"Valve has announced that it will deliver a release candidate version of Half-Life 2 (HL2) (a game required under the 2001 SPA) to Sierra/VUG within the next few weeks. If Valve delivers a release candidate version that complies with the contract and is a Final Milestone, then VUG will have six months to release the product under the 2001 SPA. Valve is pressing VUG to release the product early within that six month window, and its representatives have made a number of public statements without our consent or concurrence that the product will be published and released to the general public in September of this year."
What does this mean? Well, basically, it means that VUG could help delay HL2 for up to six months. VUG could then use this time to force Valve to "back down from demands contained in its original August 14, 2002 lawsuit". What is means for us is that HL2 is probably not coming out soon. And that sucks.