Career Suicide For Vivendi???

[JaegerMaster]

If Vivendi Universal Displays A sandbox Mentallity, And Wants To Play A sort of Childs Game With Valve, I would Be Happy To See Them Go Down!!! If I were A Game Developer, And If Vivendi Does Jerk Valve Around, I Would Remember Vivendi As The Company That Screwed Up One Of The Most Anticipated Games Ever, And Would Never Trust Or Hire Vivendi, Even If They Became Janitors!!! This Would Be A Form Of Career Suicide In My Book... If Things Do Transpire In This Direction, I will Be Glad To See VU Wiped Off The Gaming Industry Planet!!!!

 

[Harryz]

I didn't get a word of that. How come you start nearly every word with a capital letter, your caps locks disfunctional?

 

[razorblade kiss]

Vivendi took serious losses this year I guess. I'm sure the're working to get HL2 out, but the lawsuit isnt helping matters.

 

[eth8686]

Seriously, what's with the capitals?

 

[CrazyHarij]

Hey, put off the caps, mate.

I doubt Vivendi will hold the game 6 months just because they "can". After all, most publishers have that amount of time to release the game, but they never really push the limit that long due to numerous popularity and stock reasons.

Vivendi aren't stupid. If they hold the game that long, they'll go down quickly and they realise that themselves. I wouldn't worry too much abotu it.

 

[JaegerMaster]

Yea bad Habit Of Mine Harry...LoL What I mean is, If Vivendi Universal does hold out to try and manipulate valve during this court battle, I belive it would mean a sort of career suicide... It was hard Harry, but I didn't cap everything this time..lol

 

[Feath]

Yes, I believe that developers will want to avoid Vivendi from now on.

 

[Jimmeh]

If Vivendi Universal Displays A sandbox Mentallity, And Wants To Play A sort of Childs Game With Valve, I would Be Happy To See Them Go Down!!! If I were A Game Developer, And If Vivendi Does Jerk Valve Around, I Would Remember Vivendi As The Company That Screwed Up One Of The Most Anticipated Games Ever, And Would Never Trust Or Hire Vivendi, Even If They Became Janitors!!! This Would Be A Form Of Career Suicide In My Book... If Things Do Transpire In This Direction, I will Be Glad To See VU Wiped Off The Gaming Industry Planet!!!!

Wow! That is extremely hard to read! Seriously though - It does me eyes in, funny way to type you got there. As for your point, I don't think we'll see Vivendi go down anytime soon - as for Valve just saying "piss off then" to Vivendi, I don't think it's that simple. If Vivendi hold off for 6 months, It's their money going down the drain to you know.

 

[Neutrino]

I think VU knows quite well what they're doing. They're not going to do anything to hurt themselves I wouldn't think.

 

[Frank]

Yea bad Habit Of Mine Harry...LoL What I mean is, If Vivendi Universal does hold out to try and manipulate valve during this court battle, I belive it would mean a sort of career suicide... It was hard Harry, but I didn't cap everything this time..lol

Seriously? Do you think that HL2 is the only thing that Vivendi is making money off?

 

[Ballsaccio]

Vivendi has ensured their place in history, like the VooDoo 5 video card.

 

[JaegerMaster]

"Seriously? Do you think that HL2 is the only thing that Vivendi is making money off"

Ofcourse Not, my point was, noone is going to trust them in the future if they sabotage this thing.. And again, I apologize for all the caps in my primary post...

 

[CrazyHarij]

You need to realise that the gaming industry doesn't work like that. The worst that'll happen after the release is that we'll remember Vivendi having abit of trouble with Valve, that's all there is. Unless they "accidently" throw the gold-disk in a bonfire, nothing particularly will happen.

 

[SFLUFAN]

Of all their upcoming games, VUG has the most potential to make money off of HL2 and WoW. Here is a partial list of the others:

Men of Valor (I kinda like this one but I doubt it'll be popular)
Evil Genius
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
Tribes: Vengeance
Law & Order 3 (from the TV show)
Yu-Gi-Oh: Power of Chaos
ER (from the TV show)
Dark Age of Camelot: Catacombs

I wouldn't call this a "powerhouse" line up.
Hoyle 3D

 

[Harryz]

Yea bad Habit Of Mine Harry...LoL What I mean is, If Vivendi Universal does hold out to try and manipulate valve during this court battle, I belive it would mean a sort of career suicide... It was hard Harry, but I didn't cap everything this time..lol

:Laugh:

It virtually is suicide, I doubt Vivendi will hold back on the game. If they do, they'll be recieving some white powder in the mail soon.

p.s. No, it isn't sugar.

 

[CrazyHarij]

:Laugh:

It virtually is suicide, I doubt Vivendi will hold back on the game. If they do, they'll be recieving some white powder in the mail soon.

p.s. No, it isn't sugar.

You giving them free cocaine? :|

 

[Feath]

You need to realise that the gaming industry doesn't work like that. The worst that'll happen after the release is that we'll remember Vivendi having abit of trouble with Valve, that's all there is. Unless they "accidently" throw the gold-disk in a bonfire, nothing particularly will happen.

