(Note: Apologies if this has been posted before, but the search didn't find anything.)
We are aproaching the beta phase of half-life 2, and beyond that, going gold, followed by the production and release of the game. :cheers:
People have been discussing the contents of the collectors edition, and which box cover they are going to buy (maybe the collectors edition contains all 3 box covers..
) but something else concerns me.
I trust valve to include enough cool extras to make buying the collectors edition worth while, so I am likely going to be purchasing it, and I would also think that many die-hard half-life fans will also be buying it. The problem is Steam. Due to the nature of Steam the release will probably happen at midnight PST (I like being on valve time..), and the boxes will probably be available the following day. I don't know if I can wait say, 8-10 hours for shops to open and recieve thier copies, especially if there is a shipping delay that causes it to be late.
One solution is to fork over even more cash to buy a monthly steam subscription ($9.95 was it?) for the month of release, but that seems like a waste. My prefered solution would be for valve to include with a preorder the 'CD Key' (really a steam key). You get your key upfront, and can go home and and use it to activate half-life 2 on your steam account. This would allow all the pre-order users to download the (several gig) game before the release, and be ready to go at midnight on the happy day. This is less of an issue for the regular-preorder customers because they gain less by buying a boxed copy over a steam copy, but for the collectors edition, there are likely going to be physical extras (a t-Shirt was mentioned, and a beanie head-crab was suggested..) that you simply can't 'download'. It would be very cool of valve to make sure these die-hard fans arent left waiting for a few extra hours/days to recieve thier physical copies.
My other thought was to do this for all copies, and to give things like the SDK, BINK Videos, the benchmark etc out over steam to the pre-order users as a thankyou. Thats early sales and money in the bank (although not necessarily for valve).
This issue could be compounded by the world wide release. I know many of you are in Europe, and I can immage the likelyhood of shipping delays increasing greatly over there. I wouldn't mind waiting a couple days for a benie head-crab, if I had the game to distract me, but a couple of days waiting, while people are posting thier reviews and experiences about the game (or worse NOT posting them beacuse they are playing the game) would be pretty tough.
If they leverage it properly, Steam could be 'the great equalizer' for a world wide, truly simultanious release.
This post got longer than I had intended but.. whacha think? Good/bad? Possible/reasonable on the distribution end? Having a crisis over dispising Steam and getting the game sooner?
We are aproaching the beta phase of half-life 2, and beyond that, going gold, followed by the production and release of the game. :cheers:
People have been discussing the contents of the collectors edition, and which box cover they are going to buy (maybe the collectors edition contains all 3 box covers..
) but something else concerns me.I trust valve to include enough cool extras to make buying the collectors edition worth while, so I am likely going to be purchasing it, and I would also think that many die-hard half-life fans will also be buying it. The problem is Steam. Due to the nature of Steam the release will probably happen at midnight PST (I like being on valve time..), and the boxes will probably be available the following day. I don't know if I can wait say, 8-10 hours for shops to open and recieve thier copies, especially if there is a shipping delay that causes it to be late.
One solution is to fork over even more cash to buy a monthly steam subscription ($9.95 was it?) for the month of release, but that seems like a waste. My prefered solution would be for valve to include with a preorder the 'CD Key' (really a steam key). You get your key upfront, and can go home and and use it to activate half-life 2 on your steam account. This would allow all the pre-order users to download the (several gig) game before the release, and be ready to go at midnight on the happy day. This is less of an issue for the regular-preorder customers because they gain less by buying a boxed copy over a steam copy, but for the collectors edition, there are likely going to be physical extras (a t-Shirt was mentioned, and a beanie head-crab was suggested..) that you simply can't 'download'. It would be very cool of valve to make sure these die-hard fans arent left waiting for a few extra hours/days to recieve thier physical copies.
My other thought was to do this for all copies, and to give things like the SDK, BINK Videos, the benchmark etc out over steam to the pre-order users as a thankyou. Thats early sales and money in the bank (although not necessarily for valve).
This issue could be compounded by the world wide release. I know many of you are in Europe, and I can immage the likelyhood of shipping delays increasing greatly over there. I wouldn't mind waiting a couple days for a benie head-crab, if I had the game to distract me, but a couple of days waiting, while people are posting thier reviews and experiences about the game (or worse NOT posting them beacuse they are playing the game) would be pretty tough.
If they leverage it properly, Steam could be 'the great equalizer' for a world wide, truly simultanious release.
This post got longer than I had intended but.. whacha think? Good/bad? Possible/reasonable on the distribution end? Having a crisis over dispising Steam and getting the game sooner?
