Everyone loves Vivendi, spread the love!

[HRose]

So, I’m not anymore the only one hating Vivendi after they somewhat forced (still an “I suppose”) Blizzard to enforce the servers and basically breaking the game and preventing me to be able to play.

Now Voodoo Extreme and George Broussard of 3D Realms join the party I began.

I think a big “fuck you” just went out to Vivendi Universal Games.

Hey Vivendi…seriously, fuck you.

This about HL2.

EDIT: I forgot the most important part, fun:

If you have purchased a copy of Half-Life 2, we are sorry you are still waiting to play. This is not Valve’s choice. Vivendi is insisting that the game has not yet been released, and has threatened that Valve would be in violation of its contract if we activate the Half-Life 2 Steam authentication servers at this time.

Thanks for your patience and we will update you when we have more news to share

[nutsak]

hahah… yes, I think a fair few people share that sentiment.

Gamers now hate

Vivendi Universal.
EA.

[Moore]

Blizzard?

[Sean_Tudor]

This is ridiculous. The players that have already downloaded HL2 won’t be buying the retail version. What is Vivendi waiting for ? :roll:

[Sam_Jones]

If you have purchased a copy of Half-Life 2, we are sorry you are still waiting to play. This is not Valve’s choice.

What utter bullshit. It’s entirely Valve’s choice that they require a Steam authentication of every HL2 installation. This is the first time we’ve ever seen people legitimately buy software from a store that they can’t use. Nice precedent, Valve. Fuckwits.

[Jose_Liz]

I’m not even sure how VU Games allowed Valve to do that given their extreme dislike of Steam and all. I thought VU Games had final say over the retail copies.

[nutsak]

Oh no! How evil of Valve to not want to be ass fucked by Vivendi for breaking their already agreed upon release date! No really, VU are the distributors for this, they get the call.

[olaf]

Its stupid that you have to authenticate retail copies through Steam. This is a great example of how fucking retarded a policy like that is. Seriously, is there a hobby that is anywhere near as consumer-unfriendly as ours?

olaf

[Gordon_Cameron]

Its stupid that you have to authenticate retail copies through Steam. This is a great example of how fucking retarded a policy like that is. Seriously, is there a hobby that is anywhere near as consumer-unfriendly as ours?

olaf

Agree 100%. Mandatory online registration should be quickly consigned to the dustbin of videogaming ideas.

[Jakub]

What about those (admittedly rare) people without internet connections?

[Marcin]

Now Voodoo Extreme and George Broussard of 3D Realms join the party I began.

[quote=Vodoo Extreme]I think a big “fuck you” just went out to Vivendi Universal Games.

Hey Vivendi…seriously, fuck you.

This about HL2.

EDIT: I forgot the most important part, fun:

If you have purchased a copy of Half-Life 2, we are sorry you are still waiting to play. This is not Valve’s choice. Vivendi is insisting that the game has not yet been released, and has threatened that Valve would be in violation of its contract if we activate the Half-Life 2 Steam authentication servers at this time.

Thanks for your patience and we will update you when we have more news to share

[/quote]

Wow. Just…wow.

Vivendi and EA have a huge share of the gaming mindshare though. I don’t see them suffering for this until the gaming collective do something about it. Which seems unlikely.

[Alan_Au]

hahah… yes, I think a fair few people share that sentiment.

Gamers now hate

Vivendi Universal.
EA.

You forget that we aren’t the gaming public. I imagine the average gamer doesn’t even know who Vivendi is. They might know who EA is, no thanks to that unskippable logo screen.

• Alan

[Moore]

Well ,everyone who buys HL2 ealry will now know who they are. “Huh can’t play?” Tries websites, finds steampowered.com, reads news and/or forum for an explanation

[TheWombat]

Folks, we have a bajillion threads already on 1) Steam, 2) Internet authorization for single player use, 3) hating Vivendi/EA/pick a publisher. Do we REALLY need another?

[Moore]

Folks, we have a bajillion threads already on 1) Steam, 2) Internet authorization for single player use, 3) hating Vivendi/EA/pick a publisher. Do we REALLY need another?

Yes!

[Ranulf]

As I said in another thread. Their both being wankers. Valve for this stupid steam authorization b.s. and VU for being a typical bunch of frogs.

[Kunikos]

Blizzard?

Glad to see I’m not the only one who went, “whaaaaa?”
:oops:

[Gordon_Cameron]

[quote=nutsak]hahah… yes, I think a fair few people share that sentiment.

Gamers now hate

Vivendi Universal.
EA.

You forget that we aren’t the gaming public. I imagine the average gamer doesn’t even know who Vivendi is. They might know who EA is, no thanks to that unskippable logo screen.

• Alan[/quote]

I miss the old EA logo. The square-circle-triangle one. :(

[Silverlight]

Damn it, you’re giving me Commodore 64 nostalgia.

[tomchick]

I don’t understand the Vivendi hate on this. Steam has nothing whatsoever to do with VU. It’s owned, operated, and exclusively the domain of Valve Software. They’re the ones who control when and how HL2 is activated, not Vivendi.

Now whether the terms of the contract with Vivendi have something to say about the situation is another matter entirely, but it’s a contract Valve agreed to. At any rate, Steam is Valve, not VU.

-Tom