Valve Software has launched Steam Big Picture today, bringing its popular digital distribution platform to HD television sets everywhere. The new version of Steam allows gamers to bring their games in Steam to the big screen with higher resolution - and with some games - full gamepad support. Out of the gate, Steam Big Picture offers about 30 games that can be played on a gamepad.

In Episode 29 of the Super Podcast Action Committee hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight discuss the shaky launch of the Wii U console over the weekend, Sony perma-bans for PS3 'hackers,' and the good and bad side of Electronic Arts. It's a show to remember unless you stopped that Wii U firmware update - then it's a painful reminder that getting your brand new console 'bricked' kind of sucks! Download it now: SuperPAC Episode 29 (1 hour, 19 minutes) 73 MB.

According to this EA forum thread, some Origin users are claiming that their accounts are being hijacked. Customers claiming that their accounts are being hijacked are receiving emails from EA informing them that their email address and password have been "successfully updated" even though they themselves have not attempted to update any of their account settings.

No doubt you have already heard that Valve co-founder and top executive Gabe Newell and Mojang co-founder Markus Persson think that Windows 8 is horrible for PC gamers and game developers because it uses a closed app store approach to presenting software to customers. Now Croteam's chief technical offer Alen Ladavac has added his two cents to the discussion. The CTO for the company behind the Serious Sam series said in a recent Steam Community forum post that Gabe Newell was right.

The Bundle of the Damned, a Halloween-themed bundle that gives anyone willing to pay at least $1 a collection of five spooky games is now live at Groupees. The bundle offers Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason, Rijn the Specpyre in... Manor of the Damned!, and a collection of music from Halloween specialists Midnight Syndicate. Twenty percent of the purchase automatically goes to the UNICEF charity. Those willing to pay at least $4 will also receive Epicycle's BlindSide, an audio-only horror game called Anna, and Post Mortem (the prequel to Still Life).

Microsoft has changed its position on selling games rated "18" in the UK (under the PEGI system) via the Windows 8 marketplace. Previously the platform owner had made the decision by comparing the "adult" category used by the ESRB in North America - a category reserved for games with very strong sexual content or extreme violence.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) announced what they are calling a "streamlined, no-cost service for assigning ratings to all digitally delivered games." The ESRB's new "Digital Rating Service" gives developers and publishers access to a "brief but detailed online questionnaire" to define a product's content, age-appropriateness, interactive elements, and platforms.

If you thought you could play an Electronic Arts game on Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console without having an account on its Origin network then you are so very sadly mistaken. A change in EA's privacy policy reveals that Wii U users who want to play Wii U games online will need to have an Origin account and a "Nintendo Network ID." Of course, this also means that - by signing up for an Origin account - you give EA permission to collect your email address, Mii information, friend list, country, language, and date of birth.

The popular DRM-free digital distribution platform Good Old Games, finally supports the Mac OS operating system - though not every game in its catalog is available at this time. GOG is currently offering 50 games on OS X including Syndicate and Wing Commander 1 & 2. More Mac-compatible titles will be released in the future on an on-going basis.

Speaking at the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam on Wednesday, Eidos Life President Ian Livingstone said that broadband bottlenecks around the world are slowing down the game industry's transition from the physical to the digital world, and urged telecommunications companies to build more broadband infrastructure.

"What we need is super-speed broadband,″ said Livingstone. "You're kind of holding us back in many respects."

Electronic Arts announced this morning that the very first crowd-funded game has landed on Origin, the company's digital distribution platform. After successfully being funded via Kickstarter, the post-apocalyptic vehicle-based action game from 2 Dawn Games and Reverb Publishing is complete and ready for purchase.

Electronic Arts announced earlier this year that it would support games funded by the community through sites like Kickstarter and would let them be sold via Origin free of charge.

Oopsie. A recent promotion for EA's Origin digital distribution platform saw thousands of games downloaded for free by Origin users using a free code. The original purpose of the code was to give Origin users $20 off the purchase of a game in the digital store, but the coupon didn't work as expected...

Apparently users found that it allowed them to download multiples titles free of charge. Games they managed to score for free include the likes of Dead Space 2, Crysis, Command & Conquer 3 and 4, Battlefield 2 and Mirror’s Edge.

Gaikai is being taken to court over the technology behind its game streaming services, GamesIndustry International reports. Last week, UK-based T5 Labs filed a lawsuit against Gaikai Inc. saying that the company's streaming game technology infringes on a patent it holds. Gaikai was acquired this year by Sony. Last year the company accused OnLive of violating its patents but court documents were either never filed or unobtainable at this time.

Two weeks ago New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security revealed that the government had illegally spied on Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom. Specifically he said in his report that the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) carried out illegal surveillance on Dotcom, because the agency is only allowed to carry out that kind of action against foreign targets. When the news became public, New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key apologized to Dotcom.

