Final Release Date Resolution

[Alphy]

I've been reading posts on this forum for the last two weeks and many people are confused (and some, with great anxiety, lol) as to wether the game will be released on September 30th. Notice however the wording of my sentence. I used the word "released' instead of "the game will be on store shelves September 30th. Now I have many reasons why I believe that the game will be available September 30th via Steam. If you havent noticed or have been living under a rock for the last year Valve has pushed the Steam distribution system for access to all its products. Valve is desperatley hoping that they will be able to milk $10.00/month from millions of hardcore Half Life fans desperate to play Half Life 2 on September 30th. Does this alientate users who do not have credit cards (who I would venture to say make up at LEAST 50% of the HL/CS userbase), of course. However the promise of such high profit margins due to the immense popularity of such a franchise has caused Valve to turn to releasing HL2 on September 30th via Steam. Also, in any one of Gabe's posts regarding the release date have you ever seen him say the game will be on SHELVES, September 30th? Correct me if I'm wrong but I've never seen him say that, but has appropiatley chosen his words to acknowledge we will see Half Life 2 rls'ed on September 30th via Steam. God only knows what kind of server(s) Valve will need to distribute this thing efficiently (how did you guys who tried to grab Steam last night fare, I fell asleep). Im guessing they might try to temporarily hire Akamai's services, aka streaming from OC3-48's throughout the country. Anyways my rant is over

 

[Rasmoh]

Paragraphs would be nice.

 

[Electrico]

Yes, we have seen him say that it will be on the shelves on Sept. 30th.

 

[Alphy]

Really, can you link that up for me?

 

[OCybrManO]

I don't think Vivendi would like Valve to start selling HL2 via Steam as soon as it goes gold... because that could take a hefty chunk out of in-store sales. I'm roughly 87% sure that Valve will wait until the day that stores are allowed to sell the game (Sept 30th) before they start selling it via Steam.

 

[Goombatommy]

Originally posted by OCybrManO
I don't think Vivendi would like Valve to start selling HL2 via Steam as soon as it goes gold... because that could take a hefty chunk out of in-store sales. I'm roughly 87% sure that Valve will wait until the day that stores are allowed to sell the game (Sept 30th) before they start selling it via Steam.

who said its Sept. 30th? lol j/p j/p :cheers:

 

[Feath]

Search the Valve info thread. Gabe says a few times that the release on Steam is going to be the same as US Retail (at least). And I believe Lombardi said it a few times at ECTS.

And learn to use paragraphs please.

 

[MoJo|Night]

"I'm roughly 87% sure that Valve will wait until the day that stores are allowed to sell the game "

I'm roughly 94.65% sure you made that up

 

[OCybrManO]

You know what? I take that back... no one is going to buy it via Steam.

 

[Deadline]

Originally posted by OCybrManO
You know what? I take that back... no one is going to buy it via Steam.

Ok so exactly how are the payments with steam? Can I buy HL2 for 50 straight up or do i have to pay $10+ a month for it. Cuz thats ghey. But I would get it for 50 off steam if the boxes dont ship on time,.

 

[lhauert]

And I'm 51,12,7% sure you might be right.

 

[Blair]

Originally posted by OCybrManO
I don't think Vivendi would like Valve to start selling HL2 via Steam as soon as it goes gold... because that could take a hefty chunk out of in-store sales. I'm roughly 87% sure that Valve will wait until the day that stores are allowed to sell the game (Sept 30th) before they start selling it via Steam.

A sale is a sale is a sale... They don't care how it gets sold, the publisher is only interested in the profits.

 

[Feath]

Originally posted by G·Man
A sale is a sale is a sale... They don't care how it gets sold, the publisher is only interested in the profits.

Vivendi don't get anything from Steam. All they do is press CDs and make boxes.

It's their own fault, "We don't want to be part of bleeding edge technology".

