In this article, we will talk about Valve DMCA developments. Team Fortress: Source 2 and Portal 64, two fan-made projects, were forced to halt development due to cease and desist requests from Valve.
Team Fortress: Source 2 was intended to port Valve’s 2007 multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 to the newer Source 2 engine. The project was paused in development in September, but Valve DMCA made the pause permanent. Portal 64 is a project aimed at developing 2007’s Portal to run on Nintendo 64 hardware.
Valve DMCA: What awaits Team Fortress: Source 2 and Portal 64?
The DMCA, posted on the public GitHub page, states that their reasoning stems from Valve’s own assets being used in a project, but that hasn’t stopped some other fan games based on their properties from being published and even sold on Steam.
This is somewhat surprising, as Valve has long supported fan initiatives based on its own games and allowed them to be sold as retail products on Steam. Either this indicates a change in the company’s policy towards such projects, or they actually have legitimate concerns about them. Either way, this decision is not a pretty sight coming on the heels of a change in storefront policy regarding AI.
In other news, it was reported that item servers crashed, causing panic among players. However, it is important to note that this does not mean that players have lost their entire inventory. Items are not connecting to the servers, so players cannot access the items in their inventory, but they will be available again once the servers are back up.
TF2 Source 2: TF2 item servers are down
Valve’s DMCA suspension of fan projects caused a stir in the gaming community. The company’s decision to halt development of Team Fortress: Source 2 and Portal 64 has raised questions about their stance on fan projects. While Valve has long been supportive of fan projects based on their own games, the DMCA takedown suggests that the company may be taking a stricter stance on projects that use their assets.
Oh, and the TF2 item servers have been down for 24 hours with no communication from Valve. https://t.co/xZuAdWXcyL
— Tyler McVicker (@Tyler_McV) January 10, 2024
Team Fortress: Source 2‘s takedown is understandable, as Valve is still supporting Team Fortress 2 and may one day want to port the game or create a sequel.
The removal of Portal 64 is more surprising because James Lambert states that Valve requested the removal of Portal 64 because “the project was tied to Nintendo’s proprietary libraries.” This is surprising because Valve has long supported fan initiatives based on their own games and allowed them to be sold as retail products on Steam.
The lifting of the DMCA caused concern among fans, who feared that it might signal a change in Valve’s policy towards fan projects. However, Valve may also have reasonable concerns about these projects. Either way, coming on the heels of a change in showcase policies regarding AI, this decision is not a pretty sight.
Featured image credit: TFS2
