Valve versus Sierra [Sep 20, 2004, 11:34 am ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
Valve vs.
Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court on GameSpot (thanks
Democritus) reveals some details of a behind-the-scenes legal battle between
Valve and Sierra (now part of VU Games) over Half-Life and Half-Life 2 that's
been brewing for several years now. The article picks through details of a
recent court filing by Valve that reveals the current state of the litigation,
which has its next court date on October 8, though an actual trial is not
scheduled until March 21, 2005. Included are disputes over what
role Steam is to take in the game's distribution and who actually holds rights
to the Half-Life intellectual property. Here's a segment that summarizes some of
this:
In court filings, Sierra/VUG says that the current distribution of Half-Life 2 via Steam exceeds the scope of the current software publishing agreement between the two parties. It is apparently seeking the court's assistance in compelling Valve not to use Steam as an avenue of distribution.
On Friday, when asked if Valve was remained intent on making Half-Life 2 available to gamers via Steam, regardless of what was determined on October 8, Lombardi replied, "Yes."
Interestingly, and in spite of the ongoing legal dispute, Sierra/VUG still wants to work with Valve in the future and is asking the court via filings to force Valve to work with it on whatever is next in the development pipeline. It asks the court, in filings, "for a declaration that Sierra and VUG have the right to a fourth engine license pursuant to the terms of...the 2001 Agreement."
According to Lombardi, "We're going to meet the obligations of our current agreement."
In theory though, Steam seems like a good idea, to cut the evil publisher out of the loop. I'm sick of crappy games, dumbed down to appeal to the widest audience, and publishers who refuse to take any risks on anything new or not part of an established IP. Maybe Steam will bring back a golden age of PC gaming (queue Bambi music)
This is such a naive mindset, the only way this would work is if games were free to develop. Current trends in the industry make this quite the opposite, as tech requires more and more development manpower and time to produce a game for your enjoyment.
SOMEONE's got to pay to make a game. If not a publisher, then private funding. And it's a guarantee that whoever pays for the game, is going to call the shots and enforce their vision of what it should or shouldn't be. There are only a handful of companies who have the financial independance to develop a game on their terms and completely seperate from outside contributions, and they are making basically the same game that made them money in the first place.
What this issue boils down to is that Valve signed a multi-title aggreement with Sierra. This is a contract, Valve producing steam so they can distrubite HL2 or any future game that is also contracted with Sierra is a breech of that contract. Of course Sierra wants to hold on to HL2, that's why they signed the publishing agreement with Valve in the first place. Of course Valve wants to release the game independantly from Sierra, more money for them. The courts will sort it out and the game will be shipped into everyone's greedy little mitts.
Sierra has had very little input (thank god) into Half Life 2, indeed Valve has had very little contact with Sierra about anything to do with the game. When it debuted at E3 2 years ago, Sierra was informed a week before the show that Valve was going to show something. This year's E3 was Valve's on doing as well...they brought in their booth and did their own thing. Blizzard seems to have a similar deal...they do their own thing and Sierra just publishes the game.
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