Valve and Vivendi settle.

[Fabricated]

http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news&id=413

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 coaunterclaims. Under the settlement agreement, VU Games will cease distribution of retail packaged versions of Valve's games, including Half-Life®, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike™, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source, effective August 31, 2005.

Additionally, VU Games has notified distributors and cyber cafés 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.

About Valve
Based in Bellevue, Washington, Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996. Valve's debut title, Half-Life, has won over 50 Game of the Year Awards and named "Best PC Game Ever" in the November 1999, October 2001, and April 2005 issues of PC Gamer, the world's best-selling PC games magazine. Valve's portfolio of entertainment titles also includes Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat™, and Team Fortress® and accounts for over 15 million retail units sold worldwide, and over 88% of the PC online action market. Information about Valve's Cyber Café Program can be found at www.steampowered.com.

Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games)
Vivendi Universal Games (www.vugames.com) is a global developer, publisher and distributor of multi-platform interactive entertainment. The company is a leader in the subscription-based massively multi-player online (MMO) games category, and also holds leading positions in the PC, console and handheld games markets. Its development studios and publishing labels include Blizzard Entertainment®, Radical Entertainment™, Sierra® Entertainment and Massive Entertainment™. VU Games' library of over 700 titles features owned intellectual properties including Warcraft®, StarCraft®, Diablo® and World of Warcraft® from Blizzard; Crash Bandicoot®, Spyro The Dragon™, Empire Earth®, Leisure Suit Larry™, Ground Control® and Tribes®. VU Games also maintains strategic relationships with industry leading content partners, including NBC Universal and Twentieth Century Fox.

[schild]

Vivendi just has sand in their vagina because they didn't think of Steam first.

Wait, oh, they settled. Meh.

[Trippy]

Wait, oh, they settled. Meh.

"Settled" seems to be a very rose-colored way of looking at given that the brief descriptions above of the "settlement" makes it sound like Valve got everything they wanted and VU Games got diddly squat.

[AOFanboi]

"Settled" seems to be a very rose-colored way of looking at given that the brief descriptions above of the "settlement" makes it sound like Valve got everything they wanted and VU Games got diddly squat.

Yes, it reads like Valve did a "/tell VUGames Ur fired". So Valve seems to end up being the first major player to bet fully on Online Distribution for win and place. And I actually think they can get away with it - not least because of the large installed base of Steam users.

[Samwise]

Conveniently, that user base includes all HL2 players, whether they bought the box or bought via Steam.  I suspect Valve saw this happy day coming.   

[ahoythematey]

I, for one, could not be more pleased with the situation, unless perhaps Vivendi Universal sunk into the english channel along with the rest of France.  Valve took their Counter-Strike ball and ran with it, granting delicious and instantaneous online delivery of games that generally entertain me more than most others.  I mean, shit, I could survive on Day of Defeat and Natural Selection all by themselves.

[HaemishM]

Good going, Valve. This sounds less like a settlement and more like a "Fuck you, it's MY GODDAMN GAME, BITCHES!" You know, I love it when a publisher gets bitchslapped to hell and back.

[Trippy]

Good going, Valve. This sounds less like a settlement and more like a "Fuck you, it's MY GODDAMN GAME, BITCHES!" You know, I love it when a publisher gets bitchslapped to hell and back.

I would normally agree with you but my undying hatred of Steam trumps that.

[HaemishM]

Steam is a start. I suppose someone had to release a content distribution system that was a Steaming Turd, just to iron out the fuckups.

[schild]

Wasn't it called Battle.net and didn't Arena.net do it all right?

Or am I confusing fantasy and reality? Would that system only work for an MMORPG?

[Trippy]

Wasn't it called Battle.net and didn't Arena.net do it all right?

Or am I confusing fantasy and reality? Would that system only work for an MMORPG?

Well B.Net isn't really a full-blown content distribution system (can only download patches through it not the entire program) but most of the MMO launchers including Guild Wars' would qualify if that's all you needed. But Steam isn't just a content distribution system, it's a full-blown DRM application that's basically set on "most draconian" all the fricking time.