Valve "hoping" for a release date soon

What a great title that news has: "Half-Life 2 on track for 2004 release..."
Uh, that's great...

No but seriously, "the official most realistic date" now seems to be Novemeber.
 
The thing which has me worried are UK retailers suggesting they've been told by Vivendi not to expect Half-Life 2 in 2004.

If Vivendi delay worldwide localisation outside of the US until next year then they'll be committing commercial suicide. Any gamer with a half-decent Internet connection will just download and buy the game from Steam instead.
 
November? If VU accepts the RC it can come in a few weeks, even with delay...
 
Seppo said:
No but seriously, "the official most realistic date" now seems to be Novemeber.
Click to expand...

Duh, the later date the more realistic. At least to persimestic people. But i still think September 30th or early october.
 
I'm starting to think October sometime, given that this RC gets the all clear
 
ok i dont like steam at all but i will buy it on steam just so i can get it as SOON AS IT GOES GOLD!!! i cant stand waiting anymore! PLEASE JUST STICK IT ON STEAM! WAHHH
 
Concept said:
The thing which has me worried are UK retailers suggesting they've been told by Vivendi not to expect Half-Life 2 in 2004.
Click to expand...

Don't worry, Doug Lombardi states in that article:
"Nobody at VU has indicated to us that they are not shipping HL2 this year."

There's no point in delaying the game to 2005.
 
Concept said:
The thing which has me worried are UK retailers suggesting they've been told by Vivendi not to expect Half-Life 2 in 2004.

If Vivendi delay worldwide localisation outside of the US until next year then they'll be committing commercial suicide. Any gamer with a half-decent Internet connection will just download and buy the game from Steam instead.
Click to expand...


What? I thought Valve has stated over and over that it would be a simultaneous worldwise release. So that means we Americans have to wait for your candy asses? Not possible.
 
I don't think Valve have ever stated there'd be a worldwide release. If they have then I'd be grateful for an official confirmation link. :)

That would mean they've been having to work on various different localisations with Vivendi beforehand, and they've only just submitted the RC.

If anything, the US will get it first, and in all probability, like with Doom III, everywhere else may have to wait one or two weeks more.

Which is where Steam comes in and Vivendi lose a lot of potential profits.

But to their credit, I'm sure they know this. The releases both in the US and Europe (not to mention elsewhere) need to be close together in terms of retail.

Otherwise it's payday for Steam.
 
Read the article again except this time, only read what Doug says. Then you will see the correct information.
 
Very close together. Look at the numbers of Doom 3 downloads in Europe because it came out a few days later than the US and people couldn't wait. I think it was something like 50,000 over the weekend if I remember the numbers correctly.
HL2 is even more anticipated,the longer the gap (if there is one) the worse, and retailers will get hurt too as either people will download it, many will buy it through Steam.
 
Concept said:
I don't think Valve have ever stated there'd be a worldwide release.
Click to expand...
Yes, they have, although I can't get a link. Try having a look in the "info from valve" thread perhaps.

Concept said:
That would mean they've been having to work on various different localisations with Vivendi beforehand, and they've only just submitted the RC.
Click to expand...
The storyline and character conversations have been finished for a long time, they've had plenty of time to work on localisations. The final version of the game isn't required to localise it, the majority of it can be done months before this stage is reached.

If anything, the US will get it first, and in all probability, like with Doom III, everywhere else may have to wait one or two weeks more.
Click to expand...
Actually I believe Doom 3 was released simultaneously (or within 1-2 days) in most parts of the world, except for the UK. I know it was released here within 1-2 days, and I'm in New Zealand.

Which is where Steam comes in and Vivendi lose a lot of potential profits.
Click to expand...
Valve have already said that it will be unlocked via Steam the same day it is available in stores.
 
hi_ted said:
Read the article again except this time, only read what Doug says. Then you will see the correct information.
Click to expand...

I've read it, but he says VU haven't informed him of a 2005 delay. Which doesn't mean they also haven't informed the UK retailers of one potentially happening with the current schedule.

To be fair, it isn't likely. But that wasn't my point... Any delay progressive from the US date will mean those with a broadband Internet connection outside of that country will in all probability go over to Steam instead.

Vivendi would be a tad insane to do what iD did with Doom III, but as with most European localisations, I can see it happening here potentially too.

I'm sure Valve won't mind though. It just means they'll get more profits from Steam for any screw-ups Vivendi make. Win-win. ;)
 
I think we´ll see HL2 in our PC-stores the 1st of October..

Not too bad really
 
Lanthanide said:
The storyline and character conversations have been finished for a long time, they've had plenty of time to work on localisations. The final version of the game isn't required to localise it, the majority of it can be done months before this stage is reached
Click to expand...

We'll see, won't we? Usually external regional localisations happen after a project finishes in its home terrirtory traditionally. I hope I'm wrong here though. :)


Actually I believe Doom 3 was released simultaneously (or within 1-2 days) in most parts of the world, except for the UK. I know it was released here within 1-2 days, and I'm in New Zealand.
Click to expand...

I'm more or less also talking for European countries which have wildly different censorship laws, demanding that content be altered in the game to suit those. Such as Germany for example.

Valve have already said that it will be unlocked via Steam the same day it is available in stores.
Click to expand...

Yes, and as long as that date is based on the US retail release, then none of us outside the country will be complaining so long as we can purchase it online. ;)

Vivendi will be the losers here if a lengthly localisation occurs.
 
But isn't Vivendi a french publisher? And Activision is american. Maybe with Half-Life 2, the europeans will get it first
 
I think the localization process already came to completion. Unfortunately for us localizators, it usually happens during the development process...
 
