Arrests Made in Theft of 'Half Life 2'

[Seraphim]

By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer

SEATTLE - Authorities have arrested suspects in a case involving the theft of software blueprints for the hotly awaited action computer game "Half-Life 2," the FBI (news - web sites) said Friday.



FBI Agent Ray Lauer in Seattle confirmed the arrests but would not comment further because it is an ongoing case, investigated by the Northwest Cyber Crime Task Force, a group of federal, state and local investigators.


Game developer Valve Corp. said in a statement that arrests had been made in "several countries," and lauded video game fans for providing thousands of tips that helped lead to the arrests.


"Within a few days of the announcement of the break-in, the online gaming community had tracked down those involved," said Gabe Newell, Valve's chief executive.


Lauer wouldn't say when or where the arrests were made, how many people were involved or what charges the suspects might face.


The theft of the source code for "Half-Life 2" — a follow-up to the popular shooting game "Half-Life" — shocked the gaming industry last fall. The stolen code was circulated over the Internet, although security experts said it could not actually be used to play the game.


Valve, based in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, quickly called on gamers to help track down the theft. Many fans feared the theft would delay the game's release or make it easier to create ways to cheat.


The game originally was to have been released late last year. Now, Valve is hoping to deliver it to publisher Vivendi Universal Games this summer, and it may be on store shelves by this fall.


It's not the only time source code has been let loose onto the Internet. Earlier this year, Microsoft Corp. said incomplete portions of the blueprints for Windows 2000 (news - web sites) and Windows NT4.0 had been illegally made available online. Experts feared the leak could open the dominant computer operating system to more security vulnerabilities or provide an advantage to competitors.

[American Patriot]

EL OH EL

[Midtown]

Silly nerds, tricks are for kids.

[Operation Ivy]

Bastards, i could have been playing that already, glad there caught woot

[MEGR]

I can now sleep better knowing that monsters like these are locked up.

[Lt_Crooks]

wow! glad to see my tax dollars going to a good cause :bash:

[Haiw]

Bastards, i could have been playing that already, glad there caught woot
Actually...no. It would have been delayed anyway.

[Operation Ivy]

Bastards, i could have been playing that already, glad there caught woot
Actually...no. It would have been delayed anyway.

well........damnit

[anonymous individual]

I don't like Valve any more.

[Seoulstriker]

Valve sucks.

[Ratamacue]

Seoulstriker's a fanboy.

[Haiw]

Valve sucks.
And what was your reasoning for that last time? The fact that they're still actively supporting a 5-year-old game? :P

[Operation Ivy]

Valve sucks.

Yea they dont make Doom 3 what faggots

[Seoulstriker]

Did I ever mention DooM 3 in this topic?



I say that Valve sucks because:

1: Steam kills 56k users.
2: CS:CZ comes out years (?) past release date with nary a word about anything about it.
3: Team Fortress Classic. 'Nuff said.
4: Valve repeatedly lied about HL2 being released in September, even 1 week up to the date, so that ATi could sell as many of their video cards as possible.
5: Valve repeatedly gets involved in fan site issues, asking editors to take down any offensive topics. (see PlanetHalfLife founder and editor resignation letter)
6: Valve forced review sites to use only old nVidia drivers in benchmarks so that nVidia cards will seem inferior to ATi cards, just to sell more cards for ATi.
7: Valve consistently lied to the gaming community that the reason for the delay of HL2 is due to the source code leak. Valve later admitted that it was not even close to completion in terms of content creation.


So tell me why I should love Valve.

[Haiw]

1: Steam kills 56k users.
The patches might be big, but are you saying we should hold improvement of the game for the broadband majority just so a few of the 56k users don't have to get a patch?! Besides, I've played it at 56k (or even 33k6) in the past....and it blew donkey balls. If you're on 56k, too ****ing bad, but online gaming just isn't for you. Complaining about 'killing 56k users' is like complaining that Doom 3 'kills Pentium 2 users'.


2: CS:CZ comes out years (?) past release date with nary a word about anything about it.
So ****ing what? It's not like we've been flooded with info about Doom 3. Besides, CS CZ wasn't even done by Valve, and the main reason it got delayed time after time was because different companies did a very poor job at making it for Valve time after time.


3: Team Fortress Classic. 'Nuff said.
Eh? It's a free mod... and not all that bad if you're into that kind of stuff. What the hell could be wrong about it?!


