Punkbuster soon to cost money and Half-Life support ceasing

[natrat]

from http://www.punkbuster.com/ ...


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First, we hope to have our email accounts and lists working again very soon. Unfortunately, our web host has not been able to recover very well from the crash that messed up several domains (including ours) on one of their hosting machines. We have considered moving to a different web/email host, but for various reasons, have not made the jump at this point. Hopefully, things will be back to normal very soon.

Next, PunkBuster is very close to moving into the realm of commercial software. A corporation has been formed, Even Balance, Inc., to handle all aspects of the PunkBuster project going forward. A U.S. patent has also been filed and accepted on the software technology integral to the workings of PunkBuster. We are currently in 'Patent Pending' status.

On a sad note to honest players of Counter-Strike and Half-Life mods, we have determined that the current version of PunkBuster cannot be appreciably improved without the direct support of VALVe. We have offered to do business with VALVe on multiple occasions in the way of integrating proven Anti-Cheat technology directly into their games. At this time, we are suspending development of the Half-Life version to focus on game platforms where the developer is willing to support the effort. We sincerely believe that we have had a positive impact on the Half-Life community and we truly appreciate the support of our hundreds of thousands of users. However, from the beginning we have said that we did not want to charge users directly for our product and we intend to abide by that decision. The remaining bugs, problems, issues, etc. with the Half-Life version cannot be addressed properly without direct integration with the game, and at this time, there is no hope of that even being a possibility.

The good news is that we are aware of some really awesome games coming out soon that will break new ground in the area of preventing and detecting cheaters. We intend to put our full support behind these games and developers. As soon as we are able, we will post details here on our website.

At this point, I want to sincerely thank the PunkBuster staff members (all volunteer) who have been tireless in their efforts of supporting the product to this point. It has been a real pleasure working with all of you. Some of the staff may continue in supporting the existing Half-Life clan tag registry and in helping Half-Life users/admins on our forums. Others will move forward to the next big thing that is coming. Keep watching here for details to unfold as we are able to share.

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[Ch3tan]

Bye bye PB.

Time to get your arses into gear valve, aint got PB doing your job for u anymore.

 

[Moving Target]

never used PB

 

[old.zeratule]

o welll never mind there will b a replacement soon enough
hopefully withought charge

 

[DAN200]

Wouldnt it seem more sensible to keep the CLIENT server free and charge for the SERVER one? Just a thought.

 

[MYstIC G]

Originally posted by DAN200
Wouldnt it seem more sensible to keep the CLIENT server free and charge for the SERVER one? Just a thought.

That kinda talk means the following -> GSP's costs go up, eventually they get fed up of holding the can, P2P arrives quicker = Bollocks to that.

I always said that PB was a load of bollocks anyhow, this just goes to prove it.

 

[Ch3tan]

Originally posted by natrat
from http://www.punkbuster.com/ ...


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However, from the beginning we have said that we did not want to charge users directly for our product and we intend to abide by that decision.
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Dan2k learn to read

 

[Ulysses777]

So now they've filed a patent on PB, does this mean that games companies (more specifically Valve) won't be able to implement their own anti-cheat systems without the PB company's permission?

 

[MYstIC G]

Nope, as far a I know anything Valve feels like coding into HL they can because anything that PB prevents it does by interacting with the HL engine, if Valve wants to change their own engine they are free to do so.

 

[Deady]

Well PB never worked anyway - and was just an extra inconvenience for people who wanted to play on a "PB Required" server.

Now they are getting all greedy and threw their toys out of the pram when Valve wouldnt give them money.

So annoying when people try to muscle their way in onto something and then throw a tantrum when they dont get what they want.

 

[TipTop]

Thats a load of horse s**t. PB tried to help make online gaming better which in my opinion is a worthwhile idea. As with all things you don't get something for nothing in this life (.. and how long do you think the good folks at BW for instance are going to keep it free!) and somewhere somebody was going to have to pay for the upkeep of PB and to bring it to a complete version.

PB have decided to not charge the end user (makes sense because there would be very few people would be willing to pay - also the expense in collecting small amounts of money wouldn't be viable) so decided to offer it to developers for incorporation into their games. As Ch3tan has pointed out on another thread Valve do not want let others have access to their code (again its just plain common sense). In business terms they don't want PB to get so close that they are dependent in future releases on them. It's a catch twenty two. PB need money, Valve cannot give access to their code. Hence no PB for CS.

You'll see some third parties filling the space but it will be up to Valve to keep the cheaters at bay. As you've just downloaded a little program that makes updates quicker and easier I bet you'll see small updates going forward. If the cheaters take over (which is unlikely as PB never was completed and never stamped out the problem) then CS goes downhill which means Valve will lose money on CS:Condition Zero.

If I were a cynic I'd bet you'll see the anti-cheat development in CS:C0 as this is the money train for Valve, they'll need to move us over somehow. As for PB good luck to them, it was a good idea that never got completed and they'll end up licensing their code (just like iD's engine) for other developers to cut corners.

There's my rant for the day.

TT

 

[old.Soul]

 

[MYstIC G]

Originally posted by TipTop
As Ch3tan has pointed out on another thread Valve do not want let others have access to their code

Since its already been proven that creating cheats for CS is piss simple giving out the source code to anybody would be a bad move

 

[Ch3tan]

Valve have said they will study ways to make the hl engine more accessable for ALL 3rd party anti cheat software.

And are talking to punkbuster as to how they can do this.