Taken for a ride?

[Oakey]

Anyone else feel they've been taken for a ride?

Valve were adament that HL2 would be released 30/09 and well know of the supposed auction for HL2 rights (which ATi won).

Then in September come a load of Benchmarks from Valve saying how the 9800pro performs better than Nvidia's cards. This causes people to rush out and upgrade for the arrival of HL2 (Which is still being touted as 30/09).

Then it gets to a week before the release date and we hear the game is delayed. We're told 'Xmas'. No big deal

But, conveniently, the source code is leaked and now we're told that the game might be delayed until April 2004. Now if this is true, here is my problem.

In April 2004 I expect ATi and Nvidia will have new cards and I expect Nvidia will have fixed their Shader PS2.0 problems. So by this time the whole 9800pro Vs 5900u argument will be irrelevant as there will be new cards that I assume will play the game fine.

I can't help that the whole benchmark crap in September was fluff in order to generate sales for Valve's 'partner' ATi and I wonder if HL2 was ever ready for release at all.

I know some of you are saying "well we only found out about the game at E3, etc, etc, etc" but look at Max Payne 2, wasn't announced too long ago, no huge amount of hype yet gone gold this very week.

 

[razorblade kiss]

All the hype created surrounding HL2 was created by the fans...

 

[Athlon7]

*sigh... This is depressing indeed.

 

[Jabrim]

Reply:

Well I see some of what your saying, as far as Max Payne 2 I preordered mine with next day air and can't wait to play it. So while all of this bs is going on I can atleast enjoy a game that made its release date and all. I'm looking forward to HL2 as much as the next person but I don't know what they're going to do now with whats happened. Also too much hype can kill a game, cause theres always people that expect more than what they'll get, in example of hype killing look at Daikatana for Christ's sake. LOL


- Jason

 

[silent]

Yeah, I do feel like I was taken for a ride. A very emotionally dissapointing ride. This sucks. You can't get more simple than that. I feels as if I am the fool and Valve the puppet master.

 

[Netherscourge]

You can read about the ride in my Retrospective thread!

 

[Oakey]

Originally posted by razorblade kiss
All the hype created surrounding HL2 was created by the fans...

Um, no, it wasn't the fans that released all the vids and promised a Sep 30th release, etc.

But the point is, the last month of Ati / Nvidia rubbish is now all irrelevant. The 9800 pro might be better for DX9 but the two major games (D3 and HL2) won't appear until next year so it's irrelevant. For now, until these two major games appear, the 5900u is still the better card fro dx8.1 games. By the time D3 and HL2 appear, new cards will be out and I doubt we'll see the problems Nvidia were having.

Like I said, I can't help feel it was just created to cater for ATi and generate them a boat load of sales from the gamers anticipating HL2.

 

[[WTF?]EvileDick]

You clearly have no idea how the games business works, or the crap that delays games, beyond and above the bonus crap Valve has to deal with.
As it is the E3 demo was only meant to be shown to industry members, it wasn't meant to be public release info. For all we know VU had completely different announcement plans than some shakeycam screener taken during a private screening.

 

[eish]

Originally posted by razorblade kiss
All the hype created surrounding HL2 was created by the fans...

Exactly.

 

[razorblade kiss]

Um, no, it wasn't the fans that released all the vids and promised a Sep 30th release, etc.

Sorry pal, but wrongo. Valve released 1 video. The e3 video. Every other video was simply a portion of the e3 video. The e3 was the core media for HL2. Along with some other early early screenshots. Maybe 10-15 screens and 1 video is not hype. How the fans react to those sources is hype. The fans went nuts, exagerating gameplay, anticipating, fantasizing about release dates and so on. Valve never went out of their way to make us want this game. They we're rather subtle in any info they put out to the community.

 

[Cheetarah654]

they didnt need to go out of their way to get us excited, they teased us with just enough to get hundreds of thousands of people excited as all hell. they knew what they were doing.

 

[Champ]

You guys are wayy to paranoid... As I posted before, game delays aren't that rare! 30th sep delay was sad, but apparently needed...

 

[Champ]

This one big conspiracy thing is just way out of line... sorry folks

 

[Mountain Man]

Originally posted by Oakey
Anyone else feel they've been taken for a ride?

Yes.

For a company that prides itself on community relations, Valve sure treats its fans like hell.

As for the hype, Valve created it. They knew what they were sitting on. They knew the reputation Half-Life and their company enjoyed, and they knew a simple announcement about the imminent release of Half-Life 2 would be all they needed to work their fans up into a fever pitch.

Then came the media blitz with every major gaming publication and website printing their own story about Half-Life 2, everytime Gabe Newell opened his mouth he claimed the game was going to be released September 30, then they released high quality versions of the E3 videos to the fans creating further hype, Doug Lombardi claimed a month out that there was no delay despite rumors to the contrary, then they pulled out a needle and popped the balloon. Then ground the remaining pieces into the ground by announcing a further delay.

Valve pretty much dug their own grave, folks.

 

[Stormy151]

I gotta wonder if its the source code being stolen that really effed all this up.

September 30 was the only release date that anyone from Valve would confirm.

They released the Bink! videos via Steam to get everyone worked up anticipating the release in the middle of September. If they had known for months that the game wasn't going to make September 30, why would they have done that?

I don't think they would have. If they had known then the game would be delayed, I'm guessing they would have announced a delay, and then given us the Bink! videos to "tide us over" until a holiday release- not release them to get everyone worked up for the 30th then let us down.

Then Valve got hacked, and the source code stolen around the 19th. They announced the delay 9/24 IIRC. I would venture that between those dates is when they discovered they'd been compromised- and announced the delay so they could figure out how they were going to fix the situation.

It would have only meant waiting a few days to release the vids. I think it would be better marketing strategy all up in our hizzy ;-) to announce the delay, then give the fans something (the Bink! videos). I don't think they knew they weren't going to make 9/30 for "months" as some speculate.

I thought Halfa$$ radio's guy said that they were going to make a holiday release. They were just at Valve yesterday, for crying out loud.

 

[Oakey]

This one big conspiracy thing is just way out of line... sorry folks

I'm not talking conspiracies, I'm talking about the crap that's been happening lately.

Valve makes a deal with ATi. Valve comes out with a load of numbers at an ATi event saying how superior the 9800 pro is to the 5900 U. This kind of stuff DOES cause panic buying (because don't forget, at this time people were still expecting a 30/09 release). A week before the 'release' they announce a delay. Then there's another delay 'announced' putting the game into next year and making all of Valve's previous comments about ATi / Nvidia and all the crap that was caused from that irrelevant. In the process though it generated sales for ATi.

 

[Champ]

Yeh... that's true, but the second delay wasn't planned so that kind of excuses them a bit...

 

[Mountain Man]

Originally posted by Stormy151
If they had known then the game would be delayed, I'm guessing they would have announced a delay

Except that Vivendi announced the delay as far back as July. I think Valve was just ****ing us over by refusing to admit it.

I thought Halfa$$ radio's guy said that they were going to make a holiday release.

Is this the same Valve that insisted the game was going to be released September 30? Excuse me for being a bit skeptical.