Midnight sales.

[eLGee]

Posted the sam topic at steampowered, but it was hopeless. I'll try here instead:

Okay, for all we know HL2 might be activated at 12 AM Nov 16th. I know for a fact that some stores here in Sweden will be having their stores open at midnight to sell HL2.

The thing is, we are 9 hours after official Valve-time (PST). So if it sells at midnight here, it'll be Nov 15th, 3 PM in Valve-time (PST). Will the game be playable then, or do we Steam-buyers in Sweden have to wait another 9 hours for official activation?

 

[oldagerocker]

In theory the game will be playable from Steam then. When it reaches 00:00 November 15th in the USA. When your shops decide to sell it is down to them, i think.

 

[Lobster]

Since when does anything activate at midnight on steam, its usually, around 3-6pm pacific if ur lucky, its highly likely we will get a "we need another hour for testing" message, but after all this time, just hitting the correct date will be excellent.

 

[chriso20]

I see no probs shops selling early, then retail ppl can play as soon as steam (but im a steamer so i take all that back )

 

[Esquire]

In theory the game will be playable from Steam then. When it reaches 00:00 November 15th in the USA. When your shops decide to sell it is down to them, i think.

What he said.

But i'll re-iterate..

Valve-time is independant of everyone elses time. No matter what time you have on your watch, Valve keeps their own time.

The game isnt being released at 0000hrs "your time", it's being released at 0000hrs Valve-time, so if 0000hrs = 6pm-your time, then you'll get the game at 6pm your time.

 

[Sharrd]

Knowing VALVe, they just might decide to release the unlocking code at what's 00:00 for the timezone that's "first". But this still isn't that important: people have waited a good while for this and some hours won't really matter. Wait and see.

 

[chriso20]

12:00am 16th Nov PST is 8:00am 16th Nov GMT.

lets see... i can have general studies off, then i have a free...ooh then i could sweet talk my graphics teacher, and then another free then LOL my business teacher =D

Looks like i got tuesday off kids!

 

[eLGee]

Okay, 12AM Nov 16th then, regardless if the Swedish stores sells it 12 AM locally (1500 PM Nov 15th PST). Making this quote untrue:

Steam users: Half-Life 2 will be unlocked on Steam on November 16th as well. Unless of course any retailer breaks the street date and puts it out on shelves sooner, then Steam will unlock Half-Life 2 sooner.

 

[silverstealth89]

we go by PST from where im from. cuz i have a couple friends in poland and i think they got the same issue as you

 

[YamatoTwinkie]

What he said.

But i'll re-iterate..

Valve-time is independant of everyone elses time. No matter what time you have on your watch, Valve keeps their own time.

The game isnt being released at 0000hrs "your time", it's being released at 0000hrs Valve-time, so if 0000hrs = 6pm-your time, then you'll get the game at 6pm your time.

Valve isn't the distributor, VU is. It makes just as much sense that the release will be on PST (valve-time) as it is to coordinate the release at france's timezone (vivendi-time). Stores are going to be having midnight sales all around the world. Nobody is going to be coordinating their release with "valve-time."

 

[silverstealth89]

i dont care cuz i know that ill be getting it at 12AM on STEAM

 

[eLGee]

Valve isn't the distributor, VU is. It makes just as much sense that the release will be on PST (valve-time) as it is to coordinate the release at france's timezone (vivendi-time). Stores are going to be having midnight sales all around the world. Nobody is going to be coordinating their release with "valve-time."

But we won't be able to play until Valve unlocks the game thru Steam, right?

 

[silverstealth89]

correct. so even if you buy the game install youll have to wait for the activation day

 

[eLGee]

I'm waiting for Taylor Sherman to reply to a PM that has been sent to him about this quote:

Steam users: Half-Life 2 will be unlocked on Steam on November 16th as well. Unless of course any retailer breaks the street date and puts it out on shelves sooner, then Steam will unlock Half-Life 2 sooner.

Then we'll know for sure.

 

[silverstealth89]

i think that quote is wrong they can sell the retail copy sure but you have activate it by the internet

 

[YamatoTwinkie]

But we won't be able to play until Valve unlocks the game thru Steam, right?

correct, but it makes no sense for Valve to punish their customers by forcing them to wait for an arbitrary date for activation. Valve doesn't gain anything from this tactic, other than a whole bunch of technical support problems/angry phone calls. Remember, its in valves best interest to unlock the game asap, so they can get more steam sales, so its only Vivendi thats holding things up, and if Vivendi wants to discourage early sellers, they'll punish the retailer. NOT THE CUSTOMER.

 

[eLGee]

correct, but it makes no sense for Valve to punish their customers by forcing them to wait for an arbitrary date for activation. Valve doesn't gain anything from this tactic, other than a whole bunch of technical support problems/angry phone calls. Remember, its in valves best interest to unlock the game asap, so they can get more steam sales, so its only Vivendi thats holding things up, and if Vivendi wants to discourage early sellers, they'll punish the retailer. NOT THE CUSTOMER.

I hope your post makes sense to Vivendi, because this is what I'm hoping for. I'll post what Taylor says as fast as I know.

 

[Ownzed]

What's 12:00 AM PST in Central time?

 

[Asus]

They need to activate it for Retail copies so I would think it would be up by that time.

If it goes by timezone, I'll be adjusting the date on my PC. ha

 

[Piddy]

If it goes by timezone, I'll be adjusting the date on my PC. ha

If that's the case, try putting your clock forward a couple of weeks.

 

[eLGee]

If that's the case, try putting your clock forward a couple of weeks.

Tried that one. Didn't work.

Still no word from Taylor.

