Valve’s Going Viral

Valve Mac AdIf you haven’t been paying attention, or if you’ve somehow wandered away from the Internet this week, you may have missed the fact that Valve is going bat poop loco with some new viral marketing regarding Portal. They’ve updated the puzzle FPS classic with some mysterious radio codes as well as a new achievement in the last week, and have sent their fans into a rabid frenzy: here is an active Steam thread where they are decoding some new images.

As if that wasn’t all enough, Valve has let loose with some not so subtle teases about its Steam platform seeing a potential future release on the Mac OS. They’ve put together images from several different Mac ad campaigns and incorporated Half Life 2 and Source characters in them. Say what you will about them, these guys are damn clever.

And on top of all that, people have discovered that Portal has been sneakily updated this week with a new ending… Yes, you read that right. If you don’t feel like playing the game to see, check out this video of it below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq9oKn-SJCU[/youtube]

So what do you guys think this is leading up to? It seems that Valve is really laying it on thick about a Portal 2 announcement, but there seems to be some Episode 3 imagery in the coded messages as well. Could we be getting both of these bundled in one awesome box? I certainly hope so. Theorize away!

Source- Kotaku and Shacknews

Written by

I write about samurai girls and space marines. Writer for Smooth Few Films. Rooster Teeth Freelancer. Author of Red vs. Blue, The Ultimate Fan Guide, out NOW!

13 thoughts on “Valve’s Going Viral”

  1. someone found a something in the radio codes saying that GLaDOS has been updated to version 3.11, which just so happens to be the date that Gabe Newell is scheduled to receive the 2010 Game Developers Choice Pioneer Award March 11 at GDC!

  3. Well, thanks a lot, Valve!
    My head just exploded, and now I have to clean the bits of the walls.

    Damn you, codes that I don’t comprehend just yet but that I’ll want to understand so I can go like “Totally saw that coming.”

  4. So excited. It’s mainly hinting at Portal 2 here, but they’re throwing in the EP 3 teasers to keep us extra happy…or to shut us up for a few months about it =P

  5. Majorly psyched! I lack even the basic mental faculties to even attempt ARG solving, so I leave this in the capable hands of the internet’s legion of code-crackers.

    …episode 3 plox.

  6. I wouldn’t mind getting a hold of some Episode 3 any time soon. At least within the next few years. And now I might just reinstall Steam and Portal (on my long to-do list after installing 7 )

  7. Yeah the next few years would be… timely. But i’d be inclined to think that this means there is a game somewhere farther down in the development line. Of course, Valve doesn’t work in years, so it could be quite a while.

  8. Valve be trollin hard, This is why there is such a love hate relationship. just tell already.

  9. this is very epic and very Valve.

    I’ve been keeping up with this over the past few days, just gutted my PC is down, so I couldn’t fire portal up and have a go.

    Typical Valve stuff though, I love those guys!

  13. I think this says it all, its from one of the translations on the forum.
    “‘dinosaur17.wav’ translates as this, according to SilverWolf
    ‘BEEP BEEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEP BEEEP BEEP BEEP’
    And if you treat that as morse code too which would be
    .-.. — .-.. ,it is ‘LOL'”

Comments are closed.