It looks like VU Games lost the publishing rights to Valve Software’s wonderful games.

On April 28, after months of overt legal disputes and covert bickering, VU Games and Valve Software announced they were ending a half-decade-long publishing deal. The arrangement saw the former publish the latter’s groundbreaking PC first-person shooters Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Half-Life 2.

However, Valve’s next console game–after the PlayStation 2 Half-Life and the Xbox Counter-Strike–will be distributed by one of VU’s main rivals. Today, Electronic Arts revealed that as of this fall, it will be the international publisher of the forthcoming Xbox version of Half-Life 2, which will now ship in October 2005. EA will also assume distribution duties on a new Game of the Year edition of Half-Life 2 for the PC, which will include Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source, as well as Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Half-Life: Source, in a single box.

I am not a big fan of EA, but hopefully they will do the series justice as they take over the publishing rights of the games. It is going to be a little weird seeing EA Games appear when you load up Half-Life.