Ioman
04-25-2003, 09:04 AM
Activision's recent deal with Valve will not affect the publishing rights for Half-Life 2, with the recently announced sequel set to be published by Vivendi's Sierra label.
However, the game will not appear on the Vivendi stand at E3; instead, it's being shown off in non-interactive form on ATI's stand, in a manner very similar to last years unveiling of Doom III.
This is a little embarrassing for NVIDIA, no doubt - two of the biggest PC games of the year both being shown off to the public on ATI hardware is not good publicity for the GeForce range of cards, especially after the critical hammering received by the GeForce FX from hardware reviewers.
It also comprehensively lays to rest the rumour, reported by some online news sites, that Valve were planning to make Half-Life 2 into an NVIDIA-exclusive title.
For those of us wondering what's happened to Valve's other project, namely Team Fortress 2, apparently it hasn't been scrapped - on the contrary, the team plans to provide a progress update on Team Fortress 2 as soon as the announcement process for Half-Life 2 is done with. It's still unknown what form TF2 will take - it may well be a modification for Half-Life 2, in the same way that Team Fortress Classic was for the original Half-Life, but it's equally likely that Valve's current penchant for releasing modifications at retail will see TF2 released as a full-price game or add-on.
However, the game will not appear on the Vivendi stand at E3; instead, it's being shown off in non-interactive form on ATI's stand, in a manner very similar to last years unveiling of Doom III.
This is a little embarrassing for NVIDIA, no doubt - two of the biggest PC games of the year both being shown off to the public on ATI hardware is not good publicity for the GeForce range of cards, especially after the critical hammering received by the GeForce FX from hardware reviewers.
It also comprehensively lays to rest the rumour, reported by some online news sites, that Valve were planning to make Half-Life 2 into an NVIDIA-exclusive title.
For those of us wondering what's happened to Valve's other project, namely Team Fortress 2, apparently it hasn't been scrapped - on the contrary, the team plans to provide a progress update on Team Fortress 2 as soon as the announcement process for Half-Life 2 is done with. It's still unknown what form TF2 will take - it may well be a modification for Half-Life 2, in the same way that Team Fortress Classic was for the original Half-Life, but it's equally likely that Valve's current penchant for releasing modifications at retail will see TF2 released as a full-price game or add-on.