Fr4nz and R!Co used our news submit to tell us that the source code of the upcoming game Half-Life 2 has been leaked. Fr4nz wrote "This is a very bad hurt for Valve which is working on its masterpiece since 1998...imagine the consequences of this: cheaters and crackers can easily find bugs/weak points in HL2 source code making cheats or Backdoors (Steam is in very danger). But what is worst for Valve is that their ideas (3D Engine, Physic Engine, etc.) will be surely copied in some parts by other game developers. This is a very bad day for Valve and for Half-life's fans."
Quake was the
last game to have its source code leaked shortly after the game was released in
1997. As a result, other game developers including Half-life made use of
this source code. As Half-life 2 is not expected to be released until next year, having its source code leaked is a serious consequence to Valve as this gives other game developers ideas of what to implement or try to beat in their next game releases. Source code is the blueprint of software, where as when the source code is compiled into useable software, it is like mass producing a product from a given blueprint. Having source code leaked is much like a car company having its top secret blueprints for its next hi-tech car leaked to its competitors.
More worryingly the source code seems to contain a lot of source code from partner software developers that Valve had licensed to use in Half- life 2, such as the Havoc physics engine, and that Valve is contract bound to keep protected and confidential. These leaks enable people to potentially rip off these software partners too, and hence opens Valve to be sued. Finally the internal workings of Half-life 2 have been so seriously compromised that I will be amazed if we see it released before 1st Quarter 2004. The potential for hacking exploits is enormous; it is like printing the blueprint to your high security safe in the local newspaper before having it installed in your home. SERIOUS work is needed now to rework the source code to protect it from future attacks on release. Let us not even mention that it seems Steam has been seriously compromised as well in the leaked source, as that had enough problems of its own to be getting on with without this. A leak of the source code of a revolutionary highly anticipated game like Half-life 2, close to release is, as far as I know, unprecedented. My deepest sympathy as a games developer goes to the Valve crew and I wish them every success in catching the perpetrators of this crime. |
That is a major pity for Valve as their previous game Half-life was a major success. Even though I don't
play games myself, I did not know of any game player who did not have Half-life on their PC or even played it despite it been launched back in 1998. With such a popular game, it is a serious consequence to Valve to have their ideas stolen for their upcoming game Half-life 2. It means that Valve will have to do a lot of work to redesign their upcoming game and 'beat' what their leaked source code had, so that cheats and 'backdoors' that are developed by hackers based on the leaked code will not work on their final release of Half-life 2.
Source: Planet Half-life
