Half Life 2's source code was stolen and has now been leaked, you can now get it on on p2p/warez site.

Hackers broke into Gabe's (Valve CEO) PC and using a customised trojan stole the 'entire' (+-130 megs) source code as well as a 'pre-alpha' version of the game (It's still being debated if they compiled the code themselves or just got a precompiled version).

Check out http://www.halflife2.net for the low down. This will have serious consequences for Valve and Steam (Remember, they have leased Havok other engines thats source is available).


Why I post this hear is a warning to developers, keep your source secure, If it could happen to Valve then it sure can happen to you.

Opinions?

poor valve...

This shouldn't really happen to anyone. I feel sorry for them, and their families as well (since this most likely means a lot more time spent at work).

I heard recently that only a portion of the code was actually leaked, not the entire game.

Strange... as I understood it more or less ALL of valves source code was leaked... as well as licensed code, like the Havok stuff.

I recently heard that Halflife 2 might be delayed until April 2004.

But there's just so much rumors going on, so I guess you can't be sure of anything :-/

Valve have said that they still believe a December release is possible, its the publisher that said a April release would be needed. However, I can't see how they won't go back to the rawign board and change most of the code related to multiplayer/registration etc, if there has indeed been a full source leak.

As everybody else I feel sorry for Valve. They have been working hard for several years on that engine, and now it's available for anybody (without conscience) to download. Not only will the game suffer, the reputation of the engine and of valve will take a serious blow, which will probably lower the amount of revenues they'll get from licensing the engine to other companies. On top of that I heard rumours that Miles and other middle-ware providers were thinking about sueing Valve for "making" their products available to the public. As always, this hasn't been confirmed at all...

But what bugs me the most is that supposedly a group of dedicated game players/hackers did this to be able to cheat more effectively. Don't they realize that doing a thing like this hurts the game industry enormously; the very same industry that provides them with the games that they enjoy. However, I don't see how you can enjoy a game if all you do is cheat...

Once again, destructive powers have spoiled years of constructive work. Why is it that it's so much easier to tear down than to build up? It's sad...

Actually from what I heard, even most hacking groups have been coming out loudly against the whole thing. The culprits have not made a bunch of friends within the actual fans. But there are plenty of people out there who enjoy screwing anybody and don't care so much about the consequences.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/07/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm

The whole thing sucks mightily. Just awful.

It happened to Valve, but in all seriousness, I don't think it would happen to you. Because HL2 is "shaping up to be the year's most anticipated PC game". And your game (whoever you might be), well, it isn't. Unless John Carmack reads these boards.

But what bugs me the most is that supposedly a group of dedicated game players/hackers did this to be able to cheat more effectively. Don't they realize that doing a thing like this hurts the game industry enormously; the very same industry that provides them with the games that they enjoy. However, I don't see how you can enjoy a game if all you do is cheat...

Actually, I don't think they did it to be able to cheat, they probably did it out of curiosity and because they thought it was cool.

Alot of you are talking as though Valve has lost source code and has to re-write it, but according to what I've read they just made copies of it. And of course every large developer worth their beans has an offsite back scheme in place.

I agree that it's sad that their code got stolen, and it's going to really suck if the game gets delayed as a result. Buuuuut... games leak like this alot. If not the source code necessarily, builds of the game leak. Infact, with high profile games like this it almost always happens. And it doesn't seem to hurt them that much. Now before you jump all over me, I'm certainly not defending the hackers. They're scum and should go to jail.

But, I don't see why this should cause a delay. Unless the code on their intranet was wiped and they had to restore from back-ups, but even this should only set them back a week or two. And it doesn't sound like this is what happenned.

I don't know, I just don't see how this should hurt them that much. And actually, the delay isn't confirmed.

Well, from what I've read, the leakers are now stating that Valve was nowhere near ready to release. They are saying that the need to delay is just a cover for the fact that Valve would have had to delay anyway, because the game isn't done. They (the leaker vermin, may they have their eyes sucked out by leaches) are even saying that Valve's e3 demo was a fake.

Planet Halflife (http://www.planethalflife.com) has fairly good, ongoing coverage.

Yeah, that's kind of what I suspected.