EA and Valve Team Up to Deliver Half Life Games...

Electronic Arts and Valve, the award-winning studio behind the blockbuster franchises Half-Life and Counter-Strike, announced today that the two companies have entered a multi-year agreement to deliver a collection of Valve games to players worldwide.

The first two games to be released under this agreement are Half-Life 2: Game of the Year and Counter-Strike: Source for PC, both launching this fall. In addition, Half-Life 2 for Xbox, currently in development at Valve and targeted for release in October, will be published and distributed worldwide by EA.

“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 time,” said Tom Frisina, Vice President and General Manager, EA Partners.

“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 is a special edition release of the best-selling and critically acclaimed title that includes Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, plus Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, and Half-Life: Source.

Counter-Strike: Source takes the world’s number one online action game to new heights atop the Source engine with brilliant graphics, enhanced versions of the classic CS maps, all-new CS maps, offline skirmish play with AI bots, and more. It also includes Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Day of Defeat™: Source.

Half Life 2 for the Xbox system defines a new benchmark in console gaming with startling realism and responsiveness. Powered by Source technology, Half-Life 2 for Xbox features the most sophisticated in-game characters ever witnessed, advanced AI, stunning graphics and physical gameplay.

Blizzard ask readers if they would buy a PSP or DS version of Diablo II if a wireless enabled multiplayer mode was included.

Rumours that a handheld port of Blizzard's Diablo II is in the works have emerged after Blizzard sent out a newsletter asking readers if they would consider buying a Sony PSP or Nintendo DS version of if Diablo II featuring wireless multiplayer. In the same news letter Blizzard asked readers if they would buy a DS version of the classic RTS game Starcraft.

Blizzard has not confirmed anything as yet, but are definitely testing the waters for possible releases on the console formats.


Ohh yeah, I would love this....perfect with the upcoming DS online!

360 in the wild!

**EDITED*

First 360 in the wild...posted by dumb kid!

Maybe you can now belive some of those stories about kids saying there daddy works somewhere and kids stuff like this!

>> From 360-Hacker








































It’s pretty common for kids to go trolling on game forums and make obnoxious claims such as having a go on the Xbox 360 in their own home. Well, this thread on Gamespot started that way, except the kid actually backed up his claims with these photos:

Now the kid is begging to get the thread deleted (maybe he found out what an NDA is), but the cat is already out of the bag. Apparently his step dad just started working for Microsoft under the title of Regulatory Compliance Manager, and is currently hardware testing the Xbox 360. The wires coming out the top are for such testing. The hardware is apparently complete, and although there were no 360 games to test, he gave Halo 2 a spin in backwards compatibility.

He is claiming the power supply is external, and is enourmous. He also raved about the user interface/dashboard and the feel of the controller (and this coming from an admitted PlayStation fan, so it must be good).

You are a damn lucky kid, but I hope you didn’t just cost your step dad his new job.

**EDITED

EDIT: Hmmm

I think this is his Dad…

Joe Johnson
Environmental Regulatory Compliance Manager
Microsoft Home & Entertainment Division
(425) 707-4364
joejohn@microsoft.com