Half Life 2 has found a new distributor

[AlexMax]

As some of you may well know, Vivendi Universal and Valve went their seporate ways a few months ago after a long and drawn out legal battle. Since then, Valve has not had any way to distribute Half Life 2 in stores.

Until now. Valve has just signed a deal with... (http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/18/news_6129331.html)

...wait for it...

ELECTRONIC ARTS (http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/18/news_6129331.html)

to distribute Valve games in stores.

However, before you get your hopes up for an EA TRAX version of Half Life 2 featuring 50 Cent, let's just make something clear. EA is simply distributing it. Valve is funding their projects now out of their own pocket, and still own the rights to Half Life, etc.

[MacWeirdo42]

It's a little late now, for those of us who pre-ordered Half-Life 2 and had to spend weeks waiting for it to be "officially" released by Vivendi. Gotta admit, that night was hella fun, though, after waiting an hour or so to have my game unlocked. Stayed up until about 4:00, I think, went to bed, woke up at 7:00, and kept playing.

[King Link]

Good for Valve. At least they and their projects haven't been sucked into the unholy vacuum that is Electronic Arts.

*wanders off to play 007: Everything or Nothing and NHL 2005*

[Darth Marsden]

Hope they're properly stand-alone now. Stupid game, needing cracks to play, grr...

I should just point out, before anyone slaps my wrist, that I do legally own Half-Life 2. My gaming PC, however, is not connected to the internet, therefore the only way I can play HL2 is by using cracks. If there were a way around it, believe me I would use it, but there doesn't appear to be any. Well shot in the foot, Valve.

[MacWeirdo42]

They won't be properly stand-alone as long as they have Steam. At least that's my understanding of the situation. Doesn't make much sense to me, though. For God's sake, companies need to stop worrying about copy protection and be more concerned with making game that's good enough that people will want to pay for it. Besides that, whatever crazy form of copy protection you come up with, somebody's just going to break it, so what's the point?

[EWild]

EA is publishing all their CONSOLE games from now on, such as HL2 XBox. But Valve is now publishing all of their PC game themselves.

[Rainman]

EA.... *shudder* I didn't know about this. I hope Valve stays good.

[AlexMax]

Hope they're properly stand-alone now. Stupid game, needing cracks to play, grr...

I should just point out, before anyone slaps my wrist, that I do legally own Half-Life 2. My gaming PC, however, is not connected to the internet, therefore the only way I can play HL2 is by using cracks. If there were a way around it, believe me I would use it, but there doesn't appear to be any. Well shot in the foot, Valve.

It's about as much shooting yourself in the foot as it is releasing a game on CD-ROM only back in 1994, or one that requires a 3D hardware accelerator in 2000.

[Darth Marsden]

Well yeah, but I have absolutely no intention of getting the internet on my gaming PC. Even if I wanted to, the layout of my house makes it impossible, meaning no Steam, No HL2 and no SiN Episodes. Grr.