Half Life 2 to not be distributed via Steam?

**CingularDuality** · 09-20-2004, 10:22 PM

Gamespot.com is reporting that Vivendi/Universal "is apparently seeking the court's assistance in compelling Valve not to use Steam as an avenue of distribution." This stems from a lawsuit that Valve filed back in August of 2002 that accuses Sierra (of which Vivendi is the parent company) of infringing on Valve's copyright by illegally distributing copies of Valve games to cyber-cafes throughout the world.

You can read the whole article HERE.

Will this affect HL2's release date? With HL's luck, I have no doubt that it will be delayed another year or two because of this...

Sniper · 09-21-2004, 10:48 AM

I doubt it would be delayed for THIS. HL2 will bring in big bucks, and they need big bucks for court too. My bet is that HL2 will come out this year, and i wish/hope i am right.

IceCold · 09-21-2004, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sniper

I doubt it would be delayed for THIS. HL2 will bring in big bucks, and they need big bucks for court too. My bet is that HL2 will come out this year, and i wish/hope i am right.

I dunno, these court battles can get pretty ugly. I wouldn't underestimate the power of a court order...

**GhostintheShell** · 09-21-2004, 05:57 PM

I wouldn't underestimate the power of the internet. American court orders extend only so far. If they want to distribute it, they can put the server at my house and the American courts can go screw themselves.

IceCold · 09-21-2004, 06:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhostintheShell

I wouldn't underestimate the power of the internet. American court orders extend only so far. If they want to distribute it, they can put the server at my house and the American courts can go screw themselves.

Sure they could, but the company could then be found in contempt and would most certainly lose their contract lawsuit, which would, in effect, be the end of Valve. No, I doubt that they would choose to go that route...

But we'll see... I'm sure both companies want the game to be released, it's just a matter of how it's released.

**Wyzcrak** · 09-21-2004, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhostintheShell

I wouldn't underestimate the power of the internet. American court orders extend only so far. If they want to distribute it, they can put the server at my house and the American courts can go screw themselves.

LMAO. So could your pipe.

ImAWuss · 09-21-2004, 10:16 PM

Court date is October 8th? I wouldn't be surprised if we are playing it by then... Afterall, the game was SUPPOSED to be out a long time ago...

Eh, Steam = another "Napster" gone down the tubes?

Turbinator · 09-21-2004, 10:37 PM

november is the date i heared from gamespot someplace

flux · 09-24-2004, 11:12 PM

6 mos ? you've got to be kidding me!

**Wolfie** · 09-25-2004, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flux

6 mos ? you've got to be kidding me!

If Vivendi Universals did this, they would practically be shooting themselves in the foot. Imagine the negativity they would receive if they purposedly sat on the release out of spite towards Valve. And this would probably extend to future releases by them so gaming companies would probably take a second take in delievering games to VU to be released to the general public.

**CingularDuality** · 09-25-2004, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wolfie

If Vivendi Universals did this, they would practically be shooting themselves in the foot. Imagine the negativity they would receive if they purposedly sat on the release out of spite towards Valve. And this would probably extend to future releases by them so gaming companies would probably take a second take in delievering games to VU to be released to the general public.

Heh... Valve is nothing to Vivendi. Potential profits from HL2 are nothing to Vivendi. Vivendi is flexing its muscles in front of the PC gaming industry. Some devs will be impressed in a positive manner, some (most?) in a negative manner. The PC market is such a miniscule part of Vivendi's operations that they don't really care, though... Vivendi is hoping to get a bigger piece of the pie simply because their lawyers are bigger than Valve's lawyers. I predict that Valve will end up settling simply because they won't be able to afford to stay in the lawsuit. The litigation costs combined with the lack of profits from HL2 (due to delay) will kill Valve.

ImAWuss · 11-30-2004, 01:06 PM

yay... a win for the good guy for once!

http://www.totalvideogames.com/pages...rticle_id=6833

**Wyzcrak** · 11-30-2004, 04:52 PM

Fantastic. Thanks for the heads up, Wuss.