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."
Rilus, it's called giving people a "choice" and that is even more of an important part of the anti-corporation, anti-RIAA fight. Valve doesn't give people a choice in the matter whereas before they did. If they are not going to give them a choice then they better start listening to those people who dislike Steam and finding alternative ways that they can offer the games to them. If anything they are losing customers because of it. All we are saying when we say "it worked before, let's go back" is that we know it technically feasible, so why not offer an alternative way for those who dislike using Steam? As I said before, I'm no game developer, but I believe they could achieve functionality for Steam that would make both sides happy.
As for those who are saying you can use ASE to launch games, yes that's correct but you still have to have Steam started first to do so, don't you? Correct me if I'm wrong with this. That's part of the problem since people prefer not running Steam in the first place. As far as I'm aware, there is no way to launch a game without having Steam running. Once again, correct me if I'm wrong on this.
As for those who are saying you can use ASE to launch games, yes that's correct but you still have to have Steam started first to do so, don't you? Correct me if I'm wrong with this. That's part of the problem since people prefer not running Steam in the first place. As far as I'm aware, there is no way to launch a game without having Steam running. Once again, correct me if I'm wrong on this.
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