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Halflife 2 Delayed Again?
erax0r writes "Gamespot reports that HL2 could be delayed yet again. "Court filings show VU Games has the right to sit on finished Half-Life 2 code for up to six months. Could it be deja vu all over again?"
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No to mention the fact that they've probably been paying for Valve to finish this, and if they don't see some return on it, then thats bad.
They haven't been paying - Half-Life 2 was apparently completely funded by Valve.
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
They are releasing the game themselves via Steampowered.com Unfortunetly their contract with VUG doesn't allow them to relese the game via Steam until VUG releases the game.
-Scott
OK, let's think about this. Why would a company with the marketshare of Valve ever make a deal with a publisher?
Valve does not need shelf space. They already have Steam. Why worry about printed manuals, boxes, CDs, and other crap? Just announce it on the major gamer sites and let everyone get it online for $20 vice $60 for a box. Their cut would still be the same no matter what.
Valve does not need advertising. Uuh, Half-Life. What's that? Everyone who will buy it already knows about it.
Valve does not need backers. They already have a license to print money in the form of Counter Strike.
In any event, something is happening in the background we can't see. No one would make a deal with a publisher unless they needed to. Both sides stand to gain from this. The question is: Who gains what?
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
OK, let's think about this. Why would a company with the marketshare of Valve ever make a deal with a publisher?
Because they want to sell some games?
Possibly out of date, but here's an overview of the different Half-Life 2 SKUs. Apparently, they expect a very significant proportion of the sales to be the base, single-player-only version, as this will be distributed in Wal-Mart and similar.
Counter-Strike only became particularly popular after it went on sale in shops in a similar manner, despite being a free-to-download modification for years...
Steam is an interesting variation, but I still reckon the majority of sales for HL2 will be in boxed form. There's a huge number of people out there without broadband, or who simply don't follow games sites and similar, who will still purchase the game.
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?