Confirmed: Half-Life 2 source code leaked

ixnay · October 2, 2003, 20:36

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ha...s_6076314.html

Quote:

Gabe Newell confirms that the Valve network was hacked.

Since late yesterday, reports have spread that the source code for Half-Life 2 was leaked and was illicitly posted on the Web. Valve's Gabe Newell has today confirmed in a post on the Half-Life2.net forum that the file that is circulating is indeed the Half-Life 2 source code and said that it was stolen from Valve's network two weeks ago.

Newell summed up the importance of these events with "Well, this sucks," saying that "this has just not been the best couple of days for me or for Valve." He explained that someone gained access to his e-mail and installed keystroke recorders on several Valve computers as a means of stealing passwords. Valve and its Steam service have been the targets of several denial-of-service attacks over the past year, and he said it was unclear if these were related to the recent attacks.

Valve is turning to the gaming community in asking for any information that might lead to those responsible for the denial-of-service attacks or the network infiltration. Newell asked that any possible leads be sent to helpvalve@valvesoftware.com .

Newell didn't comment on whether these events would impact Half-Life 2's release schedule, which was recently pushed back from September 30 to late this year.

By Sam Parker, GameSpot [POSTED: 10/02/03 03:10 PM]

Yikes. Wonder what this will mean for the release schedule of the game. I don't recall there ever being such a high-profile leak like this one in the recent past.

Tis I · October 2, 2003, 20:52

what is the significance of a source code anyway? I know it allows one to modify the game but how would it impact an impending release?

Skanky Burns · October 2, 2003, 21:07

They will have an advantage in cracking any software protection.

CygnusZ · October 2, 2003, 21:28

Big deal, as far as I'm concerned Halflife single player should have had a free release just for the publicity. Multiplayer is where the action is, and they have an unbeatable copy protection scheme for that.

MattH · October 2, 2003, 21:52

Quote:

Originally posted by Tis I
what is the significance of a source code anyway? I know it allows one to modify the game but how would it impact an impending release?

It's the code that runs the actual game- i.e. Artificial Intelligence, graphics modeling, network interfacing etc. It's a lot of (usually) secret material made from 100's of hours of work, now free for anyone to copy/use for their own programs or finding ways to compromise multiplayer (like that MP hole in UT2k3)

Asher · October 2, 2003, 23:40

Quote:

Originally posted by ixnay
Yikes. Wonder what this will mean for the release schedule of the game. I don't recall there ever being such a high-profile leak like this one in the recent past.

The Windows 2000 source was stolen a few years ago, nothing ever came from it.

alva · October 3, 2003, 01:32

Asher, you are leaving a big window of opportunity hee to make a (lame) MS comment here

Urban Ranger · October 3, 2003, 04:27

Quote:

Originally posted by CygnusZ
Big deal, as far as I'm concerned Halflife single player should have had a free release just for the publicity. Multiplayer is where the action is, and they have an unbeatable copy protection scheme for that.

There is no such thing as an unbeatable copy protection scheme.

pg · October 3, 2003, 04:33

Quote:

Originally posted by CygnusZ
Big deal, as far as I'm concerned Halflife single player should have had a free release just for the publicity. Multiplayer is where the action is, and they have an unbeatable copy protection scheme for that.

er, the biggest problem to result is most likely cheats for multiplayer. if you think cheating in half life is bad i imagine hl 2 will now be much worse. unless you were being sarcastic...

DrSpike · October 3, 2003, 05:33

Hope the release doesn't get pushed back too far.

Zealot · October 3, 2003, 05:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Asher

The Windows 2000 source was stolen a few years ago, nothing ever came from it.

Making a clone of a game is actually profitable, while cloning Windows would just be saying "Hey, we're the guys who stole your source-code! Come and sue us HARD!"

Drake Tungsten · October 3, 2003, 05:56

Besides, who would want to clone Windows?

August Borms · October 3, 2003, 05:59

DrSpike · October 3, 2003, 06:06

Cute.

Zealot · October 3, 2003, 06:40

Quote:

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Besides, who would want to clone Windows?

