One man inadvertently changed the direction of gaming and Valve. In the early 2000s Valve was locked in a legal battle with Vivendi, a massive publishing house that was responsible for distributing games for Valve. However, Vivendi was operating in a somewhat underhanded manner, both within the court case and in the matters leading up to it. A summer intern who was a native Korean speaker happened upon a document that changed everything.
In celebration of Half-Life 2’s 20th birthday this past weekend Valve released a documentary. They also made the game free to download, while also upgrading/improving it somewhat. This documentary describes the events surrounding the games creation and the challenges the company faced. 80 Level first reported on the importance of a single man, instrumental in solving some of these challenges.
In the early 2000s Vivendi, the company responsible for distributing Counter-Strike, had been doing so in a way that was not allowed for in the contract. The company had been distributing the games in South Korea’s internet cafes(Known as PC방/ PC Room). Valve wasn’t eager to get embroiled in a legal battle but Vivendi was not willing to amicably resolve the error.
Vivendi’s response to Valve’s discovery was to pull out the big guns. They sent their lawyers in and tried to draw out a protracted legal battle. Until Valve ran out of money or got too desperate to continue. However, Valve didn’t give up. As a result Vivendi sent overwhelming stacks of Korean documents relating to the court case. Valve was tasked with finding a needle in a haystack. An intern named Andrew who was a native Korean speaker, was asked to assist. He went through heaps of documents and found the one that incriminated Viviendi for destroying evidence. Valve up to that point had almost reached bankruptcy several times. Without the contributions of Andrew, they may never have become the gaming distribution hub that they are.
The legal battle may have also influenced Valve’s directory regarding game distribution. Without Steam the gaming sphere would be very very different. Half Life 2 may never have come to fruition. That’s without mentioning all of the subsequent games that came after Half Life 2.
If you’d like to read more about the special birthday weekend for Half Life 2, click here. If you’d like to watch the anniversary documentary, you can find it below.
