EA to publish Valve games @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on July 19, 2005

News: The Half-Life 2 developers have hooked up with EA to publish their future projects.

It looks like Valve has found a new publishing partner after their lengthy court battle with Vivendi ended that relationship. Valve has hooked up with the mothership themselves, EA Games, to distribute Valve products worldwide in a multiyear deal.

The first games to come out of this deal are all slated for this fall. First up will be Half-Life 2: Game of the Year Edition (which will include Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Half-Life: Source) and a boxed version of Counter-Strike: Source that will include Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Day of Defeat: Source.

Later this fall (October to be exact) we will finally see the release of the very anticipated Xbox version of Half-Life 2.

"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."

A quote like that almost makes you wonder if Valve will be placing less emphasis on Steam distribution now that they have a heavy hitter like EA distributing their games.

We'll have more on the Valve/EA marriage and their (hopefully) blissful life together soon.