 

[Goombatommy]

Originally posted by Deadline
Ok so exactly how are the payments with steam? Can I buy HL2 for 50 straight up or do i have to pay $10+ a month for it. Cuz thats ghey. But I would get it for 50 off steam if the boxes dont ship on time,.

Yea, but the big question lies, will it stay in your steam cache, or will it be downloaded directly to your HD either in multiple compressed files, or one big compressed file?

 

[Feath]

Originally posted by Deadline
Ok so exactly how are the payments with steam? Can I buy HL2 for 50 straight up or do i have to pay $10+ a month for it. Cuz thats ghey. But I would get it for 50 off steam if the boxes dont ship on time,.

You can buy it by a one-off payment.

 

[Guest]

if its not released in a box, in stores, ... at the best buy down the street from me, on sep. 30th, im going to be a... VERY UNHAPPY PERSON... to say the least.

Im going to skip work, and camp out in front of the store till it opens. (I bet you think im joking....) ... >=)

 

[Goombatommy]

Originally posted by exoeight
if its not released in a box, in stores, ... at the best buy down the street from me, on sep. 30th, im going to be a... VERY UNHAPPY PERSON... to say the least.

Im going to skip work, and camp out in front of the store till it opens. (I bet you think im joking....) ... >=)

we hope...

 

[Kamakiri]

It's just a shame u can't download a burnable copy in steam for hl2. That will own...

 

[Mountain Man]

Originally posted by Kamakiri
It's just a shame u can't download a burnable copy in steam for hl2. That will own...

That would be nice. I'd love to see them release it as a set of ISO's that you could burn yourself. That way, it would be just like you had bought it in the store (only without the box and manual).

 

[TripleDES]

Alphy, I'm gonna whip your damn ass when you show up in the xfer channel!

 

[Silver.Fox]

Originally posted by Goombatommy
Yea, but the big question lies, will it stay in your steam cache, or will it be downloaded directly to your HD either in multiple compressed files, or one big compressed file?

I'm putting my money on chached files. You need Steam anyway - its a part of HL2, you cant have HL2 and not have steam. I see no issues with having them as a chached file.

 

[Goombatommy]

Yea, but if I only wanted to play single player offline, i'd have to log on to steam every single time? What if my internet connection is down, network probs. or something like that?

 

[Silver.Fox]

you know, I have no idea - its something that Valve will deffinatly have to figure out.

However, I honestly can't see them making a requirement you be online to play single player. It's limiting their market too much - the oposite of what a business wants to do ...

 

[Deadline]

Originally posted by Goombatommy
Yea, but if I only wanted to play single player offline, i'd have to log on to steam every single time? What if my internet connection is down, network probs. or something like that?

Valve even mentioned the SP version was for people who didnt have internet acess.... sooo uhhhh ?

 

[Silver.Fox]

sure, but they can't expect people to have intenet access 100% of the time to play SP. Thats just stupid.

I guess we'll all find out soon enough though

 

[FluxCap]

It just hit me.....the game really is coming in November. Benchmark is released on the 30th to tide us over and make some of the pissed off people a little happier and then 45 days later or so the game will be out...in November. I really believe this, don't flame, just think about it

 

[hunter-killer25]

i'm 56.7634 + 97.535 - 78.928% sure your correct

 

[scribblehead]

Originally posted by FluxCap
It just hit me.....the game really is coming in November. Benchmark is released on the 30th to tide us over and make some of the pissed off people a little happier and then 45 days later or so the game will be out...in November. I really believe this, don't flame, just think about it

Yeah and pigs can fly, think about THAT!!

 

[Deadline]

Originally posted by scribblehead
Yeah and pigs can fly, think about THAT!!

Well... once they did... Ill tell you about it...

Ok I went down to the local barn and took out my manipulator and....

 

[Silver.Fox]

Originally posted by hunter-killer25
i'm 56.7634 + 97.535 - 78.928% sure your correct

Thats 75.3704% ...


...


in case anyone else was wondering ..

 

[FluxCap]

Pigs will fly then