EA to publish Half-Life 2; gaming world to seem smaller

In a move that will surely, in a manner of words, tick off VU Games, Valve Software has made a deal with game conglomerate and everyone's favorite love-to-hate company Electronic Arts that will have EA publish all of Valve's console and PC games. Starting this fall, as of October, EA will take on the role of international publisher for the Xbox version of Half-Life 2, as well as a Game-of-the-Year edition of Half-Life 2. 

However, Valve still has full control over its digital store and download service, Steam, meaning EA only has rights to the "packaged" version of Valve's games.  Still, this multi-year arrangement gives EA even more dominance in its already-dominant position in the game industry.  It's not another exclusive sporting license agreement, but having Counter-Strike is about the closest one could get to having control over the online FPS genre, save for maybe Unreal Tournament.

[via GameSpot]