Half-Life 2 Steam Offers Ready Thursday

[Jamoe]

Hard copy from play for £26.99 that includes delivery. £28.08 for bronze.

The questions is can u wait for hl2 to be released befor you start playing cs : s

I dont think i can

 

[lifebringer]

Is there sales tax on these?

This is complicated. Online stores (and I believe most retail stores who also sell online) are required to collect sales tax on purchases being shipped to addresses within the state of the registered merchant. So if you live in Alabama, it's not likely you pay sales tax on any online purchases unless the merchant/seller you're ordering from is located in Alabama (or unless you're shipping somthing, as a gift perhaps, to someone in the state of the seller) -- I believe even ebay/auction sellers are [supposed] to collect tax in this way. I think that's the way it works. Under these rules, you'd only have to pay sales tax on the Steam items you purchase if you're located in Washington state.

However, I sincerely doubt Valve is a registered merchant by any means, and I think it's safe to say that it is incredibly rare that a creator of a product is the one to directly sell the product to a mass of consumers. As such, we have a really, really unique scenario here, and what happens sets many precedents. I wouldn't be surprised if Valve has done their homework and knows what they'll have to pay, if anything, or not have to pay. I also wouldn't be surprised if one of the reasons (I'll talk more about this below) Valve is charging the same amount for the game is so they're safe with tax...I think it's entirely possible that, in the event they DO have to pay sales tax on all purchases, they'll simply pay that tax out of the $50-90 you paid for the game, rather than either upping the price once they find it out or 2) charging you more for tax after you've bought it (highly unlikely).

In any case, I'm sure they've figured all this out -- I really doubt to see any sales tax added on our orders tomorrow; if we have to pay tax it would've been made obvious to us with the announcement today.

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The gold package does look very nice, unfortunatly I am going to be forced to buy from retail due to limited bandwidth by my cable internet company. I'm also prone to formating my comp so with that, and the limited bandwidth im pretty screwed with purchasing through steam.

There is absolutely no reason anyone NEEDS to buy this game in a retail store. Your reason is far, far less valid than someone who has only a 14.4 modem on a dial-up isp in a shack somewhere in the country, and even at that speed, it's still simple to download the game via Steam (just open steam and let it run...sheesh (I assume it can resume or at least would resume once it's completed one file)). Even other than that, you could EASILY have a friend burn the appropriate files on cds or dvdrs and copy to your computer.

Plus, I think I read today that the game needs to be "activated" online (on steam) to be played in offline mode anyway, so even that user in the country WITHOUT internet is going to need to connect somehow, I believe. I'm certain this will really piss off and isolate a very, very small % of the population without easy access to the internet (even those who couldn't feasibly move their computer to temporarily connect and activate), but in my eyes (and I'm sure in Valve's), it's a small price to pay compared to the amount of sales they might lose to the piracy of this game. I wouldn't be surprised if a group still releases a pirated version, but I don't think 1) it'll be nearly as easy to do and 2) it'll be nearly as quickly as usual, thus reducing sales lost to piracy.

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*Regarding whether or not the Gold is worth it and why it costs the same: Let's look at what you get extra: 1) Prima Strategy Guide, $16 on Amazon right now; 2) THREE posters, $5-15 depending on lots of things; 3) HL2 hat, $5-10 (I don't know how much hats cost...); 4) HL2 postcard & stickers (meh...), 5) HL2 Soundtrack, probably like $10-15 (granted you're hearing the music in the game and you could probably get this for free from the files in cache (and I don't think that's wrong considering you bought the damn game), it's STILL a sold item). Also the chance to win a trip to Valve (for those of you posting regarding shit...STFU and keep it quiet)...let's not forget, the more people who buy Gold the more trips there will be!

I think they should include the 'making of' book, too, either as an addition or in place of the strategy guide, which I don't give a damn about and thus probably won't buy -- but I'll live with their decisions. Also, it also might include shipping. I recall Gabe or someone at Valve saying the Gold ships internationally, but I don't recall seeing whether or not that shipping (or the domestic shipping) cost is included in the steam price.

Total: $96 - $116 from my estimations. All that for $90 and you get the game INSTANTLY, and probably get the items without paying extra for shipping. Sounds pretty good to me.

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*Regarding why the steam versions cost the same as the retail versions: I've read several posts that Valve may be contractually bound to VUG not to sell the steam versions at different prices from the retail copies -- while I don't know if this is true, it sounds like the most likely reason. It's extra incentive for someone to buy the game on steam if it's also $X cheaper (even just $5 or $10)...and with the current legal troubles Valve is in, that could be very, very dangerous. It's also possible that Valve is 'pooling' the extra money they make from the steam versions, possibly to pay off any potential taxes they haven't anticipated in the future, or maybe to pay for the shipping of the Gold and/or international Gold copies (I for one wouldn't be pissed if they were). Hell, it's also possible they'll give us some of our money back if all goes well. Who knows?

