This week's raging controversy involves the premature release of source code to a hotly anticipated game into the wild by an unknown cracker. The game, of course, is Half-Life 2, and its developer, Valve. Well, it seems that Valve has sprung a leak, so to speak...

This statement from chairperson Gabe Newell suggests that Valve Software (owned by Vivendi Universal) has been unwittingly subject to prying eyes. The attacker(s) used a custom-written trojan to infiltrate development machines at Valve HQ, gaining access to the coveted source code without their knowing.

My analysis? The impact of the leak is overrated. While it's by no means a good thing, and is certainly a game developer's worst nightmare, this does not spell doom for Valve, nor is it going to ruin an otherwise hotly anticipated game. If anything, it is excellent publicity for Valve and their licensing programme, and may increase game/engine sales, is unlikely to represent a major threat to their intellectual property, and may even bolster game security. I'll briefly address these three aspects to the leak, explaining why it the leak is not the devastating blow that many commentators are making it out to be.

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