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."
My post was in reponse to the question, why do people dislike STEAM? I knew those reasons and I also have heard your counter reasons before.
a. Steam gives you complete control over what games to patch. Except for patching itself, that is.
b. "Theoretically" ANY program you install on your machine can do this. Next?
"Because else does" isn't a good enough reason for everyone. Most single player FPS games do not go out on the net when launched. Doom 3 doesn't do this for single player. Anyone running ZoneAlarm would know. It fairly easy to find out what programs "do this" and what programs do not, even for people that aren't PC savvy. You just read up about it on the internet.
I'm personally not looking for exact patching information, but would expect basic status of what it's doing at any given time.. patching, authorizing, contacting xxx.xx.xx.xx, etc and I would also personally turn off STEAM after playing. There is also such a thing as bad patches, which is why I'd also turn off the auto-update feature (just as I do with WinXP). However, there are very paranoid people out there. This is the internet, after all.
d. Not true. I have a friend who plays CS:CZ on a P3600 with 128MB RAM and a GF2MX at 90+ fps. If you know anything about computers(I'm a software developer and hardware architecture designer), then you'll know that every computer is different. Just because a computer has the exact same hardware as another, doesn't mean they'll run the same. Unfortunately, there's too many variables and the biggest is usually software. Drivers, OS, Spyware, AV Scanners, etc. So to say that Steam doesn't play on low to mid end computers is simply a lie by generalizing.
Every PC runs differently, but how many frames per second does STEAM take away from the game? Some gamers are tweak crazy and make changes just to get a few extra FPS.
a. Without Steam you had WON servers. If they were down, you couldn't play. As long as you want to keep piracy and cheating down, you need central servers. Yes. IF they go down, you can't play. Oh well. EVERY major MP game is like that, today (Tribes 2, COD, BF1942, SOF2, etc.) So, Steam is not unique in this area.
HL2 will be unique in that a WON server was never required when you're not playing a multiplayer game. STEAM is required. Again, Doom 3 doesn't require a central server to play single player, ever.
b. So, I had a LAN party at my apartment, one night, and my internet was down. We could still play CS:CZ, locally. You don't need internet access to play SP and LAN games.
Good. It would be useful to educate users on how a temporary "license" to play single player is obtained and if an initial connection at some previous time was required to obtain it.
You will have to get used to Steam because this will definitely be the way games will be published more and more.
See, that's where you're wrong. This may work out very well for everyone or it may not. If it becomes an annoyance, people will find a way around it.
Any bets on how long it takes the pirates to create a STEAM free version?
This comment was edited on Sep 20, 19:13.
a. Steam gives you complete control over what games to patch. Except for patching itself, that is.
b. "Theoretically" ANY program you install on your machine can do this. Next?
"Because else does" isn't a good enough reason for everyone. Most single player FPS games do not go out on the net when launched. Doom 3 doesn't do this for single player. Anyone running ZoneAlarm would know. It fairly easy to find out what programs "do this" and what programs do not, even for people that aren't PC savvy. You just read up about it on the internet.
I'm personally not looking for exact patching information, but would expect basic status of what it's doing at any given time.. patching, authorizing, contacting xxx.xx.xx.xx, etc and I would also personally turn off STEAM after playing. There is also such a thing as bad patches, which is why I'd also turn off the auto-update feature (just as I do with WinXP). However, there are very paranoid people out there. This is the internet, after all.
d. Not true. I have a friend who plays CS:CZ on a P3600 with 128MB RAM and a GF2MX at 90+ fps. If you know anything about computers(I'm a software developer and hardware architecture designer), then you'll know that every computer is different. Just because a computer has the exact same hardware as another, doesn't mean they'll run the same. Unfortunately, there's too many variables and the biggest is usually software. Drivers, OS, Spyware, AV Scanners, etc. So to say that Steam doesn't play on low to mid end computers is simply a lie by generalizing.
Every PC runs differently, but how many frames per second does STEAM take away from the game? Some gamers are tweak crazy and make changes just to get a few extra FPS.
a. Without Steam you had WON servers. If they were down, you couldn't play. As long as you want to keep piracy and cheating down, you need central servers. Yes. IF they go down, you can't play. Oh well. EVERY major MP game is like that, today (Tribes 2, COD, BF1942, SOF2, etc.) So, Steam is not unique in this area.
HL2 will be unique in that a WON server was never required when you're not playing a multiplayer game. STEAM is required. Again, Doom 3 doesn't require a central server to play single player, ever.
b. So, I had a LAN party at my apartment, one night, and my internet was down. We could still play CS:CZ, locally. You don't need internet access to play SP and LAN games.
Good. It would be useful to educate users on how a temporary "license" to play single player is obtained and if an initial connection at some previous time was required to obtain it.
You will have to get used to Steam because this will definitely be the way games will be published more and more.
See, that's where you're wrong. This may work out very well for everyone or it may not. If it becomes an annoyance, people will find a way around it.
Any bets on how long it takes the pirates to create a STEAM free version?
This comment was edited on Sep 20, 19:13.
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