Sierra was in some hot water with Valve, since they dissolved and ultimately became Activision Blizzard they also inherited the royalty lawsuit.
According to mega publisher Activision, Valve has been over paid and so they inked a smaller cheque. Valve’s unimpressed and suing for violation of a legal order.
The total amount due as agreed and reached by an arbitrator was $2,391,932. Acti believed they’d been given $424,136 already over the years through over pay and so cut a cheque for $1,967,796 instead.
Valve note that even if that were true, Activision hadn’t disclosed that information to the arbitrator and so its essentially an invalid argument and that they’ve violated a legal order.
Activision Blizzard has threatened to countersue Valve if this gets dragged back into the courts again, which it looks likely it will as the Half-Life dev calls their bluff.
How did this all start? Cyber-cafes and Valve games - that’s how.
Source: VG247
