07-10-2003 19:49									#1
	Sounds like BS to me Enter the AD-FREE zone

quote: Vivendi's 'Half Life II' code stolen Firm delays video game's release after hacker breaks into e-mail, steals a third of source code. October 7, 2003: 7:26 AM EDT PARIS (Reuters) - The theft of part of its source code has delayed until April 2004 the launch of "Half Life II," the hotly anticipated alien-hunting game of Vivendi Universal Games, a company official said. "A third of the source code was stolen," VU Games president of international operations Christophe Ramboz told daily Les Echos in its Tuesday edition. "It's serious because it forces us to delay the launch of the game by at least four months, that is to April 2004. Just the time to rewrite parts of the game." According to Les Echos, a hacker broke into the e-mail of the game's developer, Gabe Newell, the founder of Valve Software, and planted a spying program. The delay is bad news for VU Games, which suffered a 29 percent fall in revenue and an operating loss of 52 million ($61.36 million) in 2003's first half and was betting on swift holiday sales. This is the second time the game's release has been postponed. Last month, VU games postponed the release of "Half-Life II" from Sept. 30 to "an unspecified holiday release." The game was keenly awaited after last May's games industry trade show, E3. Critics previewing it said it brought a new level of realism to characters and the virtual world in which they move. The original "Half-Life," released in 1998, is still popular among PC gamers, and a modified version called "Counter-Strike" is widely used in gaming competitions. "Half-Life II" stars Gordon Freeman, a scientist battling aliens from the planet Xen in a mysterious European locale known only as City 17. Shares in Vivendi Universal (V: Research, Estimates), the parent company of VU Games, were down 1.2 percent at 16.11 ($19.01) in Paris, in line with the European media sector.

This sounds like a bunch of BS. A poor excuse for not hitting a deadline. You might as well say, "The dog ate my homework". Stolen code. If I owned stock in this company I would hit the ceiling. If this actually happened, I assume code was erased as well as stolen. If it was erased how come there is no daily backup to refer to. If it wasnt erased then what exactly needs to be rewritten. stupid.

	07-10-2003 19:57									#2
	Full PM-box? Change here!

quote: You might as well say, "The dog ate my homework"

My thoughts exactly.

	07-10-2003 20:02									#3
	Re: Sounds like BS to me Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

quote: Originally posted by Feephi This sounds like a bunch of BS. A poor excuse for not hitting a deadline. You might as well say, "The dog ate my homework". Stolen code.

It's available for download as we speak.

	07-10-2003 20:07									#4
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

The code was stolen but they should still release the current version. I mean all this will mean is more of the game is modifiable.

	07-10-2003 20:12									#5
	Increase Your PM Length

Good thinking, Oerdin!

	07-10-2003 20:13									#6
	Increase the size of your Attachments

where did valve ever say it lost the code?

stealing source code just means they obtained a copy of it, not necessarily that they stole the code and destroyed all copies.

this source code, while it can't run, can easily be used by programmers to create cheat and hack programs--things that, obviously, valve will not want on its steam infrastructure.

	07-10-2003 20:55									#7
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Vivendi could be talking out of its arse. halflifesource.com visited Valve and according to them everything's "business as usual", with the cracker(s) identified to a degree and the game being worked on.

IIRC this isn't the first time a VU rep went ahead and said HL2 would be delayed without any confirmation from Valve itself. Mind you, it did get delayed afterwards...

And by all means, according to the interview the portion of the source code copied was rather old and just a portion. And for those doubting, Valve confirmed themselves that code was copied. It happened. There's already a thread over at Other Games regarding this. The only way for it to be an excuse would be to don your tinfoil hat and claim Valve put it in circulation themselves.

I also highly doubt Valve would be inept enough to have only one copy of the entire source code tree, and that only copy based on the desktop machine that Newell uses to get email (read: is connected to the whole bloody Internet). A result of five years of work and the hit game of 2003 (fingers crossed) stored only on a fragile desktop drive? Please! I bet there is a couple of fireproof safes with months worth of backup tapes or whatever stored in them on a daily basis with only a select few knowing the codes.

	07-10-2003 23:23									#8
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

There's a thread already on this...in the Other Games forum...where you get +1's I believe... :green-stick-out-tongue-smiley:

EDIT: Okay...'Poly's sick again...

	07-10-2003 23:31									#9
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

How can a hacker steal code from a devolper? This makes no sense to me. I could see the hacker copying the source code, but how can you steal it?

	07-10-2003 23:37									#10
	Support Apolyton

Let's continue here, please.

	07-10-2003 23:59									#11
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

By 'steal' they do mean copy. They aren't missing any of the source code, and any delay because of this would be to alter the code to be different then the leaked stuff, so that it's of no use to anyone trying to alter the game.