EA/Valve Make A Multi-Year Deal News

In a joint statement, Valve and Electronic Arts have announced a multi-year deal that will see EA publish and distribute a collection of Valve developed products starting this autumn with the releases of Half-Life 2: Game of the Year Edition and Counter-Strike: Source on PC. The deal also means that the long awaited Xbox version of Half-Life 2 will also be published and distributed by Electronic Arts.

Tom Frisina, Vice President and General Manager, EA Partners said, "At EA Partners, our mandate is to seek out the world's top studios and game franchises, build partnerships, empower the development teams and help get these great games to more people in more countries than ever before. We consider Half-Life and Counter-Strike to be two of the best game franchises of all timeâ?¦We could not be more excited to have the opportunity to help deliver these outstanding games to players around the globe."

"EA is the worldwide leader in bringing best of breed games, for all platforms, to market," said Gabe Newell, Valve's Founder and President. "Valve games have sold over 18 million units at retail since Half-Life shipped in November 1998. By combining EA's unparalleled operation structure and distribution channel with Valve's award-winning development teams and games community, we've established an awesome combination for delivering great products to console and PC gamers around the world."

Half-Life 2: Game of the Year Edition will include Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, plus Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, and Half-Life: Source, whilst Counter-Strike: Source will feature Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Day of Defeat: Source.

The Xbox version of Half Life 2 so far has an October 2005 release date attached to it, but weâ??ll have more precise date shortlyâ?¦