Half-Life 2 definatly before 10/24/04?

[mayro]

Today i worked my last day at best buy, i know so sad. Today we got in and started selling the pre orders for Vampires:Bloodlines. I know that doesnt sound like much but the street date and ship date are both in the computer.

This means that bestbuy has talked to the shipper *activision* about when the game will come. The Street date and the Ship date are two differnt things. When bestbuy and most companys tell you a date they are telling you the street date. Thats what they use for a place holder as half life 2 only has a street date.

Vampires has a street and a SHIP DATE! The importance of that is that they are expecting to recive the game 10 days before the street date of 10/24/04. (This is more set in stone than any other type of date). What this means for halflife 2 is that ither A: Valve has told them since they made them wait a year to go ahead and release their game on X date. or the more realistic one, B: Valve know their game will be out before 10/24/04 and their for activion can start selling their game.

If this were just a street date i wouldnt get going nuts over here and i did put this in speculation since everything is always up in the air. This is so close to literaly being told by Activision that the game is comeing that it isnt funny. Best buy has never in the year of me working their put a ship date on something that they didnt fully expect to get that date or within a week of.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Interesting. EB games have 10/20/04 and Gamestop 10/20/04.

I'll watch this with interest but won't get too excited.

 

[mayro]

To add some fuel to this fire check this out : http://vnboards.ign.com/Bloodlines_Inn/b22439/73328892/?23

on their he
*************
HollywoodVamp
Title: VtM:Bloodlines Online Representative
Posts: 82
Registered: Jun 03
***************
Posted this nice little bitty :Bloodlines has NOT been delayed for any reason and is still scheduled to ship Fall 2004.

I am now leaning toward they told valve to get it done or they are just going to release it as they are tierd of waiting.

 

[tricky]

we will just have to wait and c

 

[Feath]

To add some fuel to this fire check this out : http://vnboards.ign.com/Bloodlines_Inn/b22439/73328892/?23

on their he
*************
HollywoodVamp
Title: VtM:Bloodlines Online Representative
Posts: 82
Registered: Jun 03
***************
Posted this nice little bitty :Bloodlines has NOT been delayed for any reason and is still scheduled to ship Fall 2004.

I am now leaning toward they told valve to get it done or they are just going to release it as they are tierd of waiting.

Or, Valve let them publish it early (as some people said a while back). They won't just "release it because they are tired of waiting" because they'd get into a lot of trouble.

 

[Platinum]

i can not believe they would release this game before HL2 ... ughgh so stupid

 

[Alec_85]

Or, Valve let them publish it early (as some people said a while back). They won't just "release it because they are tired of waiting" because they'd get into a lot of trouble.

Like Mayro's Option A then. You need to have a little faith Feath

This is very interesting. But there's not much we can do except sit tight & hope for the best (which is a release yesterday).

 

[DigiQ8]

Mayro if this is true im gonna kiss you...

 

[Wildhound]

Another crazy possibility is that Valve aren't sad gits and they don't actually care who sells the engine first as long as they get the money in their wallets. Maybe they're also used to being messed around by other companies and don't want to do the same thing to a fellow small developer?

Just a crazy idea. Gabe doesn't strike me as an asshat though.

 

[mutt]

Another crazy possibility is that Valve aren't sad gits and they don't actually care who sells the engine first as long as they get the money in their wallets. Maybe they're also used to being messed around by other companies and don't want to do the same thing to a fellow small developer?

Just a crazy idea. Gabe doesn't strike me as an asshat though.

i can understand why valve would want to be the first to sell the source engine in a game, i might be wrong but i would think being the first to sell a game with it in would be worth a fair bit of money.

also thanks mayro, nice find, i hope this works out to be true

 

[lonestar]

i really don't think, vampire will be released before hl2, keeping in mind valve developed the source engine, so, they want to be the ones, releasing the first game [hl2] on the source engine. in their contract it's listed, for sure.

that's, how it always was in the past.

well, thx for the info, mayro! *dance*

 

[Platinum]

if hl2 were to come out before that vampire game then wouldnt that mean that hl2 is gold and they've already begun production????? if they wnat hl2 out before stupid bloodlines then they better get cracking ... :frown: :cheers: :bounce: :thumbs: :frog: :cheese: :farmer: :bonce:

 

[Some_God]

I really truly hope that it comes out before the 24th...

