considered what's in for all the companies making business in fields that Google chose to participate in, and how its lack of a price can seriously damage these companies in little time, possibly putting them out of business. It may be nice to have superb services available for nothing, but man, it obliterates any competition it may have. Not to mention that, while Google main sources of revenue can sustain other ventures for now, in the long term everything could change, and we could end paying for services coming from just one company. Mapping the entire planet is a costly affair.