Valve asks Portal 64 developer to halt project after Nintendo concerns

Contrary to its usual image as a company open to games and mods, Valve has canceled two well-known community projects.

Both Portal 64, a build to port the original Portal to the N64, and Team Fortress: Source 2, an attempt to “remake a new version”. [Team Fortress] Experience” in the Source 2 engine, was targeted by Valve.

On January 10, the creators of each project released statements confirming the end of development and that each project will no longer be available for download.

Portal 64 developer James Lambert launches First slide, which contains the first 13 test rooms of the game, will be released on December 29. But on January 10, the project was halted. on Patreon (via Extension of time), Lambert revealed that Valve contacted him and asked him to finish the project, a request he decided to comply with. Lambert stated that the reason Valve wanted to halt development on Portal 64 was because of its reliance on “Nintendo's own libraries”.

Also on January 10, developer group Amper Software updated its followers on the status of Team Fortress: Source 2, which it had already announced Decided internally To move from. Valve served a DMCA Removal to the project on GitHub, asking the platform to remove it due to intellectual property infringement. “the [Team Fortress 2] “The assets were transferred to Source 2 without permission and are being redistributed by Amber Software,” Valve said in its DMCA notice. “The unauthorized transfer and redistribution of Valve assets without a license violates Valve’s IP,” it added.

This is in stark contrast to Valve's treatment of Portal: Revolution, the community-created version of Portal 2 that was released last week via Steam. The situation was subject to A Review process by Valvewhich temporarily delayed its release, so it has obviously received full approval from the company.

It is believed that Valve is hoping to avoid any potential conflicts with Nintendo over Portal 64, as was the case with the planned release of the GameCube and Wii Emulator Dolphin on Steam last year.