 

[Democritus]

I think Vivendi has intended late Nov. all along, I just hope that Halo2 going gold changed their minds in the "Oh, crap. We'd better get this out now!" sort of way. I think Halo2 and Half-Life2, despite being for different platforms, will compete heavily for gamers' dollars.

 

[Bandages]

Something to be interested in...but honestly, I'm not giving up any hopes, and expecting the worst.

 

[poksmote]

I wouldn't be suprised if hl2 did come out this month, along with bloodlines. If this bloodlines date is correct, that does indeed mean we'll expect to see hl2 very soon.

With cs:s being released this week, and valve raking in TONS of sales from steam only pre-orders of hl2, vivdeni is really going to have a flame put under their ass to get hl2 out ASAP. otherwise the majority of people will order hl2 through steam just to get something (cs:s) early. and with counter-strike being one of the largest parts of the halflife comunity, valve is rather clever for releasing it through themselves before vivendi can ship it. if vivdeni wants to make a good chunk of the sales through retail they will release hl2 within 1 to 2 weeks after cs:s's release - which conveniently fits with this bloodlines release date.

 

[RoyaleWithCheese]

I really doubt Vivendi will be scared of the steam downloads. They will release HL2 end of november, no matter how many hardcore fans pre-order on Steam.

 

[dream431ca]

that very interesting...but I think bloodlines will be out a month before HL2 comes out.

Actually if Bloodlines does come out before HL2 then that would be very bad for valve as, valve made the source engine..not the creator of bloodlines. AND people will probably be buying bloodlines just for the source engine.

 

[poksmote]

I really doubt Vivendi will be scared of the steam downloads. They will release HL2 end of november, no matter how many hardcore fans pre-order on Steam.

I don't know about that, every person that orders through steam is money vivdeni won't be getting. get enough people to order the game through steam, thats a lot of money vivendi won't be getting.

lets say 100,000 cs fans buy cs:s through steam this week, assuming they order at least the bronze package at $50. thats 5 million dollars that vivendi loses out on. even if its only half as many people, theyre still out millions. and if steam wasnt a signifigant threat, why the lawsuites?

 

[FoB_Ed]

I don't know about that, every person that orders through steam is money vivdeni won't be getting. get enough people to order the game through steam, thats a lot of money vivendi won't be getting.

lets say 100,000 cs fans buy cs:s through steam this week, assuming they order at least the bronze package at $50. thats 5 million dollars that vivendi loses out on. even if its only half as many people, theyre still out millions. and if steam wasnt a signifigant threat, why the lawsuites?

yes :farmer:

 

[dream431ca]

I don't know about that, every person that orders through steam is money vivdeni won't be getting. get enough people to order the game through steam, thats a lot of money vivendi won't be getting.

lets say 100,000 cs fans buy cs:s through steam this week, assuming they order at least the bronze package at $50. thats 5 million dollars that vivendi loses out on. even if its only half as many people, theyre still out millions. and if steam wasnt a signifigant threat, why the lawsuites?

I don't think losing out on millions will bother vivendi..they have been through that before.

 

[L337_Assasain]

I hope this is true...

 

[Kiva128]

I don't think losing out on millions will bother vivendi..they have been through that before.

What do they have to lose before it "bothers" them? Billions? Get a clue. VUG is hurting for money so yes, losing millions will "bother" them.

 

[mutt]

i wish i was in gabes position now think of watching the valve bank account and all that steam money rolling in

 

[dream431ca]

What do they have to lose before it "bothers" them? Billions? Get a clue. VUG is hurting for money so yes, losing millions will "bother" them.

You really think VU cares about losing another "million" before HL2 gets released?? What I heard is that this is about the lawsuit. When half-life 2 gets released finally...vivendi WILL get there money back 10 times over.

 

[affen]

PC Gameplay September issue says that Vampire isn't bounded anymore by the agreement with Valve to release the game after HL² has been released. If another HL² release delay occurs, Activision now can release Vampire when they want. So option A for me.

 

[wonkers]

It should have been out in Sept! But what can you do? I just don't or (can't stand) seeing it out for holiday sales. Drives me absolutly...well...wonkers.

