Vivendi Universal Games, a subsidiary of French media group Vivendi Universal, said it would be unable to launch its new computer game Half Life 2 in time for the end-of-the-year holidays following the theft of part of its code source.
"Vivendi Universal Games is only the distributor of the product, which is produced by the US studio Valve and so it will up to them to make an announcement," the head of Vivendi Universal Games International Christophe Ramboz told AFP.

"But it is true that the launch has been delayed by a theft of a part of the game."

He added however that it will be impossible for those who committed the theft to take advantage of it since they now possess only a third of the code.

The launch of Half Life 2, planned for this year, is now expected to boost sales next year, Ramboz said.

The French newspaper Les Echos, which revealed the incident, said a computer hacker had been able to break into the messaging system of Valve founder Gabe Newell to introduce software enabling the theft.

The launch delay is a blow to Vivendi Universal Games, which had been counting on Half Life 2 to compensate for the failure of another game, Hulk, in the first half of the year. The company had been banking on Half Life 2 to galvanize sales in the United States following a first half operating loss of 52 million euros (61 million dollars).

damn hackers.
whyd you ruin it for everyone. WHY!!!!

don't blame the hackers :D blame valve for being stupid...

valve screwed themselves over BIG time... not only are they going to lose profit, but their reputation is at loss.... :\ too bad, HL2 would have made millions if they didn't mention steam and didn't prolong the release because their 1/3 code is hacked...they would have gotten that dough too..