Fan-made Half-Life remake Black Mesa will be sold as a commercial product

Community made Half-Life remake Black Mesa will become a commercial product sold on Steam.

After being one of the first projects to pass through the company's Greenlight process, Valve has given the team its blessing to sell the fan-made Half-Life remake. "Black Mesa has been given the opportunity to be sold as a retail product on Steam," reads an update for the game.

"This is an incredible honor--one we never expected--but also one we found hard to accept."

"We never developed Black Mesa with money in mind. Our team is made up of average, hardworking people, and no one joined the team to make money. For us, Black Mesa is purely a labor of love. We believe this philosophy has significantly contributed to the overall quality and feel of the game."

"Our decision to sell Black Mesa rests on two key points. One is we believe we can make the game even better by having full access to the Source engine. This lets us tackle and fix limitations instead of working around them. The second is because frankly, our team could really use the financial help."

The game will be available "soon" on Steam for a "relatively low price," but the development team says it's not looking to drop support for the free version of the game.

"In fact, shortly after the Steam release there will be a completely new free version of the game. We also plan to open source our maps and some game assets to the modding community!"

"Purchasing the Steam version of Black Mesa is more about supporting the team and our efforts than anything else. However, the Steam version will include features that the free version simply can not have. We will be paying careful attention to feedback, and you'll have a very real say in how the final game turns out."

One of the updates down the line is the addition of Xen, Half-Life's concluding chapter that is absent from Black Mesa. "Please be patient with us as we work to make Xen a stunning and worthy conclusion to Black Mesa. Until Xen is completed, we have multiple interesting additions planned for the Steam version of Black Mesa, which we will announce later on down the road."