lhauert
Newbie
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2003
- Messages
- 194
- Reaction score
- 0
Originally posted by ilove64
The entire post:
"I wake up; drink my coffee; and go off to check my PM's and email. I find literally dozens (across the two) with one common question... "What the F happened?".
I'll be 100% honest with you. I have no clue.
Roughly two weeks back, we were told that Halflife 2 was on track, at least for its Steam release for the 30th, with retail copies to follow about two weeks later.
We were told that it is in everyone's interests to promote the heck out of the 30th, and foster hope that in some regard, people would have access to Halflife 2 at that point.
And in my admittedly teasing way, I did just that, and am left looking like a fool for it.
My thoughts? Anger mostly. As a fan, i'm disgusted. The game was content complete weeks ago as last I heard, and barring a discovery of a huge flaw (NVidia perhaps? I honestly don't know) this decision was likely for purely fiscal reasons. I think developers occassionally get so enamoured with the idea that they've got an "epic" historic game on their hands, that they forget....
1. Gamers are the ones to be served, not vice-versa. No matter how good of a dev you are, you never have the right to jerk people around.
2. The people who work in some proximity to you put themselves out there in an effort to represent a product. It is downright tacky to pull this sort of "stunt", and it is little else, without letting anyone in on it.
So once again, I apologize, and feel as horrible as one likely can. On a personal note, I feel trounced upon, and generally upset at my own misrepresentation to you all."
As you can see, even as a game developer this is very ood. I cannot further prove my theory, this is probably the biggest defense in my case:
This delay has been planned from the start. The 30th, to me, has always been made to promote Steam. It just seems perfectly logical that the retail game would be delayed until the holidays.
I can see it now:
Steam releases HL2
9800XT released with HL2
Mass marketing for general market
Different retail versions released for the holiday season
This marketing seems very, very coherent and it looks like everyone is going to get their bucks worth. I can see why ATI didn't stop with the bidding, they are basically sitting on a gold mine.
And THAT makes me angry.
Do they deserve our money, playing with us and all ?
I reckon the game will surely be great, but Valve is plain dumb if they think they can get away with their false claims, childish behavior, etc.