Valve DMCA's both "Portal 64" and "Team Fortress 2: Source 2" projects
On January 10th, 2024, Valve issued a DMCA takedown to the GitHub repository for the "Team Fortress 2: Source 2" project, which aimed to Team Fortress 2 into the Source 2 engine, the same engine that powers games like Half-Life: Alyx and Counter Strike 2. The takedown seems to have taken place due to porting and redistributing Team Fortress 2's assets into the Source 2 engine without permission, as stated in the DMCA notice on GitHub:
DMCA Notice said:The original copyrighted work is Valve's game Team Fortress 2 ("TF2").
The TF2 assets have been ported to Source 2 without permission and are being redistributed by Amper Software in a game mode for Facepunch's S@box. Facepunch has not licensed any Valve assets for S@box. The unauthorized porting and redistributing of Valve's assets without a license violates Valve's IP.
To make matters worse for TF2: S2, the project was undergoing an engine rewrite, and the takedown appeared in a time where the current source code for the engine is all but unusable, effectively killing the project in its entirety.
Sadly, "Team Fortress 2: Source 2" isn't the only project that has been taken down by Valve.
Another highly praised fan project based on a Valve IP has been the technologically impressive "Portal 64", which aimed to recreate the entirety of Portal 1 into the Nintendo 64 as a fully developed game that could run on the original hardware. The fan game had just received a new updated this past January 5th, 2024, titled "Portal 64: First Slice", which saw 13 of the 19 test chambers from the original game fully playable up to that point.
This also caught Valve's attention, and it prompted action from the company towards this project. However, unlike the Team Fortress 2: Source 2 DMCA takedown, this takedown seems to have been caused due to the project's usage of "Nintendo's proprietary libraries", as mentioned by the project developer, James Lambert, on his latest Patreon post:
James Lambert's Patreon post said:So I have been in communication with Valve about the future of the project. There is some news and it isn’t good.
Because the project depends on Nintendo’s proprietary libraries, they have asked me to take the project down. I am letting all you know before so you can choose to withdraw your support before the next payment cycle. I do still plan on continuing the channel. I have plans to do VR powered by the N64, a computer that runs on air pressure, and some other ideas kicking around in my head.
I understand if you no longer support the channel but if you do stick around let me know what sorts of projects you would like to see. I may start a new game of my own or continue to find interesting ways to push N64 hardware. I haven’t entirely decided what I will do yet.
Also, but (sic) sure to generate the latest ROM before I take the ROM patcher down.
The ROM patcher for Portal 64 is still up at the time of writing, so those that still want to get the latest and final version of the Portal 64 project, can still do so before the ROM patcher for the project gets taken down in its entirety.
Team Fortress 2: Source 2 DMCA
James Lambert's Patreon