After the parties involved in the Megaupload case failed on multiple occasions to negotiate some way to relinquish legitimate and legal data to Megaupload users left in the lurch, a Federal judge has agreed to hold a hearing on the matter. The one caveat is that the parties involved must come up with a format and the judge has not set a definitive date. Still it's forward motion in a situation that has been stalled by trade groups like the MPAA and the U.S. government.

OnLive's newly appointed CEO Charles Jablonski says that the cloud-based game streaming service will undergo a "transition of size, scope and management" under his direction. Jablonski spoke at length about his plans to revive the company after it nearly collapsed in August. After the assets of the company were transferred to Lauder Partners, employees were fired, debts were written off and CEO Steve Perlman resigned.

Nine of the developers who have games in Humble Indie Bundle 6 have gotten together to answer questions via an "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) thread on Reddit.

Sony Computer Entertainment America announced a new digital content program for customers called PSN Day 1 Digital. The goal of this new program is to provide consumers access to digital versions of retail releases of PS3 games on launch day via the PlayStation Store. The program begins on October 1.

Beginning today, PS3 owners can pre-order a handful of select titles ahead of their release dates as well. Pre-ordering these titles will earn consumers a ten percent discount.

Consumption of entertainment via digital has grown 74 percent in 2012, according to the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA). The data comes from a new report by the trade group called "D2 Report: Discs & Digital – The Business of Home Entertainment Retailing." The report found that various digital formats including electronic sell-through, video-on-demand, and subscription streaming grew 51 percent in 2011 and 74 percent in the first quarter of 2012. Much of this popularity can be explained by the increase in tablet and mobile devices being used in U.S.

Earlier in the month Ubisoft announced that it would turn its Uplay game community hub into a digital distribution platform, and with last week's news that it had toned down its DRM scheme for PC releases, today's news is really a no brainer. The company said today that - at some point - it would like to bring third-party titles to the platform.

Amsterdam-based indie developer No Reply Games issued a statement yesterday saying that their first game to make its way on to Steam Greenlight has been kicked off the service. The game is called "Seduce Me," and is an erotic themed dating simulation. From the trailer we viewed of the game, it contains some nudity, adult language, sexual themes, and adult situations.

"Many people still view games as 'for children' in spite of the fact that the average gamer is 30 years old," said No Reply Games Miriam Bellard.

EA Games executive vice president Patrick Soderlund said during a recent interview with Computer & Videogames that brick-and-mortar retail distribution will probably be dead in the next decade. He also thinks that the new generation does not care all that much for owning physical copies of games. He also noted that the acceleration of the digital distribution space is not slowing down, even as packaged goods sales are.

In Episode 16 of the Super Podcast Action Committee, Andrew Eisen and James Fudge (filling in for E. Zachary Knight, who had to take a well-deserved time-out to fawn over a new addition to his family this week) talk about Mugen Souls, Resident Evil 5, the chaos of OnLive, the irony of Ubisoft turning Uplay into a digital distribution platform, and the controversy over "girlfriends" and Borderlands 2. Download Episode 16 here: SuperPAC Episode 16 (1 Hour, 12 Minutes).

The last time we reported on Ubisoft's Uplay, the company was denying that its program installed a rootkit on consumers' computers. From that media buzz, the company thought it would be a great time to announce that it is rolling out Uplay as a full-fledged digital distribution platform not unlike Steam or Origin.

There's no feud between Valve and EA over their competing digital distribution platforms (Steam and Origin) - at least according to EA's Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore. Speaking to Eurogamer at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany this week, Moore brushed aside the idea that there's some sort of grudge match between the two companies.

Peter Moore announced at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany today that the company will be bringing its digital distribution service Origin to the Mac and several other platforms. Moore also claimed that over 21 million people were now using EA's service. Of course, if you play an EA game it is mandatory that you use Origin, which certainly drives up user numbers.

Valve Software today officially announced that its digital distribution platform Steam will expand its software offering to include creativity and productivity software offerings. Steam is one of the top digital distribution platforms for PC and Mac game software in the world.

"The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games," said Mark Richardson at Valve. "They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in response to those customer requests."

Over the weekend fans were delighted to learn that they could pick up the PC version of Square Enix's popular RPG, Final Fantasy VII for $12.70 on www.finalfantasyviipc.com, but then started having problems with the DRM system it uses, SecuROM. When players tried to start the game, the SecuROM DRM failed to authenticate their purchase. Naturally those who bought the game were quite irate.

The party is over for game developers that use "deceptive names or icons" that cause confusion or blatantly trick consumers into believing that a product represents a particular brand on the Google Play Store. Google has updated its developer program policy agreement for its Google Play Android store with a warning to developers trying to trick customers: "Apps must not have names or icons that appear confusingly similar to existing products."

In an announcement made this morning over at the official Steam web site Valve Software revealed a change to its Steam Subscriber Agreement that makes it so that subscribers can no longer file class action lawsuits against the company (Federal Arbitration Act). Under the terms of the new agreement, Steam users agree not to form a class action lawsuit against the company, using a "dispute resolution" process to deal with complaints on an individual basis (arbitration).