Big Valve article on Shacknews (Aftermath price revealed!)

[SFLUFAN]

Enjoy:

http://www.shacknews.com/extras/2005/091505_valvehdr_1.x

 

[Ames]

Well, that's certainly nice.

 

[Cole]

Aftermath will be the first big test of that philosophy. The game will ship over Steam this year, most likely in November, and will have an incredibly reasonable purchase price of $12.95.

HOLY F*CK. I love steam.....allowing expansions to be that low in price is just f*ckin amazing!

 

[SFLUFAN]

Just remember this is an "episode" NOT an expansion - it will be quite a bit shorter than your traditional expansion.

That being said, $12.95 is a nice price!

 

[Doppelgofer]

nice article

i'm still up

its 4am

 

[joule]

Wooooooooooooooooow.

 

[Teta_Bonita]

HOLY F*CK. I love steam.....allowing expansions to be that low in price is just f*ckin amazing!

QFT
I wonder if the retail version will be the same price?

 

[SFLUFAN]

The way it will work is that the retail versions will be released seasonally with a compilation of previous episodes. I would expect for it to be priced in line with a traditional expansion.

You will not get a retail release of Aftermath but will get one with Aftermath plus other subsequent episodes.

 

[Ames]

On a similiar note:

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/lostcoast.ars/

 

[A True Canadian]

On a similiar note:

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/lostcoast.ars/

- It takes a server farm of 32 computers about 40 minutes to compile The Lost Coast level.

Impressive.

 

[diluted]

The way it will work is that the retail versions will be released seasonally with a compilation of previous episodes. I would expect for it to be priced in line with a traditional expansion.

You will not get a retail release of Aftermath but will get one with Aftermath plus other subsequent episodes.

Sources?

 

[AgentXen]

How would a "physics" "card" work?

Would it work like a gfx card, only just for physics calcualtions?

 

[sinkoman]

How would a "physics" "card" work?

Would it work like a gfx card, only just for physics calcualtions?

Precisely.

 

[Kanehdian]

$12.95 is an excellent price, since Valve has hinted that there is going to be more than one HL2 episode.
So here it is:
September: Day of Defeat: Source
October: Lost Coast
November/December: Aftermath!

 

[Dowie]

Wow thats an very cheap price!, thats about £8, for example to Doom3 Addon is currently selling at £20 over here.

I was prepared to pay £25 for Aftermath, im very surprised, but hell if im going to be buying a HL2 addon every three months for that price, they got me for the full series:bounce:

 

[Maxi]

Wow, that price is amazing, this is definatly on my to-buy list.

 

[Solver]

Hmm, 13 $? That is, IMO, a very, very reasonable price, excellent, in fact. As long as Aftermath is about 7 hours, it is a very good price.

 

[Murray_H]

Hmm, 13 $? That is, IMO, a very, very reasonable price, excellent, in fact. As long as Aftermath is about 7 hours, it is a very good price.

I doubt it will be that long, perhaps 3-4 tops.

But that's just my guess, based on development time and price

 

[Solver]

I doubt it will be that long, perhaps 3-4 tops.

But that's just my guess, based on development time and price

Development time = 1 year, roughly. That is certainly enough time to develop an expansion that is rather long, if there's no uber new technology. Besides, I can remember some estimates of 7 hours, and someone saying that Aftermath would be one third to one half as long as HL2 was. Even if it's one third as long as HL2, that's definitely 6 hours we're looking at.

So I think you're underestimating the goodies we're getting for that price .

 

[hi_ted]

Development time = 1 year, roughly. That is certainly enough time to develop an expansion that is rather long, if there's no uber new technology. Besides, I can remember some estimates of 7 hours, and someone saying that Aftermath would be one third to one half as long as HL2 was. Even if it's one third as long as HL2, that's definitely 6 hours we're looking at.

So I think you're underestimating the goodies we're getting for that price .

But their development has been shared amongst other projects such as DOD:S, Lost Coast, HDR and continual updates for CS:S and HL2M.
Aftermath has taken a year so we can look forward to the future episodes to have a shorter development time or just include more things.

 

[Solver]

Valve doesn't have the same people working on everything at once. The people who design the levels in Aftermath are not the same people who draw the high-res Lost Coast textures, nor the people who coded HDR for both Aftermath and Lost Coast. Besides, Aftermath is mostly gameplay, with only HDR for new tech, while Lost Coast is all tech with very little gameplay.

DOD:S, I am not sure, but I think that there's a separate team working on that, or at least that's what seems logical.

 

[Insano]

Valve doesn't have the same people working on everything at once. The people who design the levels in Aftermath are not the same people who draw the high-res Lost Coast textures, nor the people who coded HDR for both Aftermath and Lost Coast. Besides, Aftermath is mostly gameplay, with only HDR for new tech, while Lost Coast is all tech with very little gameplay.

DOD:S, I am not sure, but I think that there's a separate team working on that, or at least that's what seems logical.

They actually have five different teams atm working at Valve (stated in the article).

 

[Solver]

Ahh, yes. Well, there's more reason to think that the development of DOD:S and Lost Coast in no way prevents them from putting content into Aftermath.

 

[hi_ted]

My point is that once they have finished development on all the other projects, they can put more employees to work on the episodes thus getting them finished faster or making them longer.

 

[Deathb4birth]

wow these thre months will be the best three months of the year

 

[Harryz]

Wow, thats ****ing great pricing. I didn't expect it to be that cheap ($30/£20 minimum I thought).

 

[Dowie]

Aftermath was in development before Half Life 2 came out, so its over a year (btw Gearbox made OF in a year) so im expecting a good length addon, twice the length of Blue Shift or more, and well the content it going to be like Half Life 2 but twice as good, I cant wait, who cares about F.E.A.R with Aftermath coming they dont stand a chance, Half Life 2 is better in every way, long live Valve

 

[SFLUFAN]

Aftermath was in development before Half Life 2 came out, so its over a year (btw Gearbox made OF in a year) so im expecting a good length addon, twice the length of Blue Shift or more, and well the content it going to be like Half Life 2 but twice as good, I cant wait, who cares about F.E.A.R with Aftermath coming they dont stand a chance, Half Life 2 is better in every way, long live Valve

I will say it again for the upteenth time - Aftermath is NOT going to be a tremendously long game. It's an "episode" not an expansion - you will not be getting a 7 or 8 hour experience out of Aftermath. Be happy if you get 4 to 5 hours tops from it!