Yeah but, will developers remember this? If Half-Life 2 is delayed as a blackmailing tactic, would you like your game to be published by them?

 

[Parasite]

Half-Life 2 was deleayed because Valve was blackmailing Vivendi. Vivendi is working for shareholders....they dont have the luxury of dicking around, Valve does and has. Valve is the one who threatened delays and then followed through. Valve didnt announce the first delay so that they could sell ATI bundles right up to the "first" release date. Valve is way too underhanded and deceptive. Not to say Vivendi are saints by any means, but gimme a break, now that we have a glimpse behind the scenes of whats been happening for over a year....how can anyone pretend Valve are little angels. I honestly hope they dont last, tho it would be a shame to see the steam concept go down with them.

 

[Feath]

Half-Life 2 was deleayed because Valve was blackmailing Vivendi. Vivendi is working for shareholders....they dont have the luxury of dicking around, Valve does and has. Valve is the one who threatened delays and then followed through. Valve didnt announce the first delay so that they could sell ATI bundles right up to the "first" release date. Valve is way too underhanded and deceptive. Not to say Vivendi are saints by any means, but gimme a break, now that we have a glimpse behind the scenes of whats been happening for over a year....how can anyone pretend Valve are little angels. I honestly hope they dont last, tho it would be a shame to see the steam concept go down with them.

You've only read extracts of Vivendi's case, and it shows. And I believe that Vivendi did "Dick around" when it came to Condition Zero.

I'm sure that the ATi bundles only came on sale AFTER the 30th of September. Otherwise we would've known that Half-Life 2 wasn't included.

 

[hunter-killer25]

If Vivendi Universal Displays A sandbox Mentallity, And Wants To Play A sort of Childs Game With Valve, I would Be Happy To See Them Go Down!!! If I were A Game Developer, And If Vivendi Does Jerk Valve Around, I Would Remember Vivendi As The Company That Screwed Up One Of The Most Anticipated Games Ever, And Would Never Trust Or Hire Vivendi, Even If They Became Janitors!!! This Would Be A Form Of Career Suicide In My Book... If Things Do Transpire In This Direction, I will Be Glad To See VU Wiped Off The Gaming Industry Planet!!!!

i think hes trying to communicate with us, damn i cant be sure. anyone checked all the strangely capitalized letters for a secret message? :dozey:

 

[Xac493]

3rd test!!!!!!

 

[Ownzed]

3rd test!!!!!!

What? :x

 

[FoxDie]

What? :x

Don't listen to him, he's one of those crazies that thinks the lawsuit is somehow the 3rd test

 

[Feath]

Don't listen to him, he's one of those crazies that thinks the lawsuit is somehow the 3rd test

No he isn't. Read the post above it.

i think hes trying to communicate with us, damn i cant be sure. anyone checked all the strangely capitalized letters for a secret message?

 

[FoxDie]

No he isn't. Read the post above it.

Oops

Damn me and my skimming ways!

 

[geowa]

on the 3rd page of the lawsuite document there is a secret pic called "barney", in the code, and then when you open it with wordpad it reveals half life 2 is going gold, at the next hearing (8th of october), and the "lawsuite" is a codename for the party, they are going to have in a warehouse, across the road from a court were gabe is meeting everyone

 

[DrunkPanda]

If Vivendi Universal Displays A sandbox Mentallity, And Wants To Play A sort of Childs Game With Valve, I would Be Happy To See Them Go Down!!! If I were A Game Developer, And If Vivendi Does Jerk Valve Around, I Would Remember Vivendi As The Company That Screwed Up One Of The Most Anticipated Games Ever, And Would Never Trust Or Hire Vivendi, Even If They Became Janitors!!! This Would Be A Form Of Career Suicide In My Book... If Things Do Transpire In This Direction, I will Be Glad To See VU Wiped Off The Gaming Industry Planet!!!!

wait....... why would vivendi ever want or need to be hired by you?

 

[geowa]

because hes the manager of valve, he lost the ability to talk tho so he writes everything then his secutary (Gabe Newall) reads it out to the public

 

[N0N1337H41]

I believe that Vivendi did "Dick around" when it came to Condition Zero.

I've seen a few people bring this up and I have a theory. The theory is that it didn't really hurt VUG to hold onto CS:Z, because they had played the game and had a good idea that it wasn't going to sell well. I mean, if you've played CS you have seen pretty much everything CS:Z has to offer.

But with VUG knowing that they were going to be in the red this year there is no reason for them to hold back HL2's release. They're already in the red for this fiscal year and it's not even close to being over. And as someone previuosly pointed out VUG's soon-to-be-released list is looking a bit sad. HL2 is their big thing this fiscal year and they know it, and my money's on the fact that VU's boardmembers know it too. If HL2's sales go very well they could gain back over half of thier losses, which makes shareholders very happy.

