Insider information on Half-Life 2 Steam release

[Axyon]

As you may recall, our very own spitcodfry got the chance to visit VALVe's Headquarters a few days ago. In an odd turn of events, he's remembered something that he forgot to tell us: Steam will be sending the majority of Half-Life 2 (encrypted) to people who preorder from it, then a week later, will be decrypted and officially released on the program.

He says that an official announcement on the matter should be expected on the 22nd of September, so we should hopefully get the full details then. In the meantime, be sure to discuss it on the forum.

 

[femur]

hmmm, i wonder if the gang at valve will be surprised to hear the new marketing strategy !

*enter anonymous marketing exec*

"hey guys, new plan, we're going to actually FINISH the game, not tell anyone, then download it to their pcs (at a huge cost to ourselves) wether they want it or not, then we'll NOT let them play it for... get this.... this is great....a WEEK ! ha, that will be so awesome to have the most anticipated game in recent history just sitting there on people's hard drives, and they cant play it ! ha ha ha ! then, once we pay for all the content we've sent out, then we'll get people to buy it, and hope that everyone we sent it to can actually afford it : ) "

*cue robust laughter from anyone who can think straight and realises what insane nonsense this is*

 

[Blud Stane]

I agree it's pretty stupid to give it early if you cant play it... Gabe's notorious for saying "dont show someone a toy and then not let them use it" or something like that

 

[Tropico]

i dont think we were suppoused to know we have the toy on our pcs

 

[TripleDES]

Why would it be stupid? You get it only when you preorder, sending it encrypted in advance guarantees that you'll be able to play it!

 

[femur]

getting it when you order is not stupid, getting it when you PRE-order is stupid because if you are getting it when you PRE-order, then you are actually getting it when you ORDER it, not when you PRE-order.

and what's the point ? give someone a game, but not let them play it ? i just dont see WHY they would do that. if they where going to break the usual business practice of allowing immediate acces to dowloaded material, then i would think there was a damn good reason for it. so far, i havent seen any. nor any validation from valve.

what i think is more likely, is that a combination of wishful thinking, release date anxiety, and the fact that we all know steam can use idle bandwith time to update our software, is affecting people's ability to think this through properly. sure, its technically possible to give everyone half-life 2, then not let them play for a week, but the question is .... why ? i mean, its not more likely to guarantee that you can play it just because its been sitting there encrypted for a while. its not wine, it doesnt need to age.

 

[Blud Stane]

Originally posted by TripleDES
Why would it be stupid? You get it only when you preorder, sending it encrypted in advance guarantees that you'll be able to play it!

dude that made no sense... sending it encrypted in advance or on the same day as retail stores sell it doesnt matter cause you cany play it till the 30th I agree sending HL2 online is cool, but sending it early with a lock on it till the 30th is "stupid"

 

[ecko!]

I agree, it would suck not having access to it but you can give it to there marketing team, pretty good marketing technique to increase sales. I assure you that it will suxor alot of people to BUY BUY..


ecko!

 

[IllConn]

Actually it makes a lot of sense.

You guys have to realize how much all of this makes sense. By having Steam download it onto your system early you'll actually get to play by the time the game officially launches instead of wait for it to download while your friends that bought the boxed version kick Combine ass. It's not like you'll actually even see it on your system when it downloads. Remember the HL2 movies, I don't know if most of you figured it out but it usually downloaded them before the videos officially came out that way you get to immediately watch it and not have any idea that you were downloading a few days earlier. This way makes so much sense. This way everyone will get to play it on the same day no matter how they purchased it over steam or through a store. If they let you actually play it a week early it would take away from retailers, if they made you download it on the day of launch you would be pissed because if you had bought it from a store you could have been playing. This way everyone gets to play at the same time.

 

[DamageCase]

well, the answer is really simple, those of you who pre-ordered watch the size of your hard-drives...........

If some drive (the one with the steam install) starts expanding rapidly there is something fishy going on..........

 

[Apos]

I don't understand the objection. What's the difference between not getting the game at all until the release, and not being able to play it until the release? If anything, the second option should be more prefferable, because it means that as soon as the game is released, you can play it. If you can't even start downloading until the release, though, then you have to wait a least a few hours before playing.