Well personally I'm speaking more or less from a console perspective here. Virtually all major Japanese productions start localisation after home territory releases occur first.

Japan. US. Europe. That's usually the pecking order there.

From a PC gaming perspective I'd perceive that it'd be more along the lines of US, Europe and then World. Take Rome: Total War and Fable for examples... Two games developed in the UK but released first in the US. Simply because it's the most important gaming market.

Maybe it's different in the PC sector, but I'd be surprised if Valve were handling say eight different language versions, content revisions, subtitle/text translation all at the same time they were attempting to finish the English version.
 
Valve has insisted on a worldwide release as long as I can remember and it will be released on Steam the same day it's in stores. It has been mentioned in about billion interviews/e-mails. :)

Also, I would think the localisation is more or less done already. At least the dialogue has been translated already, right? Weren't there some russian/chinese sound clips that they put up somewhere? All the content changes (blood etc.) have probably been fixed already by now.

But I suppose it will take VU longer than a week or two to test the games (there are three games to test, remember!) so I suppose if there are no problems with the RC, HL2 could go gold in the middle of October and be in stores/Steam in early November. If it's not, well, just look at my sig... :sniper:
 
Diablo 2 and the expansion were localised before the game was released.

This is also why certain patches were delayed for a while before coming out (including 1.10, to some extent) - they had to get the stuff sent off to the various companies to be localised, but it wasn't a major thing for Blizzard to do, nor a major contract for the companies to fulfill, so it tended to be put on the back-burner, resulting in patches taking a while to be released.

I believe most companies release patches incrementally per language, however, rather than 1 fell-swoop like Blizzard do.
 
crownest said:
Duh, the later date the more realistic. At least to persimestic people. But i still think September 30th or early october.
Click to expand...

Do you really expect they would test the game so fast and start shipping as fast as they can? Because only then it could make it to early october. But its not.
 
Even thoug it gets avaliable on steam, we still want the box ;)
Let's hope there's no mofo's over at VU so the RC gets out there and we have to wait another year...
 
Seppo said:
What a great title that news has: "Half-Life 2 on track for 2004 release..."
Uh, that's great...

No but seriously, "the official most realistic date" now seems to be Novemeber.
Click to expand...
November?!?!? They sent the RC already. Give it a week to be accepted and aout 2 weeks to be shipped (3 at most). October is more like it.
 
Fantastic news. Thats all i need. it would have been better coming from valve but ay... its a start. I wonder who would win the competition out of halo and hl2 :sniper:
 
The game will obviously come out in the start of november. (maybe early October if we're lucky).

Remember they need to produce something in the area of 4 million copies and do a worldwide release at the same time. That alone could take 3-5 weeks.

So the game will maybe out in the end of october if everything goes like oh yeah, or else the start of november.

Edit: The gameshop date in the other thread seems right on target, maybe a few days earlier if they let them sell it for the weekend.
 
I love it. Reading that page I had to hop onto dictionary.com just to find out what a fortnight was. Like that article is some kind of role playing shit from 500 years ago...
 
Some points to consider:

Although Doom 3 was released 10 days later in the UK, they could only release it either 3 days later or 10 days later. This is because most games in the US are released on a Tuesday and ALL games in the UK are released on a Friday. This means that Half-Life 2 will definately be released later than the US, even if by only a few days.

Half-Life 2 could be released in November because Vivendi had already planned for a November release. If they expected the RCs a bit later then they could've had a lot of stuff already organised.

I'd be really suprised if Half-Life 2 doesn't go gold by the end of the month. Eurogamer seems to think that RC testing takes a couple of weeks, but I've never come across any stories about Developers waiting around for two weeks just while the publisher tests their game. Add to that, Half-Life's final RC told two days before it it was accepted.

EDIT: Wait a minute. Eurogamer are saying that the final tests could be done within a fortnight and that would mean a mid-October Gold date? So it would be two weeks of testing, then another two weeks to declare it gold? That doesn't add up.
 
krameriffic said:
I love it. Reading that page I had to hop onto dictionary.com just to find out what a fortnight was. Like that article is some kind of role playing shit from 500 years ago...
Click to expand...

It's a common word in the UK, it's not some "role playing shit from 500 years ago".
 
Maybe steam will finally break this connection between devs and distributors.Soon there will be no RC no gone golds. The dev team finishes the game and out it comes aftar that the dev team can sell it to the highest bidder.
Even small software houses will have the chance to create and ship decent games.And maybe they will become cheaper to
 
Imagine being without a internet connection, you want to play hl2 offline. You install the dvd (cd, whatever) and it doesn't read!! offff
 
Something like 7 weeks until release if my estimates are correct.
 
FISKER_Q said:
Something like 7 weeks until release if my estimates are correct.
Click to expand...

and if my magical skills are good enough, i just say: voila!.. and the game is on my desk. ;)
 
Headwires said:
well HL1 went gold within 48 hours of the RC, so who knows!
Click to expand...

We don't know how many RCs they went through. It went gold within 48 of the final RC.

But, this is an exciting time, it could go Gold any day now, although I admit the anticipation will be annoying if it doesn't go gold until three weeks from now.
 
Feath said:
We don't know how many RCs they went through. It went gold within 48 of the final RC.

But, this is an exciting time, it could go Gold any day now, although I admit the anticipation will be annoying if it doesn't go gold until three weeks from now.
Click to expand...
It was the first RC.
 
oh crap, i got excited when i read the main news page, i thought it said half life 2 went gold!!

id be surprised if hl2 doesnt go gold within a week
 
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