Valve, VU Games in Legal Power Struggle Over Half-Life 2
Valve Software and Vivendi Universal Games are locked in a contract dispute that may delay the release of Half-Life 2 for up to six months, according to legal documents recently uncovered by GameSpot. At issue (and at stake) in the dispute is nothing less than full intellectual property rights to the Half-Life franchise and the legal viability of Valve’s popular Steam distribution system.
That second article goes into the details of the threatened six-month delay, and relates the story of a similar fate that befell another unfortunate game development company. Sounds like VU is a real bastard when it comes to IP demands and distribution. I hope they lose a shitload of developer contracts over this.
