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."
I hardly think Valve is the greedy one here otherwise why would they allow people to pay just a single one time fee for a game that has been giving people years of enjoyment. Also as stated below, I think more than a few people are assuming Sierra/VU funded the game which they didn't do (thus there is no return on investment required). Simply put I think Valve is fine with Sierra distributing the game on CD but they want their chance to explore the possibilities of doing their own online distribution via Steam and see how it goes. Sierra makes money off the CD and Valve makes money off the online distribution. If anyone is greedy here, it looks like Sierra to me. Valve paid for and created Steam on their own but it looks like Sierra wants a a cut (or most) of the profits for that distribution method even though they have nothing to do with it.
I guess what needs to be determined here was this a development/distribution agreement (which I don't think it was) or was it just a distribution agreement (for a specific medium)? If it was just a distribution agreement for Sierra to distribute the game via CD then I can't see how Valve is doing anything wrong with exploring their own distribution via Steam.
I guess what needs to be determined here was this a development/distribution agreement (which I don't think it was) or was it just a distribution agreement (for a specific medium)? If it was just a distribution agreement for Sierra to distribute the game via CD then I can't see how Valve is doing anything wrong with exploring their own distribution via Steam.
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