A little light was shed today upon Half-Life 2's ongoing release date conjecture, which has seen both publisher VU Games and developer Valve unsure and occasionally at odds concerning the game's projected release. Apparently, it is all an elaborate game of legal 'chicken', gamers hopes of an imminent Half-Life 2 release, the unwitting victim of a two year old lawsuit between the two firms. Basically, Vivendi Universal can hang on to the completed release candidate of the game for up to six months, under the terms of their publishing deal - and may use this power as a bargaining tool in the lawsuit, as Valve are known to favour an earlier release (and cannot debut the game on Steam before retail).

"Valve has announced that it will deliver a release candidate version of Half-Life 2 (HL2) (a game required under the 2001 SPA) to Sierra/VUG within the next few weeks. If Valve delivers a release candidate version that complies with the contract and is a Final Milestone, then VUG will have six months to release the product under the 2001 SPA. Valve is pressing VUG to release the product early within that six month window, and its representatives have made a number of public statements without our consent or concurrence that the product will be published and released to the general public in September of this year," commented VU's Eric Roeder, ominously.

So VU are miffed by Valve's public statements and could try to force the developers hand by protracting the game's release date, it would seem, though presumably VU are hurting their own bottom line by holding onto the game - especially beyond Christmas. Given VU's widely reported ailing status as a major publisher, this is presumably something they cannot really afford to do, presenting an interesting situation.

Valve have repeatedly stated publicly they hope to release the completed Half-Life 2 just as soon as possible, but admit also VU are not so co-operative: "We've been asking, but Vivendi has refused to communicate an expected retail release date for Half-Life 2," stated Doug Lombardi. Let's hope the company's respective lawyers can end their dispute in order that we can get our eager paws on Half-Life 2 sooner rather than later.

By Luke Guttridge

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  1. Plasma Unregistered 4 years ago

    Legal crap and wishy washy greediness making us customers wait months upon months just to enjoy a new game.

    Poor form guys, shame on you.

  2. KillerB Unregistered 4 years ago

    Jesus Christ!!!! just release the game!!!!! Just settle the legal dispute later... we poor half life fans are just caught in the middle of alll this crap..

  3. zark Unregistered 4 years ago

    What is the actual subject of this "Law suit" do we even know? VU will be shooting themselves in the foot if they are not careful!!

  4. Aphex Twin Unregistered 3 years ago

    VU makes crappy games now after they lost the agreement to HL2. BTW Halo 2 sucks.