Valve and Vivendi Universal Games Settle Lawsuit
Bellevue, WA and Los Angeles, CA – April 29, 2005 -- Valve and Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) today announced the settlement of a pending federal court lawsuit filed by Valve in August 2002. The parties have resolved their differences, and the settlement provides for the dismissal of all claims and counterclaims. Under the settlement agreement, VU Games will cease distribution of retail packaged versions of Valve’s games, including Half-Life®, Half-Life 2, Counter-StrikeTM, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source, effective August 31, 2005.
Additionally, VU Games has notified distributors and cyber cafes that were licensed by VU Games that only Valve is authorized to distribute Valve games to cyber cafés and grant cyber café licenses. Cyber café operators that were licensed by VU Games have also been notified that any license agreement from Sierra Entertainment, Vivendi Universal Games or any of their affiliates or distributors that may have granted rights to use Valve games in cyber cafés, whether written or oral, is terminated.
...What?Okay, I will be a little more clear. Valve developed Steam to bypass retail distribution of its games. If Valve now admits that it needs retail distribution (which it is effectively doing if that rumor is true), then that proves that Steam did not generate the sales and support from consumers that Valve wanted.
Yeah, if Valve is as greedy as you say, they wouldn't be stupid and not sell their products in stores.If Valve doesn't shun retail distribution after August 31, 2005 then that proves that Steam is less successful than it wants to admit. I hope that is the case, and so should all consumers including the Valve apologists.
These bugs and incomplete elements were likely because VU put time pressure on Irrational to get the game done in time to ship for Christmas.There is no excuse for shoddy workmanship. If there is a pressing deadline then you simply hire more people, farm out the work, or work longer to meet it.
Have you seen SWAT 4? I haven't found a bug yet.Is there a dedicated server with the game? Do the editing or mod tools work? How does the multiplayer game perform?
I can guarantee you that if Irrational had any say in it, T:V would have been much better.LOL! Irrational always had a say in the quality control of the game because it is the one who made it.
Now with Valve only distributing its games directly via Steam after August 31, 2005,
We are making arrangements to continue retail distribution of our products post August 31. Should have more details to share soon.
If Irrational wanted to release a patch and VU said no, there was nothing they could do about it If they released it on their own, they would have been in breach of contract. I don't know how much Irrational bugged them to let them finish the patch, but I doubt they just threw up their hands and dropped the game as you say.I doubt that Vivendi would have stopped Irrational from developing and releasing an update to the game. It has been done before by other developers. The problem is that Vivendi did not want to pay for the update, and Irrational is also unwilling to do it for free. However, Irrational deserves the blame because it is the one which developed a shoddy product to begin with.
What the hell? EVERYONE has a 'monopoly' on their own products.I can't believe you are so obtuse. With games sold through normal retail channels, the stores compete against one another for the consumers' business. Therefore, prices for any particular game vary as stores undercut each other. That is why it is possible for consumers to buy a game at a retail store below the suggested retail price even at release.
"Both the “left” and the “right” pretend they have the answer, but they are mere flippers on the same thalidomide baby, and the truth is that neither side has a clue."
- Jim Goad
Absolutely true. This is what I was alluding to when I said it made financial sense to kill the patch, but the business sense of it was another matter. What does this do to VU's reputation now that they have a history of killing products because of lack of profits? They really have a moral obligation to the community, no matter how small, to see the game finished. But, like I said, it's just a sad situation.
I never said Sierra, I said Dynamix.
Mark, Tim, Rick all work at GarageGames which is in the same building as Bravetree (literally the next office over) where Clark, Joe, Etc Work.
What message does this send to developers? That you are going to get reamed no matter if try to duplicate or innovate. Publishers like VU get the message too. It seems they did in this case. Was there problems with the game? Sure. Were there some rather radical changes in the style and gameplay? No doubt. But if you want Tribes 1 all over again, play Tribes 1. IMHO, T:V was murdered in the cradle before it ever had a shot.