*For those of you complaining, I expected the steam versions to be cheaper, too -- grow up and ****ing live with it, or go drive down when the game comes out, wait in line, pick up your copy, drive back home, and play it (or spend your hours waiting anxiously by the door for the delivery...). Just think of me while you're doing all that, since I'll be playing the game the whole time.

****And, as I've read the more intelligent posters say earlier, the reason that the retail CE has jack crap in it and the Steam Gold has all the goodies is due to VUG controlling the retail box/CE purchases, while Valve controls the Steam purchases. I don't know if this is true, but it sounds like a very likely possibility...makes sense that while the creator (developer) has full control over the content of the item (game) itself, the distributor (/publisher) has full control over the finished product.

 

[RRunner]

lol

Nice sig btw, thats my favourite line from Fear and Loathing, always creases me up

Yes its a great movie, all though the epilog<--spelling, are words transformed into beauty itself, never have i heard such delicate play of words.

 

[Alig]

Do they send you product keys in the mail after you pre-ordered on Steam? How does it work? Lets say I want to play Half Life 2 on a new computer in a year, can I still download it and register it even though I don't have a physical copy? If that made sense...

Yeah, something like that. You'll recieve a CD-KEY in an email i presume when you buy HL2, so be sure to write it down and keep it somewhere safe.

Its like me...i've got the 4 disc HL box-set that includes blueshift etc...and even though i have'nt got blueshift installed my cd-key is telling steam that it's the 4 disc box-set and it will allow me to download blueshift full game from steam because it knows it's not installed on my pc. I guess that's how HL2 will work.

 

[omni]

$59.95 for Silver really hit the sweet spot. Lots of hours of potential gaming for $1.11 more than I paid for Doom3 (with tax came out to $58.84).

$59.95 split four ways: that's $14.99 per gaming experience. Thank you Valve.

 

[sturvey]

Is it confirmed that UK stores will receive physical copies of Half-Life 2 LATER than it is released via Steam? The boxed copy of the game always appealed to me but I'm not sure how many people over here will be able to cope waiting to get the game Steam users have been playing and praising for 3 or 4 days (possibly longer)

 

[wibblemonster]

we always get things later in the UK... so stick the finger to Vivendi & buy from steam.. F***'em.. show valve ur support

 

[Dynasty]

give valve support people!!! vu can shove it where the sun dont shine...let your anger flow!!!! show vu what a big mistake they made by pissing us off!!!

 

[T_O87]

valve rocks vu sucks but i dont hate vu i lov them . just kidding i will buy hl2 throw steam valve we will make you prowed

 

[JimmehH]

Its like me...i've got the 4 disc HL box-set that includes blueshift etc...and even though i have'nt got blueshift installed my cd-key is telling steam that it's the 4 disc box-set and it will allow me to download blueshift full game from steam because it knows it's not installed on my pc. I guess that's how HL2 will work.

You won't get a CD-key if you buy via Steam. The purchase will be linked to your Steam account and you can use that account to download and play as much as you want.

Also, I call BS on Blue Shift That game isn't available on Steam because it's currently incompatible with the normal Half-Life engine. It may be put up there in the future or even given a Source remake but it's not available at the moment.

 

[T_O87]

i ll buy the bronze packeg not because its cheap .because i dont like dod and i dont care about hl:s. i played the game 10 times and i dont wana play it eny more

 

[Dekstar]

WOOOO!OO!!OO!Ooneelleven!!!

I think I just wet myself.. which is a good thing!!

Gold version is getting ordered by me! And I will be playing you all at CSS any time.... NOW!

 

[junco]

reliance on valve

the thing i don't like about this whole steam thing is it makes me dependant on a third party to be able to play a bunch of my games. I know valve is great right now, but a couple years down the road they could go under... or not maintain their steam servers or something else. I know it's unlikely but it's possible. if Steam can't authenticate me then I can't play any of valve's games? right? or am i wrong on that? it's nice having a box on your shelf with CDs in it, knowing that you can use just that box and not depend on anything else to install and play the game whenever and wherever you want.

 

[Homercidal]

-- Half-Life Collector's box

whats in the box with the gold edition??

Nothing but clean, fresh air! Unless someone at Valve decides to float an air biscuit in there before they send it out... Ewww....

 

[T_O87]

i hope there is no xl t-shirt in the Half-Life Collector's box

 

[Ecthe|ioN]

i hope there is no xl t-shirt in the Half-Life Collector's box

That's quite typical .. Maybe XXXXXL. I ordered a one-size KoRn-shirt once.. I'm seriously considering renting it out as a tent. I'm 198cm high, and I can hide inside it