Whats really going on today

[glowdotdotcom]

The last big news was that VU and Valve are caught up in a dispute in
part over Valve's intent to distribute HL2 over Steam, thus cutting VU
out of a large amount of cash.

Now, Oct. 7, Valve offers a deal
almost no one can pass up: preorder HL2 and start playing CS:S now. In
other words, slap down $59.95 for a game that VU will most likely tie
up for 6 months, as they are contractually able to do.

If enough
people pre-order today, which they will, VU (a company in financial
trouble already) will be watching dollars swirl down the toilet. I can
promise you that VU is paying very careful attention today and VU Games
is scrambling right now to figure out how to get HL2 into stores ASAP.
Otherwise, every cent they stand to make on retail HL2 will disappear
as more and more people pre-order on Steam so they can start playing
CS:S now.

Valve made a smart strategic move today. My prediction: a big announcement from Valve and/or VU VERY soon.


--------------------

V,
~Rick Strom
http://www.fallingskies.com
http://www.glowdot.com

 

[blagh]

uhhh today's the 7th d00d

 

[azz0r]

I think Valve will end up letting viv take a share of the Steam profits.

 

[josho]

i agree with you, very smart move on valves behalf

<3 steam. such a GREAT idea, STICK IT TO THE MAN!

 

[glowdotdotcom]

uhhh today's the 7th d00d

What's your point? LOL

 

[blagh]

What's your point? LOL

Can i see your time machine?

 

[azz0r]

I can see why Viv are pissed - they are getting totally screwed over.

 

[f|uke]

slap down $59.95 for a game that VU will most likely tie
up for 6 months, as they are contractually able to do.

HL2 will be released this year. Icarus has given his word on this. I'm certain we'll see it in November.

 

[azz0r]

Can i see your time machine?

err...dude...it is the 7th.

 

[glowdotdotcom]

err...dude...it is the 7th.

Aye, but, the 7th of what? Perhaps this was the mysterious blargh's point.

 

[Concept]

Someone else made a good point on here. And I thought I'd reinterate it.

If you check the pre-load status for Half-Life 2 after purchasing on Steam it says the preload is complete (not a 'locked copy' anymore) and as soon as the game is available you can play.

If Half-Life 2 is completely preloaded onto the machines of those who've purchased it through Steam, then that suggests one thing...

The game's release candidate must have been accepted for this to happen otherwise it wouldn't have.

I'd expect a gold announcement to come very soon considering the entire game's content has been downloaded. Especially if Vivendi see Valve living the high life thanks to consumer support through Steam.

 

[glowdotdotcom]

The game's release candidate must have been accepted for this to happen otherwise it wouldn't have.

Why do you think that? Why wouldn't you just assume (logically) that we have a locked copy of the (unapproved) release candidate on our computers, which could be easily patched via steam at the drop of a hat, say, the week before release, with whatever modifications are required for gold status?

Vivendi needs to approve the RC for gold. Vivendi hates Steam. Valve thinks the game is done. So in Valve's eyes, the RC is gold. In VU's eyes, it isn't. What we have is what Valve considers done.

I don't see how everyone makes these giant logical leaps.

 

[Concept]

Because as has been demonstrated today, the servers struggle to cope with large simultaneous downloads. If every Half-Life 2 owner on the net patched at once, i.e. on the game's release, we probably would face problems.

I'd imagine we've got the final code completely on our computers now, because the release candidate isn't just about checking for things which can be easily patched. It's about checking for copyright and legal issues which may infringe on the actual game content.

And if that's been finalised, and is now present on our machines before release, I'd like to hope a gold announcement isn't too far.

I wouldn't say it's a giant logical step either. You don't start selling a product to buy online enmass, let magazines review it, and start advertising all over the web if the release isn't soon...

 

[f|uke]

Its not like they're standing still. We dont know what phase they're in right now, but several RC candidates have been summited. VUg is finding 'bugs', and VALVe is fixing them. Still it sounds (by all accounts) that both companies agree that HL2 will be released fairly soon.

 

[Concept]

Let's hope so.

Because the last couple of days have reinvigorated my appetite for Half-Life 2 after being punctured by what I hope was a fake spoiler.

I don't want the momentum to fade again, and for us to be saying the same things this time next month.

 

[bodhi]

Because as has been demonstrated today, the servers struggle to cope with large simultaneous downloads. If every Half-Life 2 owner on the net patched at once, i.e. on the game's release, we probably would face problems.

which is why they would announce a date ahead of time and make the patch really small. for example, the nessecary executable file. i mean, we all know no matter how small they make the last file theres still gona be a great demand for it once its available. theres no point having talking about how they dont have the bandwidth to patch it all at once...because we know they dont. people will have to waait that agonising five minutes

<shock rapidly followed by horror!>:O

 

[glowdotdotcom]

Because as has been demonstrated today, the servers struggle to cope with large simultaneous downloads. If every Half-Life 2 owner on the net patched at once, i.e. on the game's release, we probably would face problems.

We're talking about downloading large map packs (many dozen MB in size) vs. downloading small bugfix patches (probably many dozen KB in size)

the release candidate isn't just about checking for things which can be easily patched. It's about checking for copyright and legal issues which may infringe on the actual game content.

What?!?

I wouldn't say it's a giant logical step either. You don't start selling a product to buy online enmass, let magazines review it, and start advertising all over the web if the release isn't soon...

Sure you do, if the version you're shipping to reviewers is, in the eyes of the developer, "done enough" to be sent to the publisher.

You aren't a software developer, I take it.