Half-Life2, perhaps the most anticipated PC game in history, is making history, but for all the wrong reasons.
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The source code (otherwise known as the game's engine) which powers the game along with many game assets such as models and characters has been stolen, and posted on the internet. Although originally scheduled for a September 30 2003 release it was known for some time that the game would probably miss its projected shipping date, but now it seems the game may be delayed t'il 2004. In the span of six months, Valve Software's golden status has gradually eroded and recent events have knocked them off their pedestal, perhaps even planting the seeds to their demise. Accusations are now flying that Valve Software (the creators of Half-Life) may have deceived the public and that Half-Life2 was not even close to being finished, and furthermore that some things seen or implied in the E3 demo are not representative of what has actually been implemented in the game! Uh oh!
Conspiracy Theories Abound...
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"Ever have one of those weeks?" - Famous words from Valve Software's founder, Gabe Newell, after discovering that the Half-Life2 source code was on the road. Hell, the code was on the public highway and moving fast! In a strange twist, the the thief or someone impersonating the thief, publically threatened to expose the software company as being fraudulent if they did not come clean, regarding the development of the sequel to Half-Life. Now, let me take a moment to answer Gabe Newell's question: No Gabe I can't say I've had one of those weeks - you know, the weeks where you lose potential profits worth millions of dollars - but we've all had our share of miserable days, I'm sure.
So the big question is who stole their "game in progress" and why? Was it your local anti-social pimple-faced hacker seeking notoriety or was it something more sinister like a rival game company on the edge of stagnation ? What about a video card manufacturer with an axe to grind against Valve Software for exposing how poorly their cards ran Half-Life2 under DirectX9? Disgruntled employee perhaps? Maybe it was the work of upset gamers fearful and angry that they may have to pay to play online or connect to the net to authenticate their purchase everytime they want to play the game. Could it be a big time game publisher bent on crushing Valve's new online distribution system STEAM, that threatens to limit the power and profit of publishers in the future? While it is unlikely Valve Software staged recent events, there is speculation that they are blowing the whole matter out of proportion and using recent happenings to delay what may have been a far from finished game, and garner publicity in the process. It's one thing to steal a game in its alpha or beta stage but why steal and leak the source code?
Most of the above theories are self explanatory. The most amusing theory is the one involving rival game companies. This theory may seems absurd (no more absurd than the Tonya Harding figure skating scandal), but let us have some fun with it since it allow us to recount various happenings surrounding Half-Life2 and other games. It also involves why the source code is perhaps more valuable than the final compiled game and how serious this matter really is.
Valve Software is arguably one of the most admired game developers in the PC gaming industry and when it comes to the first person shooter genre, it could be argued that they are number 1 - all this due to one old game called Half-Life and its multiplayer mod called Counter-Strike. While Half-Life and its mods can sometimes have over 100,000 players playing online at any moment in time, its nearest first person shooter competitors Battlefield 1942 and Medal Of Honor rarely go over the 12,000 player number mark and most other shooters are lucky to even get over 5000 players online at once. In fact at one time over 70% of all players playing first-person shooters online were playing Half-Life and Half-Life Counter-Strike. Come the year 2003, there have been several high profile games using next generation technology such as DirectX9 etc... that have been announced to be released shortly, and they look mighty impressive. Doom3 , S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Far Cry to name a few. Many of these heavyweight games are being powered by their own custom built engines. There is lots of money to be made from cool looking games and just as much money to be made from powerful gaming engines that could be licensed to other game developers and organizations.
It was quite the shocker when Half-Life2 was announced shortly before the 2003 Electronic Entertainment Expo(E3). 5 years of silence and then boom! The attention had literally been shifted from all other games to Half-Life2. Doom3 the most anticipated game for 2003-2004 had now become almost a shadow in Half-Life2's wake and other games were simply pushed off the radar. It was interesting to see some games scheduled for a 2003 release suddenly move their release schedules to 2004. Another shocker was that Half-Life2 was powered by its own custom built engine, an engine that in its own right looked at least as impressive as the mighty Doom3 engine which many argued was the most sophisticated game engine to date, sporting the most impressive graphics. How could Valve a company that had never built a game engine, have built an engine that looked like it might surpass just about all the top game engines currently on the market? Top notch engine, and top notch game is bound to create some jealousy among rivals especially when these rivals worked just as hard and as long as Valve did. Imagine being upstaged just as you are about to make your mark.
In many cases the game engine produced by a company is far more important than the game it was meant to power. Game engines will be used in the future to not only power games but will be used in other areas like creating animated films and as education tools etc...and represents a huge source of revenue. Now, would be the time for an engine maker to get their foot in the door . Leaking the source code of Valve's engine probably will not damage the single-player game but it could damage their ability to license that engine and that is a very huge blow, especially since it looked like their Source engine could have become the engine of choice for many developers. Definitely an upsetting prospect if you are a rival engine developer. At the very least, rival companies will now be in posession of the knowledge that might have set Half-Life2 and its sequels above their own games, and now it will not be difficult for them to equal Half-Life2's SOURCE engine. All the techniques that might have helped make Half-Life2 revolutionary and techniques that give a unique look and feel to their engine could be in the hands of their competitors. A simple thing like the look and feel that an engine gives out is in large part responsible for the popularity of Half-Life and Counter-strike. I like to refer to it as the engine's personality. We just don't know the full extent as to what may have been stolen, but the damage is more than likely irreversible if what was taken truly represents the full capacity of Valve's Source engine. Hopefully it was a very outdated version of the Source. Hopefully this whole fiasco has been exaggerated.
These theories seem ludicrous, but consider that if an individual from a rival company or even an insider like a disgruntled employee is behind this attack, that they would face very little risk at being uncovered since all that is required is for them to anonymously leek enough useful and damaging information on the net on how to infiltrate Valve, and dubious groups might be more than happy to take advantage of that information.
What does all this mean...
It is hard to say how this will affect Valve Software. They may have lost the ability to successfully market their engine to other developers and organizations, and the multiplayer modes of Half-Life2 may be compromised because hackers and cheaters have access to the source code. This could compromise STEAM's security as well. There may also be legality issues that may leave the company open to potential lawsuits since some of the code stolen was technology Valve licensed from other companies. Any chance of Valve Software having the number one game engine may be gone, or will be shortly, as any experienced competitor can now use the 5 years of knowledge and perfecting of techniques bound up in Valve's engine code to make their own equivalent engine.
Thanks to the stolen Half-Life2 assets and source code, Valve Software's competitors have seen a substantial amount of their secrets and designs and it would not be surprising to see variations of these ideas appear in rival games before Half-Life2 ships. It would not even be a surprise to see some Half-Life2 assets show up in mods for current games. Half-Life2 may have missed its chance and place in history to be considered a revolutionary game. There are an array of impressive games coming in 2004 that are not bothering to significantly scale back their system requirements to support low end computers which means Half-Life2 may not have the profound impact it would normally have had it been released on time. What effect this will have on the motivation and morale of Valve's employees remains to be seen.
What looked like the perfect release is turning into one big nightmare. If there is one bright side to all this, it is that Half-Life2 might sell like hot cakes in large part due to the unprecedented publicity generated from this scandal. This saga is far from over and hopefully there will be good news concerning Half-Life2 when I bring you part 2.
Written By Anthony B (http://www.planetrealcool.com)