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Half Life 2 Available, Delays Not Valve's Fault
Evil Avatar has the word that even Best Buy is selling Half-Life 2 boxes at this point. If you're planning on picking this one up it should be available pretty much anywhere. Voodoo Extreme has news from Steam that in no uncertain terms are the delays in opening the game to customers their fault. From the article: "This is not Valve's choice. Vivendi is insisting that the game has not yet been released, and has threatened that Valve would be in violation of its contract if we activate the Half-Life 2 Steam authentication servers at this time."
Sadly, though I know intellectually that your post is completely facetious, there is a little voice in the back of my head that whispers to me "You know people who are dumb enough to believe this..." and then begins listing the names.
This is not a sig.
Was there a reason that Valve kept Vivendi in the loop? They have steam. They can distribute online via that. Is there such a thing as an in-house boxed release for retail outlets?
/-McK
More interesting is what happens in a few years when you dust off the HL2 box to play it again and find that the activation system is no longer online. What then?
I've never quite understood exactly why a distributer is necessary. Well... I get it, but I actually think that they cause enough harm and problems that it offsets any reason for using one. But it seems to be standard practice. Really, making your money selling something someone else worked to produce... and making more money that that person or entity is just unethical. I think we need a new distribution system... one that operates the same way perhaps that open source does. One that provides clear legal protection for property rights and profit margins while cutting out all the fat-catting and middleman bloat of the current system. Imagine it... a world without the RIAA...
Personally, I think that activation via Steam is a good idea. Look at the alternatives:
* You have an always-connected server that you have to use to play. Granted, this is the hardest form of copy protection to crack (because the server always knows when you're playing and can kick you off).
* There is a CD-copy protection scheme, like SafeDisc or SecuROM. I think this is the worst thing, considering that I have had legally purchased games not work (Superpower 2 was a waste of money for me), and that you have to have the CD in the drive to play. Since I have a laptop with a great graphics chip, and this is my only computer right now, I use it for games. It's a burden for me to drag around the CD for every game I want to play, as I do full game installs (sure, it takes up HD space, but it drastically improves performance).
With Steam activation, it gets a handle on those who have paid for it and shuts out casual warez (like sneaker-net warez), but it doesn't really affect the dedicated crackers. If the Source engine was leaked, I doubt crackers would have doubts editing that and using it for a crack. And if the engine was changed significantly to prevent that, then the crackers got a head-start with the CS:S engine, which most likely uses the same copy-protection. CS:S gave crackers a headstart (I write this as I converse with a self-proclaimed "cracker of HL2" who says that he did it and has already played the game (I will seriously injure him if he tries to give me any spoilers, because I want my view of the game to be unbiased).
All in all, I think it's the best and least-intrusive method we've seen in a long while, and I hope it works well.
Andrew Scagnelli
"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine."
Valve is the one who decided to make it so that the game has to be unlocked before it can be played. Vivendi are being jerks, but it is Valve's own fault for making a pathetic attempt to stop piracy when Microsoft has already proved that method does not work, and is annoying for the user.
It also makes it impossible to play the game on any PC not connected to the net. Even Microsoft allowed phone registrations. Valve does not.
When you buy a new Nissan and you crash it in 30 years time, is Nissan still going to be making the same original parts for your car? What if you can't find any originals? WHAT THEN! HUH???
Hmmm. You're talking about trying to use a destroyed item. He was discussing how to use a fully factory original condition item. The difference is important.
I fully expect a properly stored vehicle would work just fine in 30 years. I would be extremely pissed off if Nissan managed to stop all cars 30 years old from starting, whether properly stored or not.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
The "release date" issue is strictly between the retailer and the manufacturer, who have a contractual relationship. The end user isn't a party to any "release date" restrictions and isn't bound by them.
Live by the EULA, die by the EULA.
the only question remains whether anyone gives a rats ass anymore...
Gekido's Lair
HL2 boxes unplayable
segregrated World of Warcraft servers because they cannot handle a world release. Importing is being made impossible so that English speakers in the EU will have to wait for the French/German translation to be ready... Unless they go and play EQ2 of course...
I sincerely hope that Vivendi goes under in the near future.
Vivendi is insisting that the game has not yet been released, and has threatened that Valve would be in violation of its contract if we activate the Half-Life 2 Steam authentication servers at this time.
If the contract only requires that the game be released, all they need to do is take a digital camera to Best Buy for proof that it has.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Yeah, it's all good and voluntary until the servers get hacked...
