So what WAS Valve going to release last year?

[StukaFox]

It's almost been a year now since the original slated launch of HL-2 and there's yet no gold notice, or even a solid date being given to retailers. Since the code theft, Valve's stayed mostly silent (one recalls initial speculations of November, then some suit a Vivendi claiming April. Since then, we've had dropped suggestions of early August for gold, and the oft-stated "summer-fall" timeline), but as of this writing, there is no solid indication Valvie is ready to supply HL-2 to retail channels and time soon.


Valve -was- going to release something last year before the code theft: they were sure enough of a release that they partnered with ATI and ATI scheduled a major product launch around 9/20 HL-2 release date. It's also obvious the code-theft was real, conspiracy theories aside (or Valve is clever enough to have rooked both Interpol and the FBI into playing along with the gag), and it's obvious after the Alcatraz ATI product launch that Valve at least had something in the pipe. Furthermore, ATI didn't sue Valve after the 9/20 date was missed, something that assuredly would have happend if ATI discovered Valve was at least a year from a real product launch.


I have to wonder now what exactly would have come out on September 20, 2003 and what has Valve spent the last year spent doing?


I also just realized this probably belongs in rumor-and-speculation, not the HL-2 base. I'm sure the admins will move it promptly if I'm correct.

 

[Shuzer]

They were going to release HL2.

But it would have had no textures and been about 5 maps long.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

They would have released a half-complete game probably. It's fascinating that at around August last year it would have been plain as day to the VAlve employees that they were going to need at least another 14 months to complete it yet they never bothered to announce a delay.

You've got Gabe and Doug telling everyone September 30th 2003 and these mappers, coders etc sitting around going "September 30th...wtf drugs are those guys on? WE HAVE NOTHING BUT A GLORIFIED TECH DEMO!!"

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

The stolen build wasn't representative of the state of the game at that time. What was stolen was the E3 demo files.

 

[cylyk]

either way, it wasn't complete. otherwise we could thank the code theif for making valve create a more polished game..

 

[razorblade kiss]

Valve wasn't going to release anything. The partnership with ATI was a huge success. People thought HL2 was coming out. So they bought up the 9600 and 9800XTs. Valve held out on telling people "Sorry it's not coming out in September" until the very last minute to squeeze out as many ATI graphics card purchases as possible. It's called a marketing scheme. And it was damn good. Alot of you have been "had" by Valve and ATI. And wooops still no HL2. But they got your money. Congrats

 

[spitcodfry]

I believe all their content was completed by that time (Sep 30 last year) but playtesting was underway. I know a year sounds like a long time for just bug squashing, but you never know. Some have argued that a large portion of the game was not completed, based on the fact that the leaked version had so little in the way of content. I think those ideas are exactly that, speculation. Just because a hacker pilfered tons of files doesn't mean he got the bulk, or the most recent build or incarnations of files. Maybe they only had that much, but I doubt it. For five years in the making that's a pretty small portion of content put out. And I doubt the majority of those five years were spent simply writing code, building the engine, writing the story, and doing design. They had to have been doing the nitty gritty of fleshing out levels and what not. But as your post insinuates, it may have been a possibility that what they could have only come up with last September was a very small and largely incomplete version of the game. In that case, they sure pulled a big one at E3 on all of us. May as well have been pre-rendered CGI instead of real-time (if that was indeed the case. I don't believe this personally, however )

 

[Ragnarokk]

Time was spent on source conversions, rewriting code to prevent cheating, I would assume steam upgrades. I would wager even with all that they wern't ready to release it last year. I'd also say that valve should have concentrated on finishing Hl2 before starting source conversions.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Valve wasn't going to release anything. The partnership with ATI was a huge success. People thought HL2 was coming out. So they bought up the 9600 and 9800XTs. Valve held out on telling people "Sorry it's not coming out in September" until the very last minute to squeeze out as many ATI graphics card purchases. It's called a marketing scheme. And it was damn good. Alot of you have been "had" by Valve and ATI. And wooops still no HL2. But they got your money. Congrats

Exactly.

