Electronic Arts gets Half-Life 2

Games publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has won the rights to distribute Half Life 2 and other games from developer Valve.

In a multi-year agreement, EA would publish or distribute Valve titles starting with Half-Life 2: Game of the Year and Counter-Strike: Source, scheduled to launch in the third quarter of this year.

Half-Life 2 for the Xbox was still in development but would also be published and distributed worldwide by EA. That game would be released in October, EA said.

"We consider Half-Life and Counter-Strike to be two of the best game franchises of all time. We [will] help deliver these outstanding games to players around the globe," said Tom Frisina, vice president and general manager of EA Partners, in a statement.

Gabe Newell, founder and president of Valve said the company had sold 18 million retail units since the original Half-Life shipped in Novemeber 1998.

Valve settled some legal disputes with previous distributor Vivendi Universal Games in April. Under the terms of the settlement, Vivendi promised to stop distributing retail packaged versions of Valve games from 31 August.