According to reports, Valve and Vivendi – formerly Sierra
On-Line – hooked up together in 1997 when Valve was looking for a
publisher for its debut game, Half-Life. The game turned out to be
a massive hit and Valve is now a leading player in the PC
entertainment market.
The dispute between the companies began in August 2002 when
Valve accused Vivendi of breaching the contract between them by
distributing games to cyber cafés – a sector of the market Valve is
keen to access through its own distribution software, known as
Steam.
According to reports the rift deepened when Valve then made
complaints over royalties and production delays. Vivendi counter
sued, arguing that the games developer had misled it over the
development of Steam.
Some of these issues were resolved last week with an order by
Judge Thomas S Zilly of the US District Court in Seattle, that
Vivendi and its affiliates "are not authorised to distribute
(directly or indirectly) Valve games through cyber cafés to
end-users for pay-for-play activities pursuant to the parties' 2001
Agreement."
The ruling will affect games in the Counter-Strike and Half-Life
series. According to Valve, the order also permits the company to
recover copyright damages for any infringement as allowed by law
without regard to the publishing agreement's limitation of
liability clause.
"We're happy the court has affirmed the meaning of our
publishing contract. This is good news for Valve and its cyber café
partners around the world," said Gabe Newell, founder and CEO of
Valve.
Vivendi has yet to comment on the order.
