Ok this is just my opinion based on a few logical assumptions and some things I've learned from all the interviews and Q&A threads.
I think it's very logical to assume that Valve is using this HL2 media release on Steam as a 'test' to get a glimse of what will happen once they release HL2 as a game onto Steam for purchase. The media is 800 megs of hi-res glory, that's more space taken up than a full installation of HL1. HL2 will undoubtedly be double that size atleast, and having thousands of people downloading a game of that size off of Steam and its content providers optical carrier lines could bring up unexpected problems.
Notice that they already released atleast 3 patches, and seem to be trying to get every single server active, for Steam itself before they released any new media. They are most likly setting Steam up for the most optimal status before releasing the content, atleast a status they expect will be available during the first week of Sept 30th. Once they actualy do release the media, you can be sure they will be closely monitoring every aspect of the flow of content delivery and its performance, and reliability. After all, you wouldn't want Valve to wait until Sept 30th and release such a huge, high in demand game without first testing how far you can push Steam? (Heh, usualy Steam does the pushing!)
If something went wrong during the initial release of HL2 over Steam, that would do major damage to Steam's creditbility, and less people would have the faith of purchasing HL2 over Steam. Especialy when they can buy it in stores and be gaurenteed that the game would be in their grasp and functional. That would be a major blow since Steam has not produced a single dime for Valve as of yet, and would be quite a set back and let down. This makes it natural that Valve should take their time carefully planning the release of the new media only once Steam is up to par, and shows why they havent just released the media to internet sites like other companies would normaly do. Let's face it, Valve knows what they are doing. And their outcome expectations for the release have high priority rather than just throwing the media out into our faces without regard to the benifits that they could reap out of a well planned and confined release that was monitored and improved upon afterwards.
It's actualy quite fun to be using Steam right now, to think that Half-Life 2 is %100 tied into Steam as the regular server browser, friends message ability, etc, even if you didn't buy HL2 over Steam. This means that we are actualy using a piece of HL2 as we speak, and as they further develope HL2 and its multiplayer component is even more tied in with Steam as the general use server browser, our client versions are updated on the fly as they update it for HL2! We are actual beta testers for a little section of HL2! Love Steam or hate it, it's going to be mainstream once HL2 is released, and your going to be using it alot I assume for multiplayer!
(I could be wrong, but from everything I've read, it seems like Steam really is going to replace the Half-Life 1 style server browser completely. Why not anyways? Didn't put all that programming effort into Steam for nothing! Might as well put the darn thing to good use!)
I think it's very logical to assume that Valve is using this HL2 media release on Steam as a 'test' to get a glimse of what will happen once they release HL2 as a game onto Steam for purchase. The media is 800 megs of hi-res glory, that's more space taken up than a full installation of HL1. HL2 will undoubtedly be double that size atleast, and having thousands of people downloading a game of that size off of Steam and its content providers optical carrier lines could bring up unexpected problems.
Notice that they already released atleast 3 patches, and seem to be trying to get every single server active, for Steam itself before they released any new media. They are most likly setting Steam up for the most optimal status before releasing the content, atleast a status they expect will be available during the first week of Sept 30th. Once they actualy do release the media, you can be sure they will be closely monitoring every aspect of the flow of content delivery and its performance, and reliability. After all, you wouldn't want Valve to wait until Sept 30th and release such a huge, high in demand game without first testing how far you can push Steam? (Heh, usualy Steam does the pushing!)
If something went wrong during the initial release of HL2 over Steam, that would do major damage to Steam's creditbility, and less people would have the faith of purchasing HL2 over Steam. Especialy when they can buy it in stores and be gaurenteed that the game would be in their grasp and functional. That would be a major blow since Steam has not produced a single dime for Valve as of yet, and would be quite a set back and let down. This makes it natural that Valve should take their time carefully planning the release of the new media only once Steam is up to par, and shows why they havent just released the media to internet sites like other companies would normaly do. Let's face it, Valve knows what they are doing. And their outcome expectations for the release have high priority rather than just throwing the media out into our faces without regard to the benifits that they could reap out of a well planned and confined release that was monitored and improved upon afterwards.
It's actualy quite fun to be using Steam right now, to think that Half-Life 2 is %100 tied into Steam as the regular server browser, friends message ability, etc, even if you didn't buy HL2 over Steam. This means that we are actualy using a piece of HL2 as we speak, and as they further develope HL2 and its multiplayer component is even more tied in with Steam as the general use server browser, our client versions are updated on the fly as they update it for HL2! We are actual beta testers for a little section of HL2! Love Steam or hate it, it's going to be mainstream once HL2 is released, and your going to be using it alot I assume for multiplayer!
(I could be wrong, but from everything I've read, it seems like Steam really is going to replace the Half-Life 1 style server browser completely. Why not anyways? Didn't put all that programming effort into Steam for nothing! Might as well put the darn thing to good use!)
