but making shit up lets you hate steam more!
It seems that Valve got the much better end of the deal… Like others, I can’t see how VU would agree to that given how much money Valve games were making them.
Maybe some enterprising game journalist could do some actual journalism and try to get some info on this settlement.
VU undoubtedly agreed to it because their lawyers told them they were going to loose. Settling now at least means that they’ll stop paying legal fees sooner.
Wouldn’t that be something!?
My own interpretation of this is that, come Aug 31, Vivendi will no longer be in the business of selling Valve games. Which, I guess, probably means 2 things:
- Valve will find a new publisher very soon to sell their games at retail.
- This probably clears the way for Valve to start selling mini-expansions through Steam after Sept 1 without any legal issues clouding things up. Yay!
I guess Activision would be the leading candidate to step in and take over distribution of Half-Life chain at retail? They already have a deal in place to distribute future Valve products. (edit: I may be confusing this with future Source engine products; I’ll have to dig up the news story.)
Where are you getting this from?
Cyber-Cafes have a special license deal because they directly profit from the license. Sort of like how Bars have to pay the NFL to broadcast games you and end can watch for free.
You keep linking to Valve’s cyber cafe licensing scheme, but those aren’t the licenses that got terminated. It was the Vivendi licenses. And those were normal licenses, not monthly, I believe. I can’t confirm that yet, I’ve been finding contradictory info on google so if anyone knows for sure I’d appreciate the info.
I think what chet’s trying to say is that those licenses weren’t legal to begin with. Although how the cafes were supposed to know that, given that they bought their normal licenses from a legal distributor, I’m unclear on. I assume there was something in the EULA that they didn’t abide by.
I think what chet’s trying to say is that those licenses weren’t legal to begin with. Although how the cafes were supposed to know that, given that they bought their normal licenses from a legal distributor, I’m unclear on. I assume there was something in the EULA that they didn’t abide by.[/quote]
If there was something in the EULA preventing these cafes from using the licenses then this would have been an easy case for Viviendi and they wouldn’t have had to settle. The fact that they had to settle, and had to terminate licenses, indicates to me that at some point they did issue licenses to cyber cafes. I can’t find any info on whether it was just retail boxed copies that Vivendi sold to cafes or if Vividendi/Sierra had their own cyber-cafe licensing program, but those licenses were out there and in-use.
I’m supposed to be angry at Valve for something and as soon as I can articulate that rage I’ll be back in a jif.
My personal boycott continues. (That’ll teach 'em!)
Me too, although I intend to end my boycott as soon as their next product is released. :P
Me too, although I intend to end my boycott as soon as their next product is released. :P[/quote]
Not me. Steam broke the camel’s back and now he’s got a PS2 and a new RPG library going back to about 1996 or so. (PS1 classics and PS2.) I still have a vast PC game collection going back to 1985 but I’ve got me a new toy now!
Woo Hoo! I’m not much of a Half Life fan, and think Steam was badly done, but way to Stick it to the Man!
As I understand it VU screwed Valve over, broking their contract by selling internet cafe licenses that they had no rights to sell (does the settlement involve forking over any of the profit from this?). VU deserves this, and I don’t see how it hurts anyone else. If you bought your HL2 retail you’re fine. If you’re an internet cafe you’ll be paying your monthly fees to Valve now instead of VU; perhaps VU gave you a better deal? Tough, stolen goods are always cheap.
Of course I still don’t like the whole “you don’t own it, you just license it” bullshit, but I’m not sure this settlement really gets directly at that issue since public/for-profit use of work is treated differently than retail purchase: e.g. bars/stores can’t legally just buy retail CDs and play them, and instead need a more expensive license.
I sense sarcasm. Yeah, I’m only one guy. Never owned a console before last year. PC gaming is dead. Again. (Until Civ 4, anyway.)
[quote=“Nick_Walter”]
You keep linking to Valve’s cyber cafe licensing scheme, but those aren’t the licenses that got terminated. It was the Vivendi licenses. And those were normal licenses, not monthly, I believe. I can’t confirm that yet, I’ve been finding contradictory info on google so if anyone knows for sure I’d appreciate the info.[/quote]
The LEGAL cybercafe licenses are the ones he’s linking to.
“Additionally, VU Games has notified distributors and cyber cafes that were licensed by VU Games that only Valve is authorized to distribute Valve games to cyber cafes and grant cyber cafe licenses. Cyber cafe 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 cafes, whether written or oral, is terminated.”
I’m kinda sure it’s this:
VU didnt have the rights to license to cyber cafes. But they did. They can’t win in court. They gave up. Those licenses FOR CYBER CAFES are dead. VU wont be selling any new copies of hl2 retail or otherwise. I cant find anything anywhere that says anything about anything even hinting slightly at maybe possibly affecting retail customers at all ever, in any way.
Wouldn’t that be something!?[/quote]
Naww GamesBiz got it covered ;). So it’s all good.
My thoughts on this is that VALVe is forgetting about 50% of the people in the U.S. are still using dial-up, so it’ll be you know… hard for them to get a game the size of HL2 online (unless they make some kind of streaming technology like Guild Wars, of course given the fact that I have to load a new level every 5 mins I doubt this will happen).
Anyways, let’s just look back to the Steam fiasco. I don’ t know about other people here but I couldn’t get HL2 working for a full 3 days. I had downloaded the HL2 files on my laptop and tried to install it to my desktop by copying the files, but for some reason it kept crashing once it got to the loading screen. I ran the verification thing several times and it verified. Funnily enough, when I deleted the half-life 2 folder in the SteamApps directory (not the gcf file though) it redownloaded it and this time everything worked.
Now what kind of a dumbass wrote the verification program? Obviously there was something wrong with my files in the half-life 2 folder! I’m guessing they got lazy and only bothered to verify the GCF files (which were okay).
I’d be speaking a different tune if Steam wasn’t such a steaming pile of crap, but until then I think VALVe is making a big mistake leaving the retail business.
Fuck companies that think they are selling a license and not a game.
This is you valve.
And fuck you too chet, for thinking it’s a good thing.
so much fucking!