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."
Personally if I had a choice between $49.95 at retail and $29.95 online, guess what I'm going to pick. The prices used are just as an example but you can see where this is going.
I agree, but my point is that there won't be a price difference in the first place. At least, not for HL2. The bandwidth and market is not there to support every single person who wants to play Half-life 2, Counter-strike 2, or whatever else is pumped out over Steam. Then you have to consider that Valve is opening Steam to other companies, so it won't be only Valve's products being jammed down the pipeline.
Let's say HL2 sells even better than HL1, and suddenly a good chunk of the PC gaming market, both casual and hardcore, has Steam. THEN the possibility of cutting out retailers and publishers will appear, but the idea itself won't come to fruition for a long time, primarily because of infrastructure. Unless Valve's got a pipeline into the Internet2 setup, I can't see their servers handling, let's say, 150,000 downloads at release.
I agree, but my point is that there won't be a price difference in the first place. At least, not for HL2. The bandwidth and market is not there to support every single person who wants to play Half-life 2, Counter-strike 2, or whatever else is pumped out over Steam. Then you have to consider that Valve is opening Steam to other companies, so it won't be only Valve's products being jammed down the pipeline.
Let's say HL2 sells even better than HL1, and suddenly a good chunk of the PC gaming market, both casual and hardcore, has Steam. THEN the possibility of cutting out retailers and publishers will appear, but the idea itself won't come to fruition for a long time, primarily because of infrastructure. Unless Valve's got a pipeline into the Internet2 setup, I can't see their servers handling, let's say, 150,000 downloads at release.
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