What are you doing playing video games today? It’s Bathurst! Put down that controller and switch on for the greatest race in the world!

• We all know of Valve’s distaste for Windows 8, and how that’s driving their push towards Linux and their own Linux-based Steam OS.  Well, they’re not the only ones who’d like to do more work with the open source operating system. Lars Gustavsson, director of EA DICE’s Battlefield series, thinks that Linux just needs a single “killer” title to take off as a gaming platform. He also says that DICE would like to “strongly” get into Linux.
• According to Kotaku, your missing GTA Online characters may be lost for good. “So it appears lost characters are indeed lost,” a Rockstar rep told the site. Hopefully yesterday’s announcement of a $500000 stimulus package for all players of the game’s excellent online mode will take the sting out of this bad news.
• Valve has released a video of their Steam controller in action. This is the prototype version that lacks the planned touchscreen, but it should give a good idea of what the odd-looking device can do.

• Activision has completed its buyout of its own shares from Vivendi Universal. The buyout puts Activision’s fate in its own hands, and, technically, makes it the world’s largest independent games developer. The buyout cost the company US$8.2 billion, and leaves it in the hand of its own shareholders, and no longer beholden to the whims of an often disinterested parent corporation.

This week’s cover image is, of course, the famous Mount Panaroma sign, taken by Fox Sports.