EA to distribute Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike for X-Box

[Companion Cube]

I can hear teeth grinding.

Full text of the article is as follows:

Just over three months ago, one of the most contentious relationships in game history came to an end. On April 28, after months of overt legal disputes and covert bickering, VU Games and Valve Software announced they were ending a half-decade-long publishing deal. The arrangement saw the former publish the latter's groundbreaking PC first-person shooters Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Half-Life 2.

However, Valve's next console game--after the PlayStation 2 Half-Life and the Xbox Counter-Strike--will be distributed by one of VU's main rivals. Today, Electronic Arts revealed that as of this fall, it will be the international publisher of the forthcoming Xbox version of Half-Life 2, which will now ship in October 2005. EA will also assume distribution duties on a new Game of the Year edition of Half-Life 2 for the PC, which will include Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source, as well as Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Half-Life: Source, in a single box.

However, Valve will now officially self-publish all its PC products, although the newly announced--and carefully worded--agreement will let EA "deliver a collection of Valve games to players worldwide" in the future.

"We consider Half-Life and Counter-Strike to be two of the best game franchises of all time," said Tom Frisina, vice president and general manager of EA Partners, in a statement. "We could not be more excited to have the opportunity to help deliver these outstanding games to players around the globe."

Valve founder and president Gabe Newell had similarly kind words. "By combining EA's unparalleled operation structure and distribution channel with Valve's award-winning development teams and games community, we've established an awesome combination for delivering great products to console and PC gamers around the world," he said.

The EA-Valve arrangement covers the boxed, retail editions of Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source but does not affect digitally distributed versions of the game. As before, those games will be delivered and updated via Steam, Valve's online service.

That's a hell of a way to encourage people to use Steam.

[Alyeska]

Lets see, EA is going to publish the Game of the Year edition which contains everything that the first edition of Half-Life 2 already had in the box. Fucking brilliant.

[The Grim Squeaker]

I just hope they will finally make buying a game through steam an incentive, by lowering the damn price.

[Alyeska]

The STEAM option is cheaper then the box option. Though without the middleman you would think Valve would drop the price just a tad more. Still make more profit then they used to and give the customer an incentive.

[Pcm979]

I now support STEAM with every fibre of my being.

Edit: Unless it's all part of a cunning plan to make that happen!!1Oneone

[brianeyci]

I paid for counterstrike and condition zero. I paid because of the convenience. Sure, I could have gone to a bargain bin somewhere, hunted for a couple weeks (or days if I was lucky), and get it, but that takes time.

Brian

[InnocentBystander]

There are two perfectly reasonable explanations as to why Valve didn't cut down the price on the Steam version.
1) They want to make more money, why decrease the price? I'm sure someone did the math and figured that they'd make more money by keeping the price on par with the box.
2) They were required to keep the price high so Vivendi's boxed game could remain competitive.

Lets see, EA is going to publish the Game of the Year edition which contains everything that the first edition of Half-Life 2 already had in the box. Fucking brilliant.

It is. I recall the amount of money Valve pulls in per-copy over steam being roughly five times greater than what they get from a single box sale. Every time someone pays for something on steam Vavle makes a huge profit and Vivendi get's nothing (as opposed to Vivendi getting lots and Valve getting the scraps).
But now, Valve wants to sell their fine products to people with consoles, there's no way they can peddle their games over steam to console users. That leaves the option of fronting up a lot of cash to publish their game to console guys, or going to a publisher like EA and having them do it.
They sure as hell aren't working with Vivendi again anytime soon, that's certain.

[DPDarkPrimus]

I resolved that I would continue to purchase the physical product, because I like owning something I can actually hold.

But now... I think I might have to go the Steam route.