As part of Half-Life 2's 20th anniversary Valve has released a new documentary on the making of the game, a period that was arguably also the making of the company. A significant thread in the story is not just the difficult development of the game itself, but Valve's major legal battle with Vivendi over these years.
Vivendi, through subsidiary Sierra Entertainment, had published the original Half-Life and owned the IP, but had overstepped its bounds by selling Counter-Strike (a Half-Life mod) in Asia without Valve's knowledge. To cut a long story short, a huge legal fight kicks off, with Valve looking to regain control of Half-Life, and the much larger Vivendi simply looking to bully Valve out of the IP and employing seriously nasty tactics (like making Gabe Newell's then-wife part of the lawsuit).
