Just a couple of days late with this one…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Redwood City, Calif. and Bellevue, WA – July 18, 2005 – Electronic Arts, the world’s leading interactive entertainment company and Valve®, the award-winning studio behind the blockbuster franchises Half-Life® and Counter-Strike™, today announced that the two companies have entered a multi-year agreement to deliver a collection of Valve games to players worldwide. The first two games to be released under this agreement are Half-Life 2: Game of the Year and Counter-Strike: Source™ for PC, both launching this fall. In addition, Half-Life 2 for the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft, currently in development at Valve and targeted for release in October, will be published and distributed worldwide by EA.

“At EA Partners, our mandate is to seek out the world’s top studios and game franchises, build partnerships, empower the development teams and help get these great games to more people in more countries than ever before. We consider Half-Life and Counter-Strike to be two of the best game franchises of all time,” said Tom Frisina, Vice President and General Manager, EA Partners. “We could not be more excited to have the opportunity to help deliver these outstanding games to players around the globe.”

“EA is the worldwide leader in bringing best of breed games, for all platforms, to market,” said Gabe Newell, Valve’s founder and president. “Valve games have sold over 18 million units at retail since Half-Life shipped in November 1998. By combining EA’s unparalleled operation structure and distribution channel with Valve’s award-winning development teams and games community, we’ve established an awesome combination for delivering great products to console and PC gamers around the world.”

Half-Life 2: Game of the Year is a special edition release of the best-selling and critically acclaimed title that includes Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, plus Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, and Half-Life: Source.

Counter-Strike: Source takes the world’s number one online action game to new heights atop the Source engine with brilliant graphics, enhanced versions of the classic CS maps, all-new CS maps, offline skirmish play with AI bots, and more. It also includes Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Day of Defeat™: Source.

Half Life 2 for the Xbox system defines a new benchmark in console gaming with startling realism and responsiveness. Powered by Source technology, Half-Life 2 for Xbox features the most sophisticated in-game characters ever witnessed, advanced AI, stunning graphics and physical gameplay.

For more information about EA please visit http://www.ea.com and for information about Valve, please visit: http://www.valvesoftware.com