 

[pNz]

i think its a good idea to have it DLed to ur Hardrive b4 release, then imagine how congested steam would be if every1 was downloading it at once worldwide. this way we wont have to wait, not to mention the flames Valve would get if on the 30th no one could DL it cause the server were overloaded. just my 2 cents

 

[Wesisapie]

But are they going to send it to everyone, then only let the people who bought it unlock it? i don't like the idea of them sending HL2 to my computer, and wasting all my bandwidth when i'm buying it in the shops.

Also, you may realise that if this is true, it's 3 days until they start sending, which means they damn well better hope it's gone gold by now, or they are cutting it VERY thin.

 

[IllConn]

If you had read it a little closer, you would see that they will only send it to those who pre order it.

 

[-Yo-]

The problem is WHY order on steam IF the game is released on games store shelves the 30th ?... If on th 22nd we have the option to PAY for a month subscription, get the beginning of hl² but if it really comes to game resailers the 30th i think i just go buy it :| Im puzzled

 

[Feath]

Originally posted by -Yo-
The problem is WHY order on steam IF the game is released on games store shelves the 30th ?... If on th 22nd we have the option to PAY for a month subscription, get the beginning of hl² but if it really comes to game resailers the 30th i think i just go buy it :| Im puzzled

You have the option to subscribe or you have the option to just buy Half-Life 2 over Steam as a one off payment.

Not all places will be getting Half-Life 2 on the US retail date, the UK may be a few days behind.

But in Korea they have a lot of broadband and the retail release will lag a lot behind the US release so it will be better for them to order Half-Life 2 over Steam.

 

[Xenome]

Mmmm, i do want to have the box...
If you download it trough steam, you have to burn in on cd, in order to keep sure you don't lose it when you get a virus or something?

 

[Feath]

Originally posted by Xenome
Mmmm, i do want to have the box...
If you download it trough steam, you have to burn in on cd, in order to keep sure you don't lose it when you get a virus or something?

You can just redownload it again without paying. Steam will know that you've purchased it.

 

[s!bbe]

and where can i preorder hl² for steam ?? there's no option in steam for preordering hl² ...

 

[SpaNsK]

it's not that bad

Hey guys... I think it's a good idea... Imagine they start selling it through steam on the 30th, it would be a great server overload... so you can start downloading it before so that you can get the game on time, and you start playing it on the day release...

I wish they let Gameplay preorders get it that way from the very beginning

 

[Axyon]

Originally posted by s!bbe
and where can i preorder hl² for steam ?? there's no option in steam for preordering hl² ...

It says there's an announcement on the 22nd...

 

[Feath]

Originally posted by Abom|nation
It says there's an announcement on the 22nd...

I think that "Announcement" on the 22nd was just Spitcodfry speculating.

 

[Axyon]

I guess we'll have to see.

 

[Grimkeeper]

Guys would you rather have it on your hardrive for a week or wait a week after it comes out to finish downloading it. I mean if a million people buy it from steam and all of them try to download it on the same day. Steam would be down for a long time.

 

[Reiska]

Re: it's not that bad

Originally posted by SpaNsK
Hey guys... I think it's a good idea... Imagine they start selling it through steam on the 30th, it would be a great server overload... so you can start downloading it before so that you can get the game on time, and you start playing it on the day release...

Yes, giving steam one week "head-start" would definitely reduce overload of servers.

 

[No Limit]

Any of you saying that's it's impossible for a company to give you a game a week before and not letting you play it have absolutely no idea how bandwidth works. If they were to release the full game on the 30th there is no way in hell that their servers would be able to handle the load, simply not possible and it will not happen like that. What they will have to do is cache the game for people that will order it a week in advance taking the load off the servers and ensuring you will play this game on the release day. This is simple and I really don't understand why people are having trouble understanding this. Once again, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WAY STEAM COULD HANDLE THE LOAD IF THEY WERE TO RELEASE THE GAME ON THE 30TH WITHOUT ANYTHING BEING PREDOWNLOADED, HELL THEY CURRENTLY CAN'T HANDLE THE LOAD FOR A SMALL STEAM PATCH. If you don't understand this please don't post, you are simply wasting everyones time.

 

[half-man]

talkin as a sw developer (not quite valve level but i am a developer) i could say that someone of you have seen right - valve has opened the faucets in advance to allow the preorders just to got (almost) in time their babies for bandwidth reasons - either if you like it or not (i utterly disagree their Steam policy from the very beginning :frown: ) - i can't see no other reason.