I've also heard the argument that VUG stands to make a lot of money by holding on to the game because if they win the court case, then they will make MUCH more money. My problem with this is that they could very easily let the game out in time for the American holiday season and let VALVe rake in all of the cash they want, and then if the court decides in VUG's favor then they can just sue for back payment of what they are owed according to the court's ruling. I'm sure they even have that all planned out right now as we speak.

In short, VUG can only stand to lose profits by holding onto the game, and given thier current financial status they can't stand to lose much.

 

[Fixed]

If HL2 sells well, what's going to look better?

A year where VU just made their targets or a year where VU dominated all?

Shareholders will be more appreciative of a bigger winfall next financial year than just making up part of this years loss.

Valve has steam, which means VU can't predict sales or income. Why throw the weight of HL2 away without the court case win, without getting control of the Steam distribution channel?

Valve have shot themselves in the foot. They lied to us, they lied to their publishers, they got greedy.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R will be out by the time HL2 get's released and that will dominate. Won't be a year and a half old engine either.

 

[ytinupmi]

If Vivendi Universal Displays A sandbox Mentallity, And Wants To Play A sort of Childs Game With Valve, I would Be Happy To See Them Go Down!!! If I were A Game Developer, And If Vivendi Does Jerk Valve Around, I Would Remember Vivendi As The Company That Screwed Up One Of The Most Anticipated Games Ever, And Would Never Trust Or Hire Vivendi, Even If They Became Janitors!!! This Would Be A Form Of Career Suicide In My Book... If Things Do Transpire In This Direction, I will Be Glad To See VU Wiped Off The Gaming Industry Planet!!!!

wts do you capitalize most of your words? it's pretty annoying..

 

[N0N1337H41]

Valve has steam, which means VU can't predict sales or income. Why throw the weight of HL2 away without the court case win, without getting control of the Steam distribution channel?

Valve have shot themselves in the foot. They lied to us, they lied to their publishers, they got greedy.

It doesn't matter if VALVe has Steam or not, VUG expects x number of untis to be sold. If they release it now then there will be a substantially greater amount of untis sold, whether the units are sold over steam or not. And I'm sure that if VUG wins, then they will be able to continue with a suit seeking to recoup losses made while waiting for the trial to finish. So it doesn't matter when the game is released. It's not like the number of units sold over steam is going to be private knowledge or anything.

Why throw the weight of the holiday season sales away if you stand to gain so much money?

If VUG loses, then they're going to make what they would have made had there never been a lawsuit.

And yeah, VALVe are dirty liars and deserve what they get for being as underhanded as they are. But they make great games that I will continue to buy.

 

[DarkStar]

Companies don't have "careers." So no it's not "career suicide for Vivendi." I think the word you're looking for is "financial." Financial suicide.

 

[Fixed]

It doesn't matter if VALVe has Steam or not, VUG expects x number of untis to be sold. If they release it now then there will be a substantially greater amount of untis sold, whether the units are sold over steam or not.

VUG doesn't control Steam. I don't think they get any revenue from that channel, or if they do it will be substancially reduced - they're not "distributing" the game.

Remember, Valve have stated they make 2.5 X more per sale through Steam than through retail sales.

 

[Mr Neutron]

VUG doesn't control Steam. I don't think they get any revenue from that channel, or if they do it will be substancially reduced - they're not "distributing" the game.

Remember, Valve have stated they make 2.5 X more per sale through Steam than through retail sales.

The point is that, if the judge rules in VUG's favor, they could settle or win a decision for getting some of the Steam revenues from Valve. So no they don't control it, but with a court order, they could win some of its revenue. My bet is that both parties have agreed to this scheme and are waiting for the Oct. 8th hearing to have the court endorse it. The actual trial will preceed and the winner gets the Steam revenue, etc.

 

[N0N1337H41]

VUG doesn't control Steam. I don't think they get any revenue from that channel, or if they do it will be substancially reduced - they're not "distributing" the game.

Remember, Valve have stated they make 2.5 X more per sale through Steam than through retail sales.

You're not understanding what I'm saying....

If VUG wins the suit, then they will be entitled to their share of what was made over steam. I know that VUG doesn't control Steam, but if they win the suit then they will be entitled to loses made due to steam.

 

[Zento]

If VUG gets profits from Steam, there won't be much point in getting the Steam version to support Valve then would there?

 

[N0N1337H41]

If VUG gets profits from Steam, there won't be much point in getting the Steam version to support Valve then would there?

Well, the only way VUG would profit from steam would be if they won the suit. So no, if they win VALVe is screwed on ye ole steam sales.

 

[Fixed]

Well, the only way VUG would profit from steam would be if they won the suit. So no, if they win VALVe is screwed on ye ole steam sales.

That's a lot of "if's". Hence not bankable.

 

[Cabb]

Am I the only one that thinks valve deliberately and knowingly breached their contract?

Come on people, if you sign a contract for a publisher to give you money or whatever to develop a game, and in return give them a slice of the pie, you don't then spend their money developing a system that intentionally shafts them out of the agreement, I think vivendi are in the right and valve are just being microsoft.