According to CNN, a third of the source code for the much-anticipated Half Life II was stolen (http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/07/technology/vivendi_code.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes).

A hacker "broke into the e-mail of the game's developer, Gabe Newell, the founder of Valve Software, and planted a spying program."

Now, besides being lax about not running virus protection and various firewalls, I have to wonder why they didn't bother having an iron solid back-up system. D'uh.

The article seems to imply that the "stolen" source code is now gone and will have to be re-created, but I doubt that is actually the case. It seems >really< unlikely that it would be particularly possible for someone to not only steal the code, but also erase it from its original location and any backups.

More likely, the delays will be so that they can re-write those portions of the game in order to prevent that code from being used to create cheats.

-Jeff