 

[Phisionary]

I KNEW IT!!! I predicted this all along! Look back about a month, right after they preloaded the first movie! I said 'get used to it, I'll bet they do this with the full game too'

Just my luck, it'll be the week that got deleted......

Wow, I searched for it, I think it was... Oh well. Can't even damn well PROVE I'm prescient!

Anyway. I saw this coming...
Oh, and Feath... I'll give your next of kin my best wishes....




J/K! :E

-Phision

 

[DNiederer]

Back to that whole "virus = reformat = loss of game"

Well, what happens if you unsubscribe.... i mean, you cant just lose what youve paid for, and i dont understand how in other forums, ive heard people saying you lose it and you cant play hl2 or any of the games you paid for if you unsubscribe... does this seem right? because i might as well just buy it in stores so i can keep what i paid for forever....

could somebody please clear this up for me, im having lots of trouble deciding on which method i will be using. I was originally looking forward to subscribing but now i dont know..

 

[No Limit]

Originally posted by DNiederer
Back to that whole "virus = reformat = loss of game"

Well, what happens if you unsubscribe.... i mean, you cant just lose what youve paid for, and i dont understand how in other forums, ive heard people saying you lose it and you cant play hl2 or any of the games you paid for if you unsubscribe... does this seem right? because i might as well just buy it in stores so i can keep what i paid for forever....

could somebody please clear this up for me, im having lots of trouble deciding on which method i will be using. I was originally looking forward to subscribing but now i dont know..

That's not how it works. If you subscribe you pay a monthly fee of $9.95, there is no down payment. With the $9.95 a month you can play all valve's games for free until you unsubscribe. Once you unsubscribe you simply can't play these games any more. If you don't like it that way you can go to the store and buy the game or you can buy it from steam for one payment. I'm not sure how they will do this exactly but I'm sure they will let you download the game as many times as you need under the paying username incase you format your drive or something similar.
Good Luck,
Paul

 

[Krusty]

If you choose to download the game through steam I don't think you're gonna have to download the complete game before you start playing...
You'll just get the engine and the first level, then off you go.
The rest of the content will be downloaded whilst you're standing around shooting bits of wood n that

Personally I'm gonna get whichever version I can as early as possible, and if that's via steam then so be it...

 

[DNiederer]

ok, thanks for clearing things up for me

 

[DNiederer]

I was actually thinking of wasting more money and subscribing to steam to get all their software like TF2 and CS2 at no additional cost, meanwhile, i will buy the HL2 box in stores (SP/MP) version that way i have the shiny box and a permanent copy of the CD so i can go back to it in the future if im not subscribed anymore...

i really like this subscription thing, i dont know why, but i am looking forward to it

 

[femur]

first off, i am not a steam hater, i actually like the service and im planning to use it for HL2. however, i dont think it will be pre-cached when i pre-order. i dont want to argure that point any more, we cant prove things one way or the other until it either happens or doesnt.

what i should point out though is that if its true, then either HL2 will be late, or they would have to start letting people pre-order today if they plan on starting the pre-cache cues by tomorow. im at work right now so i cant verify, but last i checked there was no way to do that atm.

 

[IllConn]

So far I haven't read anything in the way of announcements regarding this issue. I thought today was the day for some kind of announcement. I suppose I'll continue playing the waiting game.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Originally posted by IllConn
I thought today was the day for some kind of announcement.

Happening Tuesday, September 23nd 2003 supposedly. American time.

 

[zarloq]

So, Valve didn't specifically mention they would provide an announcement on Sept 23? We're merely speculating there will be an announcement due to news of the HL2 being released a week early on Steam. Apparently the Sept 22 data was just a typo - the original thread speculated an announcement on "tuesday 22nd."

It's pretty frustrating that Valve is letting speculation fester like this. They seem like stand up guys, so I can't figure out why they are unwilling to tell us the release date! My friends and I want to have a party on the release date and a LAN party on the weekend, but this is screwing up all the planning.

 

[IllConn]

Looks like I'm waking up early tomorrow then, and a LAN party the day HL2 comes out sounds awesome. Given that it comes out when you plan for it.

 

[InsertNameHere]

Well, spitcodfry said about a week, give or take a day, which is either today or tomorrow. We'll see, we'll see. But every passing minute I feel more and more worried that I won't be seeing it until November....

 

[Frank]

Did anyone ask Gabe if what Spitodcr, or what the **** his name is, said about it being released on Steam a week before was true?