UKTerrorist
Posted by NoToRiOuS at 10:25 21/9/2004.
It appears as though there is a huge legal battle between Valve and Vivendi (the publisher). Is this the reason why HL2 is delayed so long? GameSpot has managed to accumulate and compile the numerous events that has led up to this point.
It all started in 2002 when Valve sued Vivendi (previously called Sierra On-Line) on Copyright infringement laws regarding the sale of HL for internet café use. This is what Doug Lombardi had to say:
Valve sued Vivendi for copyright infringement back in 2002 over their unauthorized distribution of our products to cyber cafés. We later had to add breach of contract claims for, among other things, refusing to pay us royalties owed and delaying Condition Zero out of the holiday season.
So that was the reason why CS:CZ was delayed. In other parts Vivendi also claim that Steam is not a legitimate distribution system and is preparing to try and stop Valve from using it. Vivendi states that Valve had hidden their intentions of delivering content on-line:
This misleading half-truth was Newell's deliberate concealment of the extent to which Valve intended through the parties' negotiations to appropriate the substantial value of the distribution rights to Valve, rather than to Sierra and VUG.
As Vivendi are Half-Life's publishers they stand to lose money if the content is distributed on-line rather than exclusively by them (as it by passes them). Hence the huge battle over Steam. However GameSpot asked Doug Lombardi whether or not Valve will deliver the content via Steam regardless of the October 8th court decision, Doug simply replied, "Yes".
Read the full article and legal ramblings by heading over here.
Comments
2 COOL 4 SKOOL
UKTerrorist
11:31 21/9/2004
Last Chance
11:34 21/9/2004
11:35 21/9/2004
reSonance
11:43 21/9/2004
Unless theres a contract valve cant get out of. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
11:54 21/9/2004
Good news post, I didn't realise all this went on behind the scenes, I thought Valve and Vivendi where best friends. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
n00bhands
12:09 21/9/2004
Da boss
Inspired Gaming
12:26 21/9/2004
Let's just hope that both companies realise if they delay HL2 while the legal stuff is sorted out, they'll both lose money. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
13:12 21/9/2004
ClanNEW
13:24 21/9/2004
ImaGine
14:20 21/9/2004
and of course vivendi need to get their hands on any money they can get, because they were almost bankrupt or something if i recall it correctly
[Edited by $aVa$ at 14:21 21/9/2004] [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
15:52 21/9/2004
16:14 21/9/2004
"The sooner publishers go away and die somewhere, the better!"
I totally agree, and this is why I love the idea of Steam. It's bringing money to the people who develop the games, rather than a bunch of suits trying to satisfy some shareholders in France or New York. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
18:23 21/9/2004
18:49 21/9/2004
20:37 21/9/2004
Anti-saviour of UKT
20:57 21/9/2004
They should stick to using it as a patching system that still can't rival that of mmorpgs, and use it for beta testing games [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
00:31 22/9/2004
00:54 22/9/2004
Publishers aren't just random suits, they're the people who actually have the money to put your game out into the world AND make it sell for you. If Warren Spector hates publishers so much, why doesn't he go and press millions of copies of his games himself, and distribute them around the world. Oh, and organise advertising for it.
I'm with Vivendi on this. Firstly because if Valve wanted to publish HL2 themselves, why did they sign the ocntract with Vivendi? (coughadvancescough) Secondly, Steam is such a horrible way of distributing games, and so potentially intrusive. And thirdly, because Valve's counter-claim is simply them whining about losing out on cyber cafe money. And we all know what great opinions they have on that matter! [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
08:31 22/9/2004
intensiveSports
12:30 22/9/2004
& HL2 b4 easter pls [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
23:16 22/9/2004