Steam: the reason for delay?

[jimbones]

I know this has been talked over to death a gazillion times if not more but I just wanted to note that that last update completely shut down steam for some hours.
And that was just a regular update (with some major changes though).

Think of how it would have been 9/03 if Hl2 was released then. My thoughts are that Half-Life 2 is somewhat ready (bugfixing, major gameplay tweaking still going on) but that steam simply isn't just as ready to handle the massive load of a worldwide simultaneous release into the steam network. Try to imagine the workload! That would also explain why valve hired that BitTorrent-guy. He knows how to get the strain of that network and help design steam more resource-efficient. So as long as steam isn't ready the gamedesigners got some time to clean up and polish HL2 some more..

Just my .02 €.

Discuss! :dork:

 

[wendle]

Well it seems like that may have been the case for a while, but I think thats done now. I think they are on a schedule to get to the release now. They are doing their softimage|xsi shows, releasing a hl2 survey, sounds like they have more steam releases/updates planned after CS:CZ's release, they are getting the website up, they are planning for e3, etc. I'd say at this point all that other stuff is cause for the delay at this point. Though you're probably right as for everything up to this point.

 

[Someone]

That's been my feeling too for quite a while now. I'll never believe valve would create a game in secret for 4+ years only to announce it out of the blue KNOWING it wasn't close to being done. That would have to be the most idiotic thing to do,especially after the long delay and anger of HL1's release.

I think the game was, and is, all but done (other than bug fixes and tweaks and things like Nvidia's issues which popped up), but things like steam are the ultimate reason it wasn't "done". Since steam is SUCH an important part of the game, there isn't anyway they can release it until that part or the programming can handle the strain.

Even now, steam isn't exactly where it will need to be to have a smooth transistion into HL2.

So ultimately that gets my vote for the most realistic reason why it is so delayed. I think on top of that, although the theft wasn't THE reason for the delay, it surely is contributing to the length of the delay as they clean up code.

 

[EVIL]

Myeah ahhwell it can only get better. If the game would be great on 30 sept then I am sure it will be better when its released in the near future. Hopefully they havent stopped adding new content in and still implementing idea's to make it a killer experience.

 

[mortiz]

I agree, I said that when HL-2 was originally delayed, VALVe didn't plan on the time it would take to get STEAM operational and it blatently couldn't handle HL-2 on sept 30th, it was still buggy as hell.

STEAM is an essential part of HL-2 since all of VALVe's games will run through it.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Hl2 can now be run through steam, sure 2 or 3 days might be hell, but it will be fine after that, all you have to do is let everything settle down. And if there is no DDOS attacks, steam will run fine, seems when steam is running like absolute shit, its because of DDOS attacks, so gay people waste there time doing that.

 

[Mr.Magnetichead]

I havn't been able to log in for hours.

 

[NightSinister]

Someone from valve said that they make all the models, props etc with huge poly counts but only use lesser counts in game, This would allow them to increase detail at any time (better hardware) without the need to rebuild them. I see that this is what the hardware survey is for, part of the tweaking process while they wait for steam to be ready. I also don't think they will have as many problems with the release of HL2 over steam, the current bandwidth issue is because valve won't want to spend more money than it needs to, to deliver content for a game it sold 5 years ago, they signed a contract with a big content delivery network which will be in place for HL2.

 

[mrchimp]

I have to say that steam is a major factor of the delay, looking at how it took the most receant update I can't imagine that it would have been able to take HL2 way back in September. Right now I think the Steam network has upwards of about 6000Mbps at it's disposal even though it doesn't show it, I believe by looking at the max bandwidth spikes that some of the servers will only turn on when they are needed.

TBH I would think that when HL2 is released it will need 3 times as much bandwidth at least, it's hard to tell whether valve have the servers for that available now but I doubt Steam would be able to handle it if HL2 was released tommorrow, never mind half a year ago.

 

[Impulse147]

What i don't understand, is why it so hard to get a online gaming system like steam to work properly and be able to support hundreds of thousands of ppl, take battle.net(blizzards online play) for instance i log onto sc and there are 60+ thousand ppl on and about 140+ thousand ppl playing all blizzard games, so why can battle.net handle it when these ppl need to update to new version but steam can't? and what eludes me is that my friend can log onto steam with his account on my pc, but i can't log onto my account, is there some list they put us in, like every1 who has an e-mail address that starts with A will get there account fixed first. I've yet to get back on steam since it needed to updated.

 

[jet jaguar]

My guess is that Valve's ambitions for Steam far outpaced their actual resources and capabilities. If they had Microsoft's resources or the Pentagon's resources then yes, we would have had HL2 in our dirty little hands back in September.

 

[mrchimp]

What i don't understand, is why it so hard to get a online gaming system like steam to work properly and be able to support hundreds of thousands of ppl, take battle.net(blizzards online play) for instance i log onto sc and there are 60+ thousand ppl on and about 140+ thousand ppl playing all blizzard games, so why can battle.net handle it when these ppl need to update to new version but steam can't? and what eludes me is that my friend can log onto steam with his account on my pc, but i can't log onto my account, is there some list they put us in, like every1 who has an e-mail address that starts with A will get there account fixed first. I've yet to get back on steam since it needed to updated.

AFAIK battle.net doesn't handle auto update and the updates for blizzard games are under 60 meg, where as on steam you can download an entire game. I think with most other games the auto update servers and game master server are different and can continue to operate if the other is overloaded. With steam everything is handled by the same network, which is required for what valve want but has it's disadvantages.

 

[jimbones]

Maybe they'll add some p2p option into the steam cache (BitTorrent) to relieve the network

 

[Dougy]

If Hl2 was ready and steam was the delaying factor wouldnt Vivendi be having kittens and ordering valve to release the bloody game?

