Strike at the heart of fan projects, Valve has issued Digital Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown requests against two highly anticipated ventures, Team Fortress: Source 2 and Portal 64. Both fan endeavors dedicated to reviving and re-imagining classic Valve games were abruptly halted and development ceased due to violating Valve’s intellectual property rights.

Valve cancels fan projects, Team Fortress: Source 2 and Portal 64 shelved

Team Fortress: Source 2, a fan-driven initiative aimed at porting Valve’s iconic shooter to the Source 2 engine, has been cancelled. Valve issued a DMCA takedown notice, resulting in the project’s resources being blocked on GitHub.

Hello everyone. We have some unfortunate news to share with you.

Today, we received a DMCA takedown from Valve on all our public GitHub repositories and all its forks made by the community.https://t.co/BQvtPwjPtn

— Team Fortress: Source 2 (@TeamFortressS2) January 10, 2024

The development team known as Amper had been working on the project since 2021 to bring a new breath to Team Fortress 2. The project, which envisioned a new version of the classic game within the framework of s&box, the spiritual successor of Garry’s Mod, was quite ambitious.

Despite internal discussions about the future of the project and the challenges posed by recent engine changes at s&box, Team Fortress: Source 2 had already decided to cease development. However, its removal due to DMCA was the final nail in the coffin and the fan-focused initiative officially ended. The development team expressed gratitude for the support received throughout the three-year development period, acknowledging Valve’s legal right to protect its intellectual property.

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In parallel, Portal 64, a fan project aimed at bringing Valve’s 2007 classic Portal to Nintendo 64 hardware, suffered a similar fate. The project, which shared its progress in a video published on January 5, was shelved due to its dependence on Nintendo’s proprietary libraries. A Patreon update for Portal 64 confirmed the project’s closure, leaving fans disappointed after the brief excitement following the release.

Both Team Fortress: Source 2 and Portal 64 were supported by passionate development teams where volunteers contributed their time and skills to breathe new life into beloved classics.

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