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."
Okay, based on what I've read here and on the Steam forums here is a list of the steps I think a person needs to perform to pay 'n play HL2 (on Day #1) using Steam and end up with a backup archive of the game. Feel free to tear my list apart.
1) Download Steam
2) Install Steam
3) Purchase HL2
4) Download HL2 via Steam
5) Install HL2
6) Backup SteamApps folder to CD/DVD
7) [Delete HL2 files from SteamApps folder *see below*]
8) Play HL2
* Step 7: This is the step I thought might raise some eyebrows. I know the SteamApps folder contains the installation data and is functionally equivalent to install CDs so the obvious conclusion is the game gets installed to a different location, right? Basically, that means HL2 is on the HDD twice, right? Yes, HDD are cheap but do I really want/need to have data for a game I already have installed still lying around on my drive. Anybody? I know. I should probably go post this on the Steam Users Forum.
"Worry is only anxiety over something that may never happen." -V2
1) Download Steam
2) Install Steam
3) Purchase HL2
4) Download HL2 via Steam
5) Install HL2
6) Backup SteamApps folder to CD/DVD
7) [Delete HL2 files from SteamApps folder *see below*]
8) Play HL2
* Step 7: This is the step I thought might raise some eyebrows. I know the SteamApps folder contains the installation data and is functionally equivalent to install CDs so the obvious conclusion is the game gets installed to a different location, right? Basically, that means HL2 is on the HDD twice, right? Yes, HDD are cheap but do I really want/need to have data for a game I already have installed still lying around on my drive. Anybody? I know. I should probably go post this on the Steam Users Forum.
"Worry is only anxiety over something that may never happen." -V2
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