Next up: Package info please!

[kelerain]

The RC is out the door, meaning the people at valve are working on things that are not shipping with Halflife2, and are working on other projects (TF2, the source ports, HL3..). If Vivendi finds a showstoper bug, they will inform valve, and some people will work on that, but the majority of the physical work is done. The rest is duplication, marketing, steam preloading, and other release orchastration work.

Along those lines, the next piece of information I want from valve (Other than the Gold Anouncement of course) would be the contents and distribution of the packages.

Many want to know what is in the collectors edition, specifically. Others are concerned about international distribution. The Steam timing question has come up a few times. I believe now is the right time to gather a press release stating what packages are shipping, in what formats, and on what schedule (based on the gold annoucement).

This would give people something specific to drool over, and lust for. In my case, I am holding off my preorder until I get the specific information on the contents of the special edition (and how limited the run is going to be), and wether they will offer it over steam.

I would greatly love to download the CE over steam, so that I can be there the second of release, and have the physical extras shipped to me. The steam savings for vavle should cover a little shipping right?

Now, I'd mail Gabe about all this, but hes up to his ears. So I figured, I would start a thread about it, and just trust that they will release that information at the appropriate time. Heck, maybe they will use this thread for reference.

 

[Black Mesa corp]

I think they'll release all the info they can when the appropriate time comes and in these circumstances, when it goes gold. Because valve are pretty busy and nervous at the moment waiting for a phone call to confirm the gold status and that the RC had no problems.

 

[Petabyte]

Yes its going to get rejected because of a bug in steam or something like that.
That would sure piss me off.. Can you fix steam.... With steam? I'm not making sense, ignor me.

I'm sure they will give more information on the game once the game goes gold.

 

[brokenjago]

It's been confirmed that the CE will in fact be released over steam.

 

[Gossoon]

I've been stumping for this info for months and it's driving me nuts because these are valid business-related matters and we haven't heard a peep. It's a bizarre way to conduct business.

 

[mxlegend99]

Im almost positive this is what the package will containt:

> Collectors Edition
> SRP: $119.95 (tbc)
> TIMING: Single run at launch
> EXTRA CONTENTS:
> CS: Source HL1 > "> Reloaded> "> (ie HL on the Source engine) Prima
> Book (100 page compilation of the three books they are creating for HL
> 2-Strat guide, Making Of, and Mod Makers Guide) T-shirt Similar box to
> WC3 CE (cardboard)

I posted this in another thread. Im not even sure what some of it is (WC3 CE) for example. This was in an email from a Rep at Vivendi universal to my company. So im pretty confident in this. I know that it seems farfetched and that no one is likely to beleive it, but hopefully they will release it officially soon to give this atleast some credability.

 

[mxlegend99]

It's been confirmed that the CE will in fact be released over steam.

Quiet doubtful of that, if what i just posted is remotely on the money, which im pretty sure it will be, then i cant see them releasing hte collectors edition on steam. Regardless of beleive the post i just made, its obvious the collectors edition will contain some collectable stuff... which is not likely to be able to release on steam.

 

[kelerain]

It's been confirmed that the CE will in fact be released over steam.

I think I remeber hearing about that, but I worry that it will be a 'software only' release, with just the source ports. Is there a plan for them shipping the physical extras, and still letting thier fans play right at midnight of the release?

> Book (100 page compilation of the three books they are creating for HL
> 2-Strat guide, Making Of, and Mod Makers Guide)

A recent interview placed the page numbers for the Making Of and Mod Makers books in the 300 page range, each. That would make condensing it quite a challange...

 

[piggy]

Im almost positive this is what the package will containt:

> Collectors Edition
> SRP: $119.95 (tbc)
> TIMING: Single run at launch
> EXTRA CONTENTS:
> CS: Source HL1 > "> Reloaded> "> (ie HL on the Source engine) Prima
> Book (100 page compilation of the three books they are creating for HL
> 2-Strat guide, Making Of, and Mod Makers Guide) T-shirt Similar box to
> WC3 CE (cardboard)

I posted this in another thread. Im not even sure what some of it is (WC3 CE) for example. This was in an email from a Rep at Vivendi universal to my company. So im pretty confident in this. I know that it seems farfetched and that no one is likely to beleive it, but hopefully they will release it officially soon to give this atleast some credability.

similar box to wc3 ce would probably one of those flaptop boxes with a little window inside... right? ya know starcraft had that too :naughty:

 

[el Chi]

Im almost positive this is what the package will containt:

> Collectors Edition
> SRP: $119.95 (tbc)
> TIMING: Single run at launch
> EXTRA CONTENTS:
> CS: Source HL1 > "> Reloaded> "> (ie HL on the Source engine) Prima
> Book (100 page compilation of the three books they are creating for HL
> 2-Strat guide, Making Of, and Mod Makers Guide) T-shirt Similar box to
> WC3 CE (cardboard)

Interesting speculation...
One thing I've noticed is the prices people have been banding about - they've usually been about $80-100 (you price is... interesting). As far as I'm aware, that equals nearly £50-60; it's going to have to be something extremely special to warrant that kind of price.

 

[Mikademius]

In Norway we pay 50-60£ for almost any games so I recon it will cost about 70£ here :O

 

[Bluechair]

WC3 CE = WarCraft 3 Collector's Edition

 

[Reaperman]

yea, i was thinking that too.... but why would blizzard ship WC3 with HL2?

 

[Spiffae]

read the post... they are describing the box shape - they are saying it's similar in size/shape to the Warcraft 3 Collector's Edition box.

 

[Chris D]

Im almost positive this is what the package will containt:

> Collectors Edition
> SRP: $119.95 (tbc)
> TIMING: Single run at launch
> EXTRA CONTENTS:
> CS: Source HL1 > "> Reloaded> "> (ie HL on the Source engine) Prima
> Book (100 page compilation of the three books they are creating for HL
> 2-Strat guide, Making Of, and Mod Makers Guide) T-shirt Similar box to
> WC3 CE (cardboard)

I posted this in another thread. Im not even sure what some of it is (WC3 CE) for example. This was in an email from a Rep at Vivendi universal to my company. So im pretty confident in this. I know that it seems farfetched and that no one is likely to beleive it, but hopefully they will release it officially soon to give this atleast some credability.

The information they've sent you is wrong.

The mod makers guide isn't going to be out until the mod community gets going a while after release. And seeing as the Making of book is around 400 pages, the strategy guide probably being the same, a 100 page compilation doesn't sound very realistic.

 

[evil^milk]

isn't hl source going to come free with the regular hl2 mp and sp box together with counter-strike?

 

[Cybernoid]

Many want to know what is in the collectors edition, specifically.

I hope the CE gets stolen by aliens and is never seen again.

This would give people something specific to drool over, and lust for.

I suggest downloading porn.

I would greatly love to download the CE over steam, so that I can be there the second of release, and have the physical extras shipped to me. The steam savings for vavle should cover a little shipping right?

If you could download it over Steam, it wouldn't be the CE. It becomes "collector's edition" when two people and their dog have it.

 

[Alec_85]

Yeah I really wonder just how world-wide this world-wide release will be? I don' want to wait a few weeks extra just because I happen to live in Europe/Sweden. And since Vivendi is French, for their sake, I hope they burn some copies here & then cut us some slack for once...