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."
Ahahah
If this hearing on the 8th doesn't go their way they could be legally unable to offer HL2 via steam until March 21, 2005.
In response to people comments that putting publishers out of business and giving the dev companies all the money, there is one huge problem with that. Money. Publishers invest into those game companies a healthy amount of change and make it possible to produce these games. Who is going to pay for the development of a game that takes 4 years? Or 2 years for that matter. Big companies like ID, or valve in this case might, but without publishers, many games won't get made.
Internet distrubution of games may have some very positive effects, faster releases of games, more profits for the development studio's, possibly lower prices, but if that means that there are less profits to go around who will invest in these companies?
Investors (aka publishers in this case) are required for this process to work. Have to look at the good with the bad.
Of course, looking at an industry similar to this, like the music industry, that is ruled by large corporations that publish music for artists and get huge amounts of money for doing it, and in turn make the artists filthy rich by gouging the public, I'm all for getting rid of that system. $20 for a .05 cent cd with music on it is disgusting. Not to mention the cost of concerts....
though an actual trial is not scheduled until March 21, 2005
If this hearing on the 8th doesn't go their way they could be legally unable to offer HL2 via steam until March 21, 2005.
In response to people comments that putting publishers out of business and giving the dev companies all the money, there is one huge problem with that. Money. Publishers invest into those game companies a healthy amount of change and make it possible to produce these games. Who is going to pay for the development of a game that takes 4 years? Or 2 years for that matter. Big companies like ID, or valve in this case might, but without publishers, many games won't get made.
Internet distrubution of games may have some very positive effects, faster releases of games, more profits for the development studio's, possibly lower prices, but if that means that there are less profits to go around who will invest in these companies?
Investors (aka publishers in this case) are required for this process to work. Have to look at the good with the bad.
Of course, looking at an industry similar to this, like the music industry, that is ruled by large corporations that publish music for artists and get huge amounts of money for doing it, and in turn make the artists filthy rich by gouging the public, I'm all for getting rid of that system. $20 for a .05 cent cd with music on it is disgusting. Not to mention the cost of concerts....
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