4: Valve repeatedly lied about HL2 being released in September, even 1 week up to the date, so that ATi could sell as many of their video cards as possible.
Tough luck, but release dates should be taken with a couple of grains of salt with almost EVERY game producer these days. If you whine about release dates you don't love any game producer.


5: Valve repeatedly gets involved in fan site issues, asking editors to take down any offensive topics. (see PlanetHalfLife founder and editor resignation letter)
Can't say I've ever heard about that, but so far they've been pretty good in producer/fan-relations.


6: Valve forced review sites to use only old nVidia drivers in benchmarks so that nVidia cards will seem inferior to ATi cards, just to sell more cards for ATi.
This smells very Doom 3-like, except that it was the other way around then.


7: Valve consistently lied to the gaming community that the reason for the delay of HL2 is due to the source code leak. Valve later admitted that it was not even close to completion in terms of content creation.
Though they weren't even close then, the source code leak also DID delay it. Anyone with a brain could figure out that even if they were finished the game would have been delayed because of the source code leak.


So tell me why I should love Valve.
Because they made one of the best games ever and kept supporting it for years, and come up with new (free) stuff all the time?

[Seoulstriker]

Valve admitted that the source code leak didn't delay them one bit. They admitted that they had very little content. Which makes sense. Why would a source code leak affect release?



Re: TFC2: Valve takes a mod created by the community which is what allowed HL to be so popular, then tells the creators to bend over as Valve assumes production of the sequel TFC2 which is yet to be seen. ???

Valve is in the pockets of ATi. Their whole deal was disingenuous and distrustful. What kind of company retards the performance of high-end graphics cards of one manufacturer to sell more cards of another manufactuerer?????????????????????

Valve --> :fork:


Valve sucks. Stop rationalizing. You like HL. So do a lot of people. Don't let that cloud your thoughts. I don't know of any company that stabs its customers and modders and fans in the back like Valve does. That's just how it is.

[Ratamacue]

Valve admitted that the source code leak didn't delay them one bit. They admitted that they had very little content. Which makes sense. Why would a source code leak affect release?
They never said it "didn't delay them one bit," they said that despite the source leak they still wouldn't have been ready for release at September 30. Big difference. And why a source code leak would affect release, if you can't figure that out, you know nothing.




Re: TFC2: Valve takes a mod created by the community which is what allowed HL to be so popular, then tells the creators to bend over as Valve assumes production of the sequel TFC2 which is yet to be seen. ???
TF2 was originally going to be released on a modified HL engine. The game was redone from the drawing board a couple times until Valve began production of the Source engine, which is what TF2 will be on.


Valve sucks. Stop rationalizing. You like HL. So do a lot of people. Don't let that cloud your thoughts. I don't know of any company that stabs its customers and modders and fans in the back like Valve does. That's just how it is.

How do you rationalize this? Valve has continued support of the entire mod and user community of HL since release and continues to do so despite being focused on the development of an entirely new engine and game.

[Haiw]

Valve admitted that the source code leak didn't delay them one bit. They admitted that they had very little content. Which makes sense. Why would a source code leak affect release?
Are you stupid? People complained about Half-Life / CS being cheater-infested...well... with the source code out on the streets the posibilities to make cheats would be endless. :|


Re: TFC2: Valve takes a mod created by the community which is what allowed HL to be so popular, then tells the creators to bend over as Valve assumes production of the sequel TFC2 which is yet to be seen. ???
TF 2 is gonna be in the spotlight after HL2. Besides, I doubt they just asked the creators to 'bend over'. They wouldn't if there weren't for example certain financial gains involved.


Valve is in the pockets of ATi. Their whole deal was disingenuous and distrustful. What kind of company retards the performance of high-end graphics cards of one manufacturer to sell more cards of another manufactuerer?????????????????????
Apart from the fact that you're exaggerating, I should point out that if you change ATi for nVidia then the company would be called ID SOFTWARE.


Valve sucks. Stop rationalizing. You like HL. So do a lot of people. Don't let that cloud your thoughts. I don't know of any company that stabs its customers and modders and fans in the back like Valve does. That's just how it is.
Stabs in the back? Then why...is it still the biggest and most active modding scene? Why are we still given new stuff all the time? Why is the whole HL-experience bla bla still getting better every day? Maybe you're just saying this because you're a Doom 3 fan boy and this is a big rival game which makes you jealous? :|