Valve Software has inked a publishing deal with Activision covering multiple future titles, the developer announced at a press event in San Francisco today. The first game published under the new agreement will be Day of Defeat, the retail version of the popular World War II-themed Half-Life modification, coming May 6. Valve and Activision representatives refused to comment on any other games that might be published through the partnership, although it's certain that future Valve projects like the next game in the Half-Life series and Team Fortress 2 were foremost in the minds of all attending.
Day of Defeat has been popular among online FPS fans for well over a year. It presents team combat over maps based on famous battles of WWII, a class system that lets players adopt different roles as part of their team, accurately-modeled weapons for national forces on the Axis and Allied sides, interactive environments with multiple objectives, and a wide variety of other fine features. The retail version is to expand on the mod version with 10 new maps (15 in total), new weapons, new player skins (including a British side to give the Allies more options), and other added features.
"Activision has been a pioneering games publisher since the days of the Atari 2600, and the company has never been more influential than it is today," said Gabe Newell, managing director of Valve. "It's an honor to enter this new partnership and have the opportunity to take Day of Defeat, an ambitious product born of the MOD community, to gamers around the world in a great retail offering."
Stay tuned for more detailed coverage of the story, and also keep an eye out on the official Day of Defeat site at www.dayofdefeatmod.com.
News source: Gamers.com
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