Sun?

lord of the mark · October 3, 2003, 12:42

BBC said this:

"The team at Valve has five years working on Half-Life 2, with an average of 30 people working on the title at any one time"

150 man years to make a friggin game?????? Is this possible?

Zealot · October 3, 2003, 12:54

Didn't you ever hear that making top-notch games is consuming budgets like Hollywood movies budgets?
Games are getting more and more complex, and the people competent to make them need more and more time to keep up with new technologies due to this.

lord of the mark · October 3, 2003, 13:09

Quote:

Originally posted by Zealot
Didn't you ever hear that making top-notch games is consuming budgets like Hollywood movies budgets?
Games are getting more and more complex, and the people competent to make them need more and more time to keep up with new technologies due to this.

i guess this isnt the time for snarky remarks about my favorite genres and their superiority to FPS's, now is it?

Mahdimael · October 3, 2003, 13:21

Single player wouldn't be too affected- however, multiplayer games could be hacked, and due to the soure code, they could circumvent any copy-protection or anti-cheating code. They could also hack the code to spread malicious viruses, or to steal information.

DrSpike · October 3, 2003, 13:33

Quote:

Originally posted by lord of the mark
BBC said this:

"The team at Valve has five years working on Half-Life 2, with an average of 30 people working on the title at any one time"

150 man years to make a friggin game?????? Is this possible?

The game will undoubtedly look great (if the demo is anything to go by), but I hope that time is also spent on longevity. There have been too many great but short games in recent years IMO.

geeslaka · October 3, 2003, 13:58

Quote:

The Windows 2000 source was stolen a few years ago, nothing ever came from it.

I've always wondered where Microsoft got Win2k.

MattH · October 3, 2003, 14:46

Quote:

Originally posted by lord of the mark
BBC said this:

"The team at Valve has five years working on Half-Life 2, with an average of 30 people working on the title at any one time"

150 man years to make a friggin game?????? Is this possible?

Well, I assume the "at any time" doesn't mean any time of the day... Its not like they're pulling 24/7 shifts on this at least, I don't think so...

lord of the mark · October 3, 2003, 14:48

Quote:

Originally posted by MattH

Well, I assume the "at any time" doesn't mean any time of the day... Its not like they're pulling 24/7 shifts on this at least, I don't think so...

i assume it means 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year. Thats a man year here in the USA. If they were working 24/7 it would be alot more than 150 man years.

geeslaka · October 3, 2003, 15:02

I believe the 150 man years figure. I've been working on xgalaga recently and it's a small project but it still swallows tons of my time.

Edit: Been fooling around on BCD too much, accidentally mixed the link tag formats.

lord of the mark · October 3, 2003, 15:07

Quote:

Originally posted by geeslaka
I believe the 150 man years figure. I've been working on [link url=http://crystae.homeip.net/~xathien/drawings/xgal.bz2]xgalaga[/url] recently and it's a small project but it still swallows tons of my time.

Rise of Nations was done in about 2 years, with a staff of what? Less than 30, ISTR. So less than 60 man years.

Asmodean · October 3, 2003, 15:34

Quote:

Originally posted by lord of the mark

i assume it means 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year. Thats a man year here in the USA. If they were working 24/7 it would be alot more than 150 man years.

So your average american working dude only has two weeks off in a year??

Asmodean

alva · October 3, 2003, 20:17

Far less then what europeans have in general anyway.
That's why their bank holidays are such a big deal compared to us

CygnusZ · October 3, 2003, 20:25

Quote:

Originally posted by pg

er, the biggest problem to result is most likely cheats for multiplayer. if you think cheating in half life is bad i imagine hl 2 will now be much worse. unless you were being sarcastic...

Two points:

1) No copy protection scheme is unbeatable, but the current system in Half-life is annoying enough that most people will just pay the $50 to not have to deal with having to find a valid key.

2) If you want MODs, you need to have the source open. Once that happens, you'll get cheaters anyway. Besides, while it's a problem in Counterstrike, I never noticed it being a problem is less popular MODs.

vovan · October 3, 2003, 21:06

Hope the moron that did it gets his ass nailed.

Zopperoni · October 3, 2003, 21:11

Can they speed up the development of the new Duke Nukem now by having it run on the HL2 engine?