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Valve cracks down on Half-Life 2 CD hacks
By GamePro staff

Valve Corp. has reportedly been cracking down on those who have downloaded illegal copies of the game or those who've tried to bypass Steam with a CD key--allegedly banning up to 20,000 users from playing the critically acclaimed PC shooter.

"The number of people who actually had bought HL2 and used the CD key cheat was very small. Very small. Most people just tried to rip off the game and not bother buying it," said a Valve spokesperson.

The company's heavy-handed approach has been understandable--piracy has plagued the PC industry for years, with games being available within days before or after release. Valve also suffered a blow with the source code leak last year, forcing the company to delay the game by a year.

Online authentication has received mixed feedback from consumers, namely due to longer load times and the complications that arise when facing busy servers. However, if Valve's approach proves to be successful in warding off piraters, more game companies will likely follow suit.

Posted November 24, 2004 02:43 PM | TrackBack (1)