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Half-Life 2 Release Date Broken
NextWish writes "Despite being clearly marked, numerous stores have begun selling HL2.
This guy even got a phone call from EB telling him to pickup his pre-order, so he did what any one would do - He picked it up. (Pic #1 / Pic #2)" Update: 11/12 19:30 GMT by Z : Thanks to the anonymous reader who sent us a link to The Inquirer story discussing Valve's savvy regarding cracked or advance copies.
http://forum.oldos.org/viewtopic.php?t=2318
Apparently someone he knew saw them on the shelf and called him, he bought it, the registration wouldn't work, and he got that email.
Yet another reason to hate activation.
Jay | http://oldos.org
Despite being clearly marked, numerous stores have begun selling HL2.
It says not to display them, not to avoid selling them to the people who pre-ordered. It makes no difference since they can't play anyway.
This guy even got a phone call from EB telling him to pickup his pre-order, so he did what any one would do - He picked it up.
It makes sense, why not sell them to the pre-order people now, then on the games release day you don't run into the issue of having the game on hand but not being able to sell x amount of copies to the people that didn't pre-order.
If they can't play the game anyway, what difference do the physical CD's make?
All of this hype is just getting me high! Given that you can't play the game until the 16th because of the online activation, the broken date doesn't cost Valve anything. Now there will be yet another story in the mainstream media about Half Life 2, and if the story about the fired EB employee is true, then they may even get a little TV time. All of this marketing without spending a dime!
Now, I don't have any proof that this is all intentional, and it probably isn't. But the guys at Valve must be pretty happy with all of the attention. In our strange twisted world, I could see a class action lawsuit on behalf of HL2 pirates demanding a piece of the profits for all of the free publicity and promotion they've been doing!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Ok, but I'd love to see the breakdown of people with good enough graphics cards to play this, and yet don't have a DVD player. Even better what was Doom3's excuse?
The original PS2 DVD laser crapped out pretty early on for many users. As did the laser on the original Playstations. It seems Sony refuses to put a decent laser in their system until after the systems have good market penetration. It makes me feel sorry about anybody who's buying a PSP at launch. For those who are wondering, this isn't an anti-Sony rant, I have both a Playstation and a PS2, both of which work fine, but there have bene large numbers of units who have had problems with their disc drives.
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor."
It's people like you that are the problem.. Please learn to read. Problem 1) The VENDOR sold a game that was clearly marked not to be sold UNTIL 11/16/2004. (NOTICE THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CUSTOMER BUYING IT, BUT RATHER THE VENDOR SELLING.) Problem 2) Because the VENDOR made a mistake, that does not give the purchaser a right to "HACK" the software so he can play it. The rules still stands that the game has *NOT* been officially released, and therefore should not be played. Think of it like buying software over the internet.. say Windows.. You purchased a legit copy, and its 'in the mail'.. so instead of waiting 2 days, you just go ahead and download a copy of bittorrent and use a stolen CD key and your up and running.. you DID pay for the software right? -WRONG. That's unethical and against the user agreement of the software (in most cases).. (You probably have never read one, which goes to show why you responded the way you did.) You are licensed to use the software you purchased, with the KEY you purchased.. Not any version of the software with any key you can find. And FYI - Bypassing ANY copy protection is unethical unless you have been given permission by those that have put the copy protection on the system. It doesn't matter how you THINK it should be, it's still unethical.
Its Deluxe, son. Deluxe!
The mystery!
There is a lot of talk about why their marketing is so brilliant, but I think we are missing the real clincher by a long shot.
What is getting so many people talking and frustrated is they know they have the damned game loaded on their machine, yet the can't play it. How often have geeks had to change settings, updated drivers, tweaked this or that on their machine to get the newest game to work?
It's so counter-intuitive for gamers to patiently wait for anything. THAT is why it is brilliant marketing. The game is so close, yet so far away.
Kudos to Valve for figuring this out. It is now fair for everyone. Those that follow the rules, and those that break the rules, no matter you get the game at the same time.
Of course the gamers will thank the developers with their hard-earned money. I dont believe pirating has ever signficiantly hurt the gaming industry. I believe those who pirate generally can't afford the software anyway and those who priate AND could afford the software, is a very small percentage. No that is not truely what the lawful gamers appreciate, they don't really care if someone gets a free ride.
What we appreciate is for once our money and our patience and following the rules buys the same access as the thieves get. For once, following the rules pays off big. For once, I don't have to hear about some spoiled coddled 16 year old kid that spent $1800 on eBay for an early copy when $0 of his money went to those who deserve the credit for writing the game.
I still think the most brilliant part is having it so close yet... so far. It is loaded but it isin't working! Our normal instinct is to go to the forums and find the answer. What switch do you throw? What config file do we edit? Well there is no answer, but as time honored tradition dictates, we talk and talk and talk until one is found. In this case, I doubt there will be one until the 16th.