As they say "Money makes the world go round." If it wasn't for the money the world would surely stutter and halt in it's place. Vulcanoes would erupt the gravity would diminish & seasons would go hay-wire. Armageddon as we know it would commence.

So...thak god (anyone really) we have greedy execs who keep the world from ending. Or at least that's their perspective on things!

 

[DannoHung]

My money's on Valve giving them the go ahead on publishing before HL2 because they weren't entirely sure that they were going to be able to get it out before Christmas and they didn't want Troika to be ****ed over.

That... and I've also heard that the Vampire release date wasn't tied to the HL2 release date.

 

[Kiva128]

You really think VU cares about losing another "million" before HL2 gets released?? What I heard is that this is about the lawsuit. When half-life 2 gets released finally...vivendi WILL get there money back 10 times over.

You didn't say million, you said millions - as in plural. And as someone already said, if they don't care about even 1 million dollars, why are they sueing Valve? Surely they would make more money by releasing it (10 times over according to your nice made up numbers).

 

[mashed]

I'd like to believe this but I have a feeling it will come out the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Vivendi really wants to milk Christmas season sales, even though it would sell great no matter what month it was released.

 

[Democritus]

I'd like to believe this but I have a feeling it will come out the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Vivendi really wants to milk Christmas season sales, even though it would sell great no matter what month it was released.

And we must remember that VUG doesn't need to cater to us as the hardcore fans in terms of release date. We'll buy it whether it comes out tomorrow or two months from now.

They want to maximize sales for the casual, take it or leave it, mommy please buy me a video game crowd. Thanksgiving weekend is the biggest shopping time of the year....

 

[Cyber$nake]

Why on earth would they wait until november anyways? It just doesnt make sense to me. Usually it only takes a few weeks for them to mass produce, sometimes less, and on rare occasions more. It would be against themselves to hold a final game for a few weeks before starting too mass produce it. More time until Moolah. Really they should be trying to get it out as soon as possible (unless they dont like the RC), and none of what they're doing makes any sense. Plus they know that the community has been going insane for it since last year.

 

[VGJosh]

Where does it say Half life 2 has to come out before these other games?

 

[Cyber$nake]

No clue link-wise, but I do clearly remember there being several discussions complaining about games made w/ source being delayed due to Half-life not being released before them.

 

[-smash-]

I'll watch this with interest but won't get too excited.

Which is hard...

 

[poksmote]

none of what they're doing makes any sense. Plus they know that the community has been going insane for it since last year.

they know that holding out is only going to make you want the game more and more. and this is where valve is getting pissed. they know they can make money off the game now, WITHOUT a publisher (via steam, the reason for the lawsuite). thats why they're releasing cs:s next week to speed up this process, or at least sedate rabid fans until the games released. (while making a good wad of cash for themselves in the process, while simultaneously pissing off vivendi)

valve and vivendi are substitute retailers. you're either going to buy the game from valve through steam, or you're going to wait and buy the box from vivendi. very few people will be impatient enough to buy through steam, and then have the need to spend the same ammount of money for a box and a manual.

the reason why vivendi is pissed at valve is because valve no longer needs a publisher due to steam. the publisher is the middleman between valve and the consumer. take out the middleman, and get all the profit. (in fact I wouldnt be suprised if valve sells halflife3 exclusively through steam thanks to this lawsuite bs)

vivendi IS pissed about steam because it will take sales away from them. thats why they're suing valve! how can anyone say "oh vivendi doesnt care about losing a few million dollars because of steam". of course they do! they're a business! if they didnt care about steam, there wouldnt be any lawsuites and we'd all be playing the game right now!

with valve taking pre-orders of hl2 through steam AND making cs:s available next week, they are in fact forcing vivendi into making a move to get the game out IMMEDIATLY.

 

[ViolenceJack]

I wouldnt say it was bad if valves forced them to delay bloodlines. It is there engine after all and they would want the first game to be release with it to be theres. It is all there hard work and everything.

 

[satch919]

I want HL2 by the end of October.

 

[fragShader]

[spelling nazi]
lawsuit ppl
lawsuit
not lawsuite - that's a bunch of lawyers' office furniture
[/spelling nazi]

 

[Zero-One]

[spelling nazi]
lawsuit ppl
lawsuit
not lawsuite - that's a bunch of lawyers' office furniture
[/spelling nazi]

people
not ppl