Lesson to be learnt? If you're buying hardware for a specific game wait till the game has gone gold. I bought my new PC for Doom 3 only when it went gold. I ar teh samart.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

I believe all their content was completed by that time (Sep 30 last year) but playtesting was underway. I know a year sounds like a long time for just bug squashing, but you never know. Some have argued that a large portion of the game was not completed, based on the fact that the leaked version had so little in the way of content. I think those ideas are exactly that, speculation. Just because a hacker pilfered tons of files doesn't mean he got the bulk, or the most recent build or incarnations of files. Maybe they only had that much, but I doubt it. For five years in the making that's a pretty small portion of content put out. And I doubt the majority of those five years were spent simply writing code, building the engine, writing the story, and doing design. They had to have been doing the nitty gritty of fleshing out levels and what not. But as your post insinuates, it may have been a possibility that what they could have only come up with last September was a very small and largely incomplete version of the game. In that case, they sure pulled a big one at E3 on all of us. May as well have been pre-rendered CGI instead of real-time (if that was indeed the case. I don't believe this personally, however )

well u were one of the few who got to see the game up close back then right? how could Valve feel ready about releasing a game and then end up delaying it.. i mean i read ur post and all.. but i am still baffled.

 

[iamaelephant]

I think Mr-Fusion is right. The Valve big-wigs were touting a Sep 30 release while the guys doing the real work behind the game were shitting their pants hoping doug wasn't serious.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Given Valve's corporate culture, I find that unlikely.

 

[ytinupmi]

The stolen build wasn't representative of the state of the game at that time. What was stolen was the E3 demo files.

there was more than that stolen, alot more. but it still wasn't a complete game by any means.

 

[Dr0ndeh]

i dont know why or how, but the sept 30th 2003 date simply MUSTve been absolute bullshit. im sure they had a good reason tho.

 

[burnzie]

they never said 2003 i belive...

 

[the_prodigy]

Your sig, razorblade kiss. Did Gabe actually post that somewhere? I wouldn't blame him one bit.

 

[songwriter]

How can I listen and believe what you are saying when you've said Sept 20th Three times?

 

[alan8325]

To delay the game a year they must have made some fundamental engine changes at the last minute, underestimating the amount of new bugs that would be generated. I can't see how the Source leak would cause a year long delay but I'm sure it contributed at least minimally. Steam was probably another big factor.

 

[subtlesnake]

The people who are claiming Valve have spent a year just on 'bug fixes' have their heads in the sand. The levels were only completed in April/May of this year, and all status reports given by Valve in 2003 indicated they had a long way to go. In one interview it was revealed that they had only done a final art pass on half of the game.

I think it's obvious they (well Doug at least) lied about the release date, I mean why would Gabe say "no comment" when asked for confirmation?

 

[Jarman]

Last year I didn't care much about the delay. Fragmaster started writing it wasn't going to happen on Sept. 30th, so I had some time to get accustomed to the idea (and I would have been *very* disappointed otherwise).

IMHO Source was done. I believe the E3 demostration was real (maybe scripted, but meh) and the physics looked great and still unsurpassed today. The game was probably far from completion, and the only thing that pissed me off was Doug still saying "It's coming out on September 30th" at ECTS last year. It was a lie. But marketing departments always produce a bunch of lies and not much else.

This year I feel positive. It seems they had some time to optimize many little details and this is generally a good sign. I hope they will fix the shadow issue sooner or later, but with a couple of GBs on our hard drives I find it difficult to believe they can miss a holiday release. Valve, please don't "surprise" us again!

 

[razorblade kiss]

Valve wasn't going to release anything. The partnership with ATI was a huge success. People thought HL2 was coming out. So they bought up the 9600 and 9800XTs. Valve held out on telling people "Sorry it's not coming out in September" until the very last minute to squeeze out as many ATI graphics card purchases as possible. It's called a marketing scheme. And it was damn good. Alot of you have been "had" by Valve and ATI. And wooops still no HL2. But they got your money. Congrats

Maybe my post was too big. But read it again. THATS what happened guys. Trust me, I work with a guy named Brian Brennan at BAE Systems, whos brother works for ATI. He's a Marketing Strategist. And a damn good one, on a damn good team of them. HL2 was no where near done last Sept30th, and they have NOT been squashing bugs this whole time. It all was simply to get you to purchase ATI cards, which you did. Get it?

 

[csmighty1]

Maybe my post was too big. But read it again. THATS what happened guys. Trust me, I work with a guy named Brian Brennan at BAE Systems, whos brother works for ATI. He's a Marketing Strategist. And a damn good one, on a damn good team of them. HL2 was no where near done last Sept30th, and they have NOT been squashing bugs this whole time. It all was simply to get you to purchase ATI cards, which you did. Get it?

that seems very logical.

