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Shacknews has confirmed a widely-known industry ‘secret’ – that Valve has entrusted development of the PS3 version of Half-Life to EA UK.
Production of the Sony version of the game, which includes the original title and its follow-up spin-off episodes, began with a team at EA’s Chertsey development base who then moved to Guildford when all the EA UK development was brought under one roof.
It’s also understood that EA UK is helping transfer Portal and Team Fortress to PS3 as well. Along with Half-Life the three titles make Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, which Electronic Arts is distributing to retail for home consoles and PC. Valve is making the 360 and original PC titles. The games will roll out on Steam and at retail on October 9th.
Choosing EA UK for the PS3 work seems to be a smart choice – its new Guildford base is built around the old Criterion talent-base, which has always lead its productions on Sony formats. And while Criterion is still hard at work on the next Burnout and potential Black sequel, EA UK has been amassing a team of developers and engineers, many of which have been hired straight out of university.
