VU according to the maker of Larry Games

[Element Alpha]

Directly taken from Al Lowe's website (=the creator of Larry, a very old Sierra title):

source: http://www.allowe.com/Larry/8news.htm

In an e-mail discussion he had with the new storycreator of Larry:

But I'm surprised to learn that you finished up a year ago and the game won't ship for another six months.

I suggest you read Al Lowe's site for yourself! It's very short and clear, and gives a good picture of how business with VU must be like.

 

[PenaE]

It's Al Lowe, not Al Low..

 

[Element Alpha]

Thanks. Luckily I'm Al lowe'd to edit.

 

[RoyaleWithCheese]

Yeah, this shows that a lot of factors can influence the release of games. In this particular case the not so stable economical situation of VU.

We can only hope this won't be the case for HL2..

Thanks. Luckily I'm Al lowe'd to edit.

lol!!!

 

[Asuka]

Thats why valve left them already.

 

[Phisionary]

Thanks. Luckily I'm Al lowe'd to edit.

you think that's punny? think again :frown:

 

[Bing_Oh]

There's been a great deal of criticism generated from the "old school" Sierra creators regarding VU's treatment of classic Sierra titles. Al Lowe is just one of many who are quite outspoken about VU's (bad) attitude. Scott Murphy (one of the Two Guys from Andromedia, the creators of Space Quest), for example, has been pretty outspoken regarding VU's repeated mistreatments of Space Quest...including things like their insistance that the now-defunct SQ7 have multiplayer (a multiplayer adventure game?!?!).

VU is pure business, plain and simple. They are willing to ride whatever is the most popular new fad while it still makes them money. They have no desire to be "cutting-edge" or have any love for gaming. They care only about their bottom line. The sooner HL fans realize that, the sooner they will stop being amazed by VU's actions.

 

[Mountain Man]

The "our work was completed a year ago" comment was from an e-mail from one of the writers. This doesn't necessarily mean the game was completed a year ago, only that the script was completed. The writer also expressed surprise at finding out that Al Lowe was not involved with the creation of the game leading me to think that perhaps this writer wasn't really an integral part of the design team and was therefore not privy to the actual development process.

I think what we have here is smoke and mirrors rather than a smoking gun.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Thanks. Luckily I'm Al lowe'd to edit.

 

[zul]

Thats why valve left them already.

Valve is still under contract with VU right now... we will have to wait untill March when the final court stuff is taken care of to see what happens between them.

 

[Mountain Man]

Any court decisions will only pertain to Half-Life 2 and possibly Valve's back catalog of games. To my knowledge, once Valve delivers Half-Life 2 to Vivendi, their contract with Vivendi is over.

 

[zex]

Valve should just be their own publisher, oh wait they already do that :x

 

[T.H.C.138]

I have been wondering about that..do the games (in the gold edition) count as the "4 more games" part of the contract?
they are all Source games...even if 2 are ports..fingers crossed for VALVe

 

[Mr. Redundant]

Valve should just be their own publisher, oh wait they already do that :x

no they arent quite yet.. if they were we would be playing hl2 apparently.

 

[zul]

Any court decisions will only pertain to Half-Life 2 and possibly Valve's back catalog of games. To my knowledge, once Valve delivers Half-Life 2 to Vivendi, their contract with Vivendi is over.

There are a number of reasons Valve might want to stay with Vivendi in the future - thats what i meant. Their current contract is up once HL2 ships (i think?) but depending on what the judge decides in March a new contract could be made between them.

Even though i think Valve should publish their own games and rid themselves of Vivendi ASAP

 

[benpatient]

not a chance in hades of valve renewing a contract with vivendi...they've been leeching off of HL for years...Valve hasn't needed them since before Vivendi was even in the picture...They barely needed Sierra...

 

[zex]

Valve would have to use some money to get facilities to box/print/ship their own cds, but it's not like they don't have the money. After seeing all the troubles their having with VU they're probably considering it :x

 

[Bing_Oh]

not a chance in hades of valve renewing a contract with vivendi...they've been leeching off of HL for years...Valve hasn't needed them since before Vivendi was even in the picture...They barely needed Sierra...

Now, I'll agree that Valve doesn't need Vivendi anymore. At the very least, they are in an excellent position for negotiate a very nice contract with another publisher. However, Valve DEFINITELY needed Sierra for HL.

HL most likely wouldn't ever have seen the light of day without Sierra...and it definitely wouldn't have been the game we all know and love. Sierra contributed SERIOUS financial backing to the fledgling Valve to make HL the game that it became. Before Sierra's intervention, Valve was out of funds and HL bore little resemblence to the game that we have all played...just look at the advertising demo on the Diablo Hellfire CD featuring the early version of HL and you'll see what I mean.