 

[mmackay51]

I think the best plan would be to start the retail box sets activation at about 10:00 (Valvetime) on the 15th. This should allow for all of those 'midnight' sales across the globe. Then as the time zone moves further east, the Steam version could come online at about 17:00hrs (Valvetime) and then I can play when I get home from work (UK time).

How else are they going to handle it.....

 

[Nocturnaloner]

Posted the sam topic at steampowered, but it was hopeless. I'll try here instead:

eLGee, I was following your thread over at steampowered, and I wonder what you think you're going to get from this forum that you didn't get there. A bunch of people saying "We agree with you, eLGee"? Because that sounds like what you're fishing for.

What you don't mention, and know full well, is that the original quote about early Steam release did not come from Valve, it came from Steve Gibson of ShackNews. Have you written to him, and asked what his source was? I hope you get a real answer from Valve soon, but without it, this is all speculation.

 

[eLGee]

eLGee, I was following your thread over at steampowered, and I wonder what you think you're going to get from this forum that you didn't get there. A bunch of people saying "We agree with you, eLGee"? Because that sounds like what you're fishing for.

No, this is not what I'm hoping for. What I do want is some kind of official statement from Valve about the quote, since it's been referred to several times before. It's never been fully investigated.

What you don't mention, and know full well, is that the original quote about early Steam release did not come from Valve, it came from Steve Gibson of ShackNews. Have you written to him, and asked what his source was? I hope you get a real answer from Valve soon, but without it, this is all speculation.

Read above, and if we do get an answer from Valve, I won't have to ask Steve. Some other fella at Steampowered is going to ask him, tho. I'll let you know when I got the answer from either party.

 

[Nocturnaloner]

Read above, and if we do get an answer from Valve, I won't have to ask Steve. Some other fella at Steampowered is going to ask him, tho. I'll let you know when I got the answer from either party.

That sounds great. It'll be nice if it happens. People still need to be aware that this whole thing is no more than a rumor.

 

[Demonmerc]

They need to activate it for Retail copies so I would think it would be up by that time.

My guess is that retail activation could be live as early as the week before. It's no detriment to them. If people take the game home from work and activate early Valve can track them.

The STEAM release is 11/16 12am PST, which probably won't affect retail activation at all.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Since when does anything activate at midnight on steam, its usually, around 3-6pm pacific if ur lucky, its highly likely we will get a "we need another hour for testing" message, but after all this time, just hitting the correct date will be excellent.

yup...Valve has a pattern of releasing their content during that 3-6pm slot.. but if Valve were to release it earlier on Steam then chirso20's suggestion is a good one.

im sure VU would be furious about the game being available Steam sooner than retain tho.. and its anyone's guess whether VU gets a percentage of the Steam sales.

 

[smokeyassassin]

i think that quote is wrong they can sell the retail copy sure but you have activate it by the internet

surly the activation for the retail copy will start as soon as the first copy goes on sale, however the steam unlocking code will go global at midnight 15th nov pst

 

[Slainchild]

surly the activation for the retail copy will start as soon as the first copy goes on sale, however the steam unlocking code will go global at midnight 15th nov pst

They should both be available to unlock at the same time...

 

[YamatoTwinkie]

That sounds great. It'll be nice if it happens. People still need to be aware that this whole thing is no more than a rumor.

I think it has a little more substance than a rumor. Shacknews is one of the largest gaming websites out there, and Valve has a good relationship with the creators there. (I think there is a "whiteboard" picture out there of a giant heart around shacknews.com in valve's office.)

 

[Demonmerc]

yup...Valve has a pattern of releasing their content during that 3-6pm slot..

That's only been when the content was released as soon as valve was able to. This is different, the content is done and they're just waiting for that pre-ordained time to unlock.

 

[Dekstar]

My mum will let me have tuesday the 16th off if i promise not to ask for a day off until then. How's that for a deal .

If that fails though, I'll just fail to turn up. Pitty, that.

 

[eLGee]

Okay, here's what Steve Gibson has to say about the quote (Retail released, steam unlocks HL2 for you.):

Steve Gibson wrote:
Source was my talking directly to Valve

-Steve Gibson


----- Original Message -----
From: **** ********

Subject: Your comment on retail stores and selling early.


You stated the other day that if some retail stores broke HL2 early that Steam would then unlock and thus making HL2 playable. Now my question is, what is your news source. Ive tried looking on the site but you havent stated any. Is this just your quess as to what will happen or did you have concrete evidence???

And since shacknews appearantly has a close relationship with Valve, makes this all the more intresting. I think it's safe to say that it is in fact, the truth.

 

[eLGee]

No one care to speculate this further?

 

[FISKER_Q]

The unlock will be based on release in Australia perhaps New Zealand. (that means 12:00am 16th november 2004, which would mean about noon in GMT)

 

[czrsink]

I'm not sure what difference it makes for the sake of a few hours, tbh. One way or another you'll be playing Half Life 2 on or around 16th November, so what's the big deal?

 

[eLGee]

czrsink: If the quote is true, then you can forget about hours. Then we're talking days, since the game is bound to be put up on shelves before the 16th.

 

[destrukt]

The unlock will be based on release in Australia perhaps New Zealand. (that means 12:00am 16th november 2004, which would mean about noon in GMT)

Someone confirm this :S

 

[czrsink]

I bet the release is delayed by 10 days anyway, Sierra will probably do a DDOS on the Steam servers

 

[czrsink]

But I still don't see what difference it makes. Would people really care that much if they could get HL2 a day before someone else? It's hardly the end of the world, is it?

I'm not bothered whether I get to play it on the 15th, 16th or 17th to be honest - there are far more important things going on in life than the release of bloody computer game, no matter how anticipated it is...baffling.