Valve vs Vivendi

Last week I did A Post about Half Life 2 and how getting a game launched can strain the relationship between publisher and developer.

Well it Turns Out that Valve and Vivendi have been in a legal dispute.

Valve sued Vivendi back in 2002 because they where distributing Half Life to Cyber Cafés and refusing to pay Royalties (among other things).

And Vivendi has a lawsuit against Valve because Valve assured them that they weren't interested in digital distribution (STEAM) and where assured that any efforts would only promote the sale of CDs. Big Porkies I am sure you will agree, because STEAM (and other services like it i.e Direct2Drive) looks to be the beginning of the end for buying games at retail.

I don't know if this will effect HL2's launch. Some people seam to think it will, but I don't think so because that would equal loose of revenue for both companies and that's something that can be clawed back through lawsuits later-on. And on-top of all of this Vivendi is hoping to keep it's contracts intact with Valve, so they can still publish an agreed fourth title.