According to reports, Valve and Vivendi – formerly Sierra On-Line – hooked up together in 1997 when Valve was looking for a publisher for its debut game, Half-Life. The game turned out to be a massive hit and Valve is now a leading player in the PC entertainment market.
The dispute between the companies began in August 2002 when Valve accused Vivendi of breaching the contract between them by distributing games to cyber cafés – a sector of the market Valve is keen to access through its own distribution software, known as Steam.
According to reports the rift deepened when Valve then made complaints over royalties and production delays. Vivendi counter sued, arguing that the games developer had misled it over the development of Steam.
Some of these issues were resolved last week with an order by Judge Thomas S Zilly of the US District Court in Seattle, that Vivendi and its affiliates "are not authorised to distribute (directly or indirectly) Valve games through cyber cafés to end-users for pay-for-play activities pursuant to the parties' 2001 Agreement."
The ruling will affect games in the Counter-Strike and Half-Life series. According to Valve, the order also permits the company to recover copyright damages for any infringement as allowed by law without regard to the publishing agreement's limitation of liability clause.
"We're happy the court has affirmed the meaning of our publishing contract. This is good news for Valve and its cyber café partners around the world," said Gabe Newell, founder and CEO of Valve.
Vivendi has yet to comment on the order.