July 18^th, 2005 (4:20pm) - Not to long ago, Valve ended its relationship with Vivendi Universal Games, and now the company has revealed that it has entered into a multi-year publishing agreement with publishing giant Electronic Arts. The first games to be published under the EA label will come this fall in the form of Half-Life 2: Game of the Year and Counter-Strike: Source for the PC and the Xbox version of Half-Life 2.

"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.