Valve and Vivendi Universal Games Settle Lawsuit Thread

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.

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 DefeatTM, 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 DragonTM, Empire Earth®, Leisure Suit LarryTM, Ground Control® and Tribes®. VU Games also maintains strategic relationships with industry leading content partners, including NBC Universal and Twentieth Century Fox.

lol Moddb.com

Edited by: Chunky

Chunky.The.Tree wrote: lol Moddb.com

Bluewolf was first though

Anyway, It's nice to see Valve go independent I guess. They have their own system to publish games now anyway. I'll have to wait and see the long term effects to determine if it's better on Valve's part.

Edited by (in order): RatoN, RatoN, RatoN

Valve = whore

I wish people would stop ragging on Valve because of Steam. It works now, get over it.

I have had steam for over a year and I have never had a problem with it. (well except when I acidently hit the block always button on Nortons which prevented it from connecting to the internet. that was my own fault and easily fixed.)

The only thing valve has ever done right, is make Half Life 1 and 2.

Chunky.The.Tree wrote: The only thing valve has ever done right, is make Half Life 1 and 2.

This might officially be the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Chunky.The.Tree wrote: The only thing valve has ever done right, is make Half Life 1 and 2.

...

Valve will have to sign on another publisher, because not everyone has 1337 broadband to download the games.

its opinion, bitches.

frosty-theaussie wrote: I wish people would stop ragging on Valve because of Steam. It works now, get over it.

not to mention that valve is not affiliated with steam other than having there games on it...they didnt make the program...

Steam's a valve copyright actually, and they did develop it...

I remember reading an article that stated, valve was getting so many questions about steam problems, they made a statement saying that they were not responsible for the making of steam, and therefore could not help with the issues, they may develope it now, but I'm pretty damn sure they didnt make the first version...

lol, what ever happened to the BitTorrent guy? Didn't they hire him or something, did he ever end up doing any work?

sure in ironic in all the torrents for leaked valve junk

I hope they both die and don't come back sorry, I'm just anti-valve since the HL2 leak case.. The funny thing is that you all bitch at EA while Vivendi is no better IMO.