"Many executives believe that source code is valuable and has to be protected," Calenda said. But in the gaming industry, it's difficult for any company to stay ahead based on programming talent alone.
"In reality, people move from job to job and exchange ideas, and any great coder can do what's needed to produce a particular effect," he said.
One gaming industry executive, who asked not to be named, went even further in minimizing the theft's importance. He noted that rival developers likely would stay away from downloading the stolen code, calling it "(expletive deleted) antimatter."
News of the source-code theft and release began ricocheting around the Net Thursday morning. Early that afternoon, Valve's Newell confirmed the theft in a message-board posting at Half-Life2.net that pleaded for help from the vast online community built around the game and Valve's other products.