The gold/release date thoughts.

[JunkyardDog]

Hey, first post here.

Has anyone ever stopped to think that the day HL2 goes gold would be the same day they release it?

When a game goes gold... it's done. It's finished. Valve wanted more freedom to release their games, so they introduced Steam. Why would they let a finished Half Life 2 just sit there until the boxed copies arrive in stores?

The gold date will probably be around Sept 30, if they release the finished product over steam by then.

Sorry if someone has already stated this, it seems like everyone I've talked to hadn't thought of this.

 

[Driftlight]

Gold means that the software is done and that the game has been sent to the copiers. It'd be impossible to actually 'Go gold' and get the game on the shelf in the same day.

 

[iamlod]

...magic...

 

[alco]

...*sigh....

I just love beating this dead horse!

 

[Gordon'sFreeman]

Thats a pretty good point.

 

[Raziaar]

Gabe stated steam version will be released same day boxed version will be. He also said he wont release the game to stores first without letting people know it has gone gold.

If it does go gold soon though, my guess is since half-life 2 is such a freaking hugely anticipated game, they have more copy presses making those discs than the average producer. You think? So instead of 14 days, maybe 5 days to produce same amount :-P hehehehehe.

 

[mannyfresh027]

i think they will release in time for sept30, but it will be a little buggy and incomplete. nothing steam couldnt fix