Activision and Valve Partner Up

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"A battle royal!" As most of us know, Valve last year partnered up with Electronic Arts to allow the publishing company to only distribute Half-Life 2 through retail outlets, along with its sequels. Activision, one of Electronic Arts' biggest competitors, has also just signed a deal with Valve that will allow them to use the Steam services available to sell their popular Call of Duty franchise-based games, along with a few other select titles.

"Our agreement with Steam enhances our current online distribution model by allowing us to bring our games to the broadest possible audience," said Dave Anderson, Activision's Senior Director of Business Development. "As broadband penetration continues to grow worldwide, offering our titles digitally to the millions of gamers connected through Steam makes sense to us."

To specify, the prices and games which will be offered via Steam are Infinity Ward developed games: Call of Duty 2 ($39.95USD), Call of Duty ($19.95USD), and the Call of Duty: United Offensive expansion pack ($19.95USD), as well as the Western shooter Gun ($19.95USD), developed by NeverSoft.[br]Steam is ever expanding, with Majesco's Psychonauts just released, and Ubisoft's Dark Messiah of Might & Magic set to launch later this month.[br]To read the entire press release, direct your browser here.

 

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Activision Set to Deliver Four PC Games via Steam

October 12, 2006 - Activision, Inc and Valve today announced an agreement to distribute four of Activision's PC games -- Call of Duty 2, GunT, Call of Duty and Call of Duty United Offensive -- using Steam.

Steam is the first full-featured broadband platform for the delivery and management of games and digital content, and has pioneered its broadband services to over 10 million customers with core titles such as Valve's Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike.

"Activision has been a player on every major gaming platform dating back to the Atari 2600," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "We're delighted to welcome them to Steam, and offer this legendary company's products."

"Our agreement with Steam enhances our current online distribution model by allowing us to bring our games to the broadest possible audience," said Dave Anderson, Activision's Senior Director of Business Development. "As broadband penetration continues to grow worldwide, offering our titles digitally to the millions of gamers connected through Steam makes sense to us."


About Steam
The leading online platform for PC games and digital entertainment, Steam delivers new releases and online services to over 10 million PC users around the world. For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com

About Activision
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Founded in 1979, Activision posted net revenues of $1.47 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006.

About Valve
Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington. The company's portfolio of entertainment properties includes Half-Life, Counter-StrikeTM, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress and Portal. Valve's catalog of products accounts for over 20 million retail units sold worldwide, and over 80% of PC online action gameplay. In addition, Valve is a developer of leading-edge technologies, such as the Source game engine and Steam, a broadband platform for the delivery and management of digital content. For more information, please visit www.valvesoftware.com.

Activision, Call of Duty, and United Offensive are registered trademarks, and GUN is a trademark, of Activision Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Well that's a very good marketing plan. Kudos to VALVe.

 

[hungryduck]

this is sweet

 

[Asuka]

Wow. Didnt see this coming. Steam is growing so fast its insane.

 

[NeoNight]

ohh nice. Well maybe ill actually go ahead and finish gun if it comes over to PC.

 

[bigburpco]

Woah. That's all I can say.

 

[Mr. Ed]

Steam is probably my favourite program at the moment, it's the one where all my fun things live and I don't have to do anything to manage it, it does it all by itself. I love Steam.

 

[PhAtfiSh]

I sure hope i can use my old CD Key and activate a Steam copy with it (Like you can with old Valve games). COD is a great game, and i dont want to have to buy it again just to get the convenience that Steam offers.

 

[Jintor]

Everyone's flocking to Steam, eh?

 

[bigburpco]

It certainly does seem like it.

 

[$kelet0r]

the prices are too high

 

[Asknoone]

Fantastic.

 

[Geronimous]

SWEET! Steam is really strating to hit it off

 

[Ruubie]

Awesome. Soon it will be Valve and it's allies against EA and it's allies :sniper:

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

I sure hope i can use my old CD Key and activate a Steam copy with it (Like you can with old Valve games). COD is a great game, and i dont want to have to buy it again just to get the convenience that Steam offers.

You won't be able to most likely, seeing as all the other 3rd party games on Steam have been this way so far. COD probably still has their own MP Master server so all they are doing is selling COD on Steam.

 

[Asknoone]

Excellent, great to see Steam boosting its catalogue. It'd be nice if the games that didn't sell well, but were by and large pretty ****ing good made their way onto Steam. System Shock 2, Tribes Vengeance, Beyond Good and Evil to name a few.

 

[bigburpco]

Grim Fandago? I never got to see what it was about.

 

[potatojenkins]

"Awesome. Soon it will be Valve and it's allies against EA and it's allies"

Valve is an ally of EA!