And before theres an answer along the lines of... "but valve could keep it a secret" No. No the couldnt.

 

[mrchimp]

But valve could get any publisher to do there bidding.

 

[Dougy]

But valve could get any publisher to do there bidding.

No.


(as in No. they are not keeping it a secret and Steam is the reason for the delay)

 

[mrchimp]

Look at it this way, your HL2's publisher and valve are saying the games being delayed, even though the last time you checked it looked finnished. You think it's because of Steam and tell Valve to release it anyway. Valve reply with "The game is not finnished and besides Steam is an integral part of the engine , the system to combat piracy, the MP side of the game and the content delivery system includeing patchs and other such things". What are you going to do? threaten them with a large stick?

Valve could find another publisher pretty damn easy.

 

[Epsi]

Valve do have an extraordinary amount of leverage, depending on what publishing contract they signed.

The fact that they are allowed to develop Steam, and go into direct competition with their own publisher suggests they negotiated a very good contract.

HL2 is sure to be an absolute monster hit. Publishers are going to be crawling over each other to get at this cash cow. Finding another publisher for Valve is not a problem. They're also financially independant, so they don't need capital from the publisher to afford the game, another layer of independance. And there's the little matter of Steam. Valve now have an application for directly publishing games over broadband installed on hundreds of thousands of computers. They can cut out the middle-man entirely and publish HL2 by themselves if they wanted.

To say Valve wears the trousers in the relationship is somewhat of an understatement. They can do whatever the hell they like.

 

[jet jaguar]

Since Steam's viability as a stable content distribution system is still very much in doubt I would suggest that while Valve does indeed wear the pants in the relationship with VU, Valve is, at least temporarily, impotent.

 

[Goliath_1986]

honestly, i have no idea why all those delays...why all the lies ?
but with all this time they have i think they r comming up with something new...some surprise to tell all those millions of fans throughout the world, sorry.
they didnt say much about MP yet except on how it is built so i think it will have some interesting parts in it. n they didnt say anything about CS2 either. who knows maybe 80-90% completed and they r waiting E3 or release date to tell us about it...

 

[jimbones]

To say Valve wears the trousers in the relationship is somewhat of an understatement. They can do whatever the hell they like.

LOL Nice comparison! :E

 

[Apos]

Clearly, Steam was not ready to deliver on a huge HL2 release, and it might still not be ready. But I very much doubt it was the only thing holding back HL2's release. For all we know, they may have decided the game was too short, or they ran into some major flaw in their design that they'd have to rework. Hopefully, when the book on the game's development comes out, we'll get the full story.

 

[csmighty1]

that's right. That Half Life2 Development book is going to come out. *csmighty reaches into his wallet and whips out some money* yep, I gotta get a job soon

 

[Anthraxxx]

/me looks hopeful

Maybe the Development book will come with the HL2 special/collector's edition.....

 

[r00b]

..

........ :|

 

[csmighty1]

/me looks hopeful

Maybe the Development book will come with the HL2 special/collector's edition.....

I like your thinking! :thumbs:

 

[Headwires]

i doubt it will come free after all Steam is probbaly suckin valve dry, well almost

 

[Naft]

i think the real reason was to come out with a "behind the scenes" book about the delays and make millions off the curious fans who want to know wtf happened.

meh.

[subliminalmode] s . . . t . . . e . . . a . . . m . . .[/sm]

 

[jet jaguar]

Clearly, Steam was not ready to deliver on a huge HL2 release, and it might still not be ready. But I very much doubt it was the only thing holding back HL2's release. For all we know, they may have decided the game was too short, or they ran into some major flaw in their design that they'd have to rework. Hopefully, when the book on the game's development comes out, we'll get the full story.

I still think Steam was the biggest reason for the delay. The source code theft is something I find difficult to swallow - former MS manager, multi-million dollar developer, loads of security resources/experience, I just don't buy it. And in the PCG interview Gabe, by all appearances, seemed absolutely sure that HL2 was near ready, the tech was locked, the content was largely complete, nothing to signal that a major delay was impending. One commonality between CS:CZ's delayed release and HL2's delay is that Steam is still being worked on. If a major Steam update still causes disruptions to service just think of what a major software release would do to Steam? Total meltdown and millions of severely pissed off customers. The damage would be almost irreparable and Steam would be trashed. Valve wants this to go right and they'll delay HL2 as long as needed.

 

[Quixote]

I agree with the majority here. Steam is the reason for delay. I'm glad they finally came to their senses and added features for offline play, though. CS:CZ is going to flop big but as soon as the 10 people prove the purchasing feature of Steam we'll see HL2 shortly after.

 

[]SK[]

TBH I think steam had a big part in the delay. If they had released HL2 over the steam network it would have gone down as one of the worst release's in history. The initial steam release even brought the network to a stand still for over a week. Even all these months on we can still see the steam network cannot cope. Hardly surprising though 500,000+ people all updating cant be good. I wouldnt say Steam is the thick of it though as we would see updates left right and centre? Unless they are stacking them up like this to see how the network copes?

 

[jimbones]

I'm glad they finally came to their senses and added features for offline play, though. CS:CZ is going to flop big but as soon as the 10 people prove the purchasing feature of Steam we'll see HL2 shortly after.

Totally with you on that. And now they can use the release of cs:cz as a testfire for releasing a game over steam!

 

[]SK[]

Offline play is useless though, you can only play Single Player games or Multi Player games but on your own. You can't have a LAN server and join with your mates as it just tells you your ID is in use (STEAM_ID_LAN)