There's no doubt about it; Valve's Half-Life 2 met its very high expectations from its fans and the critics when it was released in the fall of this year and Valve has been busy afterwards with a constant stream of patches and content updates via its Steam download service. So how will Valve continue to expand on Half-Life 2? Gamecloud got a few hints from Valve's marketing manager Doug Lombardi on this subject.

Gamecloud - First, Valve recently announced that VUGames will no longer publish any of your games at the retail level as part of its settlement deal. Does this mean your product will now be only available via Steam after Aug. 31 or will the company work with another publisher, like your relationship with Activision on Day of Defeat?

Doug Lombardi - We're making arrangements to continue retail distribution of our products post August 31. Nothing to announce today, but we hope to have more details to share soon.

Gamecloud - What can you tell us about the progress on the Day of Defeat Source port?

Doug Lombardi - The team is cranking to finish this summer. We'll be showing more after e3, and I think folks are going to be pleasantly surprised by what's developed over the past few months.

Gamecloud - Half-Life 2: The Lost Coast and Half-Life 2: Aftermath are currently in development at Valve and you are releasing new maps for Half-Life 2 Deathmatch and Counter-Strike: Source on a regular basis. Why is the company working on their own expansion rather that working with a third party, as you did with Gearbox Software, Turtle Rock Studios and Ritual?

Doug Lombardi - The ongoing development of CS:Src is being done in conjunction with Turtle Rock. They're a fabulous group, and have made numerous contributions to CS starting years ago with the development of the CS bot. Meanwhile, the other projects you mention are being done here at Valve. Each was kicked off for different reasons and by different groups inside the company. For example, Adrian Finol started building HL2: DM in his spare time. Then, when he showed it to folks here, a group came to him and said, "We want to work on this with you." We're extremely fortunate to work at a studio where folks can make decisions in such a fashion.

Gamecloud - Is Team Fortress 2 still in some kind of development and if so when can we expect news about the game?

Doug Lombardi - I don't have a specific date to share for when we will be updating folks, but TF news is on the way.

Gamecloud - What can you tell us about Half-Life 2 for the Xbox and why was the decision made to not have multiplayer support for the Xbox port?

[Doug Lombardi - The primary goals for Half-Life 2 Xbox was to make no compromises; deliver an great version of the game in a timely fashion. That’s why we decided to do the product internally and, since the Xbox is the only current generation console that could deliver such a version, that's why we chose the Xbox when we began work on this years ago. Doing a multiplayer game mode could divide that focus, and would most certainly add time to the schedule. Meanwhile Counter-Strike is available now for Xbox. We are, however, very interested in making Source multiplayer games for the next generation.

Gamecloud - How has the Steam system worked so far and are there any plans to improve it and also allow other third party games to use the system?

Doug Lombardi - In addition to opening a new avenue for selling our products, Steam has proven very effective in curbing piracy and assisting with the administration of the CS:Src and now DoD: Src betas. It's also allowed us to roll out updates and new content (such as HL2:DM) directly to customers, without having to send them to an FTP site to hunt for the files. We plan to continue the development of Steam and we'll be announcing the first set of third party games to be offered on Steam in just a few weeks.

Gamecloud - It took Valve six years to release its second full game in Half-Life 2 (not counting the various expansions and mod stand alone titles for the original Half-Life). Is Valve already working on its third game and if so what can you tell us about it and will players have to wait six years for its release?

Doug Lombardi - Nothing specific to announce yet. But, I doubt it will be six years until we release another base title. A good chunk of the time it took to create Half-Life 2 was spent creating the Source engine, which we plan to leverage for some time.

Gamecloud - Finally, is there anything else you wish to say about Valve's current and future game plans?

Doug Lombardi - Nothing I can think of. But everyone at Valve is certainly looking forward to the new HL2 MODs and commercial games being created with Source.