Half-Life 2: GOTY ships to retail

Valve has announced that Half-Life 2: Game of the Year edition has shipped to retailers. The bundle features one of the most popular PC first-person shooters of all time, 2004's Half-Life 2, and some of its popular spin-offs, including Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life: Source, and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.

This is the first Half-Life title to be distributed by Electronic Arts, which took over the duties from former Half-Life publisher VU Games. Valve and VUG ended their oft-tumultuous relationship in April. EA will take the reins of the international publishing of Half-Life 2 for the Xbox and the distribution of the future boxed, retail versions of Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source. Valve will self-publish its PC products and manage all digital distribution of games distributed through its online service, Steam.

Speaking of Steam, those who purchased the game on Friday, looking forward to HL2: GOTY over the weekend, met an unsavory obstacle. Gamers wanting to play the game had to validate their CDs online but were unable to successfully log into their Steam accounts, rendering their copies unusable. Valve has since fixed the problem.