Valve and Vivendi Settle Lawsuit

[CSN NewsBot]

Remember that lawsuit between Vivendi Universal Games and Valve? Well, according to a press release issued by Valve, it now appears as if that court case has finally come to an end.

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.

Update: Our friends over at HL Fallout have spotted Valve's response regarding future retail plans:

We are making arrangements to continue retail distribution of our products post August 31. Should have more details to share soon.

[Shadow]

So basically Valve won. Okay.

[kerosine99]

Yeah. They won. And why does CSNation keep going down for extended periods. Is it just me?

[Some_God]

Because changing the POTD is hard. Valve won and now they will make millions and we will get some HDR effects that most players wont even get to experience. :O

[ukHazard]

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.

So unless they have another distributor lined up, they better get some boxes printed sharpish!

[Zips]

ukHazard wrote..

So unless they have another distributor lined up, they better get some boxes printed sharpish!

Something tells me they won't have a problem getting a new publisher ready by that date. Most publishers would probably jump at the chance to sell a sure hit (IE: HL3).



Money is money afterall.

[gumplunger]

Way to stick it to the man Mr. Newell!

[:.:.:]

Zips my fellow Counter-Strike Nation Dot Net brother is correct.

[Hedat_Casus]

Edited by [user="211554"] @ [time="1114802472"]

tbh what the hell was the problem all VU did was allow cyber cafes to use valve games. Valve shouldnt be so greedy.



Also i like this comments thingy :P also is it me or has cs nation news either been slower than like gotfrag or just not as it use to be like (if that makes any sense)

[mn9500]

thats sux, btw does anybody know if u can get ur key back from a disabed account, like the $10 form thing, i know u cant get a banned one, but wha about a key that is used under a disabled account??? please answer!!

[-AK-]

so does this mean my HL2 collector's edition might be worth something one day? or am I just stupid?

[Linux]

Yes, it might be worth thing, but not sure. I'm kinda mad, because my friend's Cyber Caf'e has to now go and get new agreements now through Valve Aug 31 of 2005. So thats going to be odd, so hopefully they will give them same items and products at the same price and this whole lawsuit was not won for nothing.



But good job Valve, we knew you could do it! Congrates, from all of us at Relic Gaming.

[redkulat]

old news

[HitmanCodename48]

fuck that i'm still pissed because the guild wars severs are down.

[KuRRupT]

HitmanCodename48 wrote..

fuck that i'm still pissed because the guild wars severs are down.

rofl.. I guess we all have our own different issues on this "rant comment board"... hahaha



Anyways, I am happy and am confused at same time...



Does this mean ALL HL2/etc. VALVe owned games will now be thru steam as of August? No more publishers? Ever? Or are they going ot find a better publisher, thats all?