SUMMARY
- TF: Source 2 and Portal 64 are two fan-made projects that Valve has issued a DMCA against.
- TF: Source 2 was aiming to bring Team Fortress 2 to the Source 2 engine but was taken down due to them using TF 2 assets.
Valve recently made a series of announcements that have created quite a stir in the gaming community. Several fans and developers are left in shock after the announcements, which the company claims are for the greater good.
The first news that broke out was the new rules regarding the AI content used by developers. And now, the company has reportedly sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice to Amper Software the developers of the Team Fortress: Source 2 engine.
Valve has given green light to AI Generated Content today and now is allowed on steam
Also Valve is DMCAing TF:Source 2 and Portal 64, ALL IN THE SAME DAY WTFPortal 64 is an open source N64 demake of Portal.
All these people is known for helping company with their games crazy… pic.twitter.com/nGQof3Z8l4
— PC_Focus 🔴 (@PC_Focus_) January 10, 2024
Fans were particularly anticipating the title since it included the Team Fortress 2 assets working on the impressive Source 2 engine. The game was a fan project attempting to bring the multiplayer game back to life in the modern engine using the S&box project.
It is particularly disheartening for the fans since the project has faced development difficulties earlier. However, the DMCA takedown by Valve has hammered the final nail in the coffin.
What does Valve’s notice say?
Vake has issued a DMCA notice to the game that reads, “The TF2 assets have been ported to Source 2 without permission and are being redistributed by Amper Software in a game mode for Facepunch’s S@box. Facepunch has not licensed any Valve assets for S@box. The unauthorized porting and redistributing of Valve’s assets without a license violates Valve’s IP.” (sic.)
The second project is Portal 64, which is a demake of the 2009 puzzle game. The new game was supposed to port it to run on an actual N64. Developer James Lambert had been actively working on the project for years, however, it acquired substantial notoriety in December with the release of First Slice.
Although Valve hasn’t issued a formal DMCA against Portal 64, the outcome is likely to be the same. Lambert, in a X post, said that he had “been in communication with Valve about the future of the project. There is some news and it isn’t good. Because the project depends on Nintendo’s proprietary libraries, they have asked me to take the project down.”
Considering the fact that Valve has been quite open in accepting fan games in the past, the recent moves have shocked the community. Major mods such as Portal: Revolution have their own Steam pages. Similarly, the unofficial Half-Life remake named Black Mesa is even labeled as a commercial product on that storefront.
Portal 64 is related to Nintendo and Team Fortress: Source 2 uses the unusual distribution of Valve assets, which might be the reason for Valve making the exceptions. However, this will now force amateur devs to start thinking twice before starting a fan project.
TF: Source 2 and Portal 64 stop development
After the cease and desist notice from Valve, Amper Software, the team working on Team Fortress: Source 2, as well as James Lambert, the Portal 64 dev, have announced the end of development of their respective fan projects.
Team Fortress: Source 2 was a fan project that looked forward to porting Valve’s 2007 multiplayer shooter, Team Fortress 2, to the newer Source 2 engine. The team had earlier paused development in September 2023 and just when the development was about to resume, the DMCA forced a permanent pause.
Hello everyone. We have some unfortunate news to share with you.
Today, we received a DMCA takedown from Valve on all our public GitHub repositories and all its forks made by the community.https://t.co/BQvtPwjPtn
— Team Fortress: Source 2 (@TeamFortressS2) January 10, 2024
On the other hand, Portal 64 was supposed to be a demake 2007’s Portal to make it run on the Nintendo 64 hardware. A few days ago, the developer celebrated the release of the game’s “First Slice,” demonstrating the game’s progress.
The taking down of Team Fortress: Source 2 is pretty understandable since Valve still supports Team Fortress 2. Additionally, it won’t be surprising to see Valve themselves port it or create a sequel.