 

[FoB_Ed]

Maybe my post was too big. But read it again. THATS what happened guys. Trust me, I work with a guy named Brian Brennan at BAE Systems, whos brother works for ATI. He's a Marketing Strategist. And a damn good one, on a damn good team of them. HL2 was no where near done last Sept30th, and they have NOT been squashing bugs this whole time. It all was simply to get you to purchase ATI cards, which you did. Get it?

If that's the case, I give my applause to valve and ATI. They really know how to play their cards eh?

 

[Jarman]

that seems very logical.

I think ATI would have sold many more cards if the game had been released. The ATI guys just exploited the situation as best as they could, that's all.

 

[MetalliMyers]

I remember Gabe saying one time (I have no proof) that after the code was stolen and the game was delayed, that it would be delayed so long that they would need to make a lot of quality changes to keep up with demands of games now...

 

[The Monkey]

If there wasn't a source-theft, do you think that we would have the game by now?

 

[Jarman]

If there wasn't a source-theft, do you think that we would have the game by now?

Heh, who knows?

 

[epmode]

If there wasn't a source-theft, do you think that we would have the game by now?

i would say so, considering that a good portion of the netcode and security features had to be reworked..

 

[DeltaBlast]

The stolen build wasn't representative of the state of the game at that time. What was stolen was the E3 demo files.

Looking at the file dates, it was. It contained more than just the E3 demo, and all the files date back to 19-27/9/03 (not only modification dates but also reference dates inside files). I doubt any 'hacker' would go to that much trouble just to prove a point..

 

[StukaFox]

How can I listen and believe what you are saying when you've said Sept 20th Three times?

You're correct -- the release date with Sept 30'th, not Sept 20'th. It was late last night when I wrote the original post and I was going by obviously-flawed memory.

 

[^Ben]

What makes you think he released all the files he had?

He only released 1/3 of the code so he probably didn't release all of the game either.

I'm not going to base progress of a game off of a stolen alpha which we do not even know if all the files where there.

Also when was the leak released? It was a little while before september 30th?

 

[FISKER_Q]

Valve wasn't going to release anything. The partnership with ATI was a huge success. People thought HL2 was coming out. So they bought up the 9600 and 9800XTs. Valve held out on telling people "Sorry it's not coming out in September" until the very last minute to squeeze out as many ATI graphics card purchases as possible. It's called a marketing scheme. And it was damn good. Alot of you have been "had" by Valve and ATI. And wooops still no HL2. But they got your money. Congrats

Why should valve make a marketing scheme for ATi when they already earned the contract, and the money?

I do agree that there's something fishy about the 30th september 2003 date, but i can't see why valve should go out on a marketing scandal just to make ATi happy about they spended some million dollars.

About the leak. There were basicly two timelines, E3 and after E3. The game were pretty quickly identified to be containing the same they had at E3. Which according to what they showed us was impossible, unless they of course took steps backwards in the programming.

 

[Jarman]

He only released 1/3 of the code

Gabe said the story of 1/3 of the code is false. Check his profile and his posts in this forum.

 

[^Ben]

Well he didn't release all of it.

 

[DrEvil]

....... possible. It's called a marketing scheme.

Marketing scam is more like it.

 

[Mountain Man]

Question is, would Valve really put their reputation on the line and risk pissing off their customer base just to help ATI sell some cards?

 

[Head_Crab_04]

Looks like it was destined to be delayed, hack or no hack. Valve is full BS starting from the top.

 

[DimitriPopov]

The stolen build wasn't representative of the state of the game at that time. What was stolen was the E3 demo files.

Thats not important , it still took a year from the time where Valve was saying "HAY YEAH 9/30 IS COMPLETELY CORRECT" until now , and its not out yet.


*EDIT* Also , thats fine to say , but there was more to the beta than the e3 levels, apparently.

*EDIT2* I bought Nvidia , so HAH.

 

[NeptuneUK]

[SARCASM]Valve was going to release a headcrab tetris game, duh![/SARCASM]

 

[subtlesnake]

Question is, would Valve really put their reputation on the line and risk pissing off their customer base just to help ATI sell some cards?

I'd rather except that they lied than that they thought they could get done what amounted to a years work in one month.