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Heh, maybe we should get the warez people to start making Open Source cracks!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Is the Half Life brand name so unknown they should be forced to deal with a publisher to make sales?
With a brand name as popular as this, I am sure Valve was in a position to tell Vivendi "jump" if Vivendi said no to a copy protection free game.
Of course, now, they've signed a contract and, worse yet, the game is on the shelves. The damage is done. And another set of consumers are casualties of this odd war against them.
Apparently, you're not aware of all the litigation between Valve and Vivendi at this point. I wouldn't put it past Vivendi to postpone the release, just to screw Valve (Apparently, they've already threatened to push the release back until next year).
Putting aside the CD key problem for a moment, this seriously begs the question,
`Why shouldn't we, as consumers, pirate the games and send money orders of the retail purchase price directly to the game creators?'
Seriously, does anyone know how much money Vivendi Universal get per unit as the of HL2 publishers (in percentages)?
I would really like to play HL2. I've been waiting very patiently for it since seeing some demonstration movies, and now it's available, I'd like to purchase it, but I have a real problem with Vivendi Universal.
I wonder what the response (official and unofficial) from Valve would be if I emailed them and asked,
`Would you mind if I downloaded illegal copies of your games and sent you guys money orders for the retail purchase price?'
VU? FU!
His name is Robert Paulsen...
You are right, this is a major issue.
I bought a phone sync kit for my T720 a while ago and it came with software that could synch with the palm desktop. The catch? The client for the palm desktop was installed from a update from the web (like windows update, except without the catalog).
Since then the company has morphed into something else and the update servers have been taken down. They also do not offer a product that syncs with the palm desktop.
That is a problem, and activation makes things even worse.
I will be buying half life 2 (assuming the reviews are good). But I can assure you that I will search for a crack so that I can play without needing to authenticate on the web, at least for single player. Indeed I will keep a copy of the crack on my file server so that in 10 years time if I want to play half life 2, I can.
meh
Soon enough my child, soon enough....
Ads Back Schwarzenegger for President
*shudder*
Yeah, but what person with a real job and family can actually play games on weekdays?! Gimme a break....
That would be me. Of course, I live in a European country where we the people have decided to put in safeguards to stop capital owners, whom we will gladly work with, from working us to the bone. In practical terms, that means 36.25 hours per week.
When i went in to work thursday, BB had sent a note out to employees telling them not to sell HL2. Some stores had started selling it early apparently. If a competitor had a receipt showing they bought it from us early, they could start selling it without fear of losing allocated shipments of the game, or not being able to receive future VU games before their street dates. The retailer on the receipt would face those issues.
So, it looks like BB managed to get a receipt from another retailer selling early. Wouldn't surprise me to see the game for sale nationwide by the end of the day. I doubt Valve will start activating copies early, however.
Lol, thats why Vivendi is pissed. So you can buy the game through Steam, yes that would upset Vivendi.
But the coup de grace, That all customers will be immediately acquainted with Steam since you MUST authenticate the game with steam. Everyone with the game will then know that they could save their next trip to the store.
Does anyone see Steam as a potential distribution channel for NON-Valve games?
Of course I always prefer having a burned CD. But games like Eve-online are breaking me of that.
Vivendi and the shops would lose a fortune.
You rip the box, and return it. The store eats the cost.
However, that doesn't happen, as Vivendi has to take the returned merchandise back, so aside from the loss of manpower Vivendi eats the costs.
However, that doesn't happen, as Valve has some of their percentage (after Vivendi recoups) held for covering returns. Valve will therefore eat somewhere between 25 and 100% of the cost of returns, usually towards the 100% side.
If you really want to punish Vivendi, buy the game over Steam and cut into the cardboard-box retail model that has never served gaming very well anyway.
The ______ Agenda
I'm not sure who's fault it is, but here's a couple of ideas:
1. Vivendi doesn't like Steam, because it cuts them out of the profits of each Steam sale.
2. In this broadband world, many end-users will like Steam since they can download the game in advance and (presumably) activate it at midnight on the 16th, instead of waiting till the stores open. If you're hardcore, Steam is more convenient.
3. Breaking the release "sale" date on Half-Life 2 by moving it to the weekend before the actual release helps Vivendi. Many many people will buy copies of the game from the store shelves because it's "available early." Some people will cancel Steam orders if they think that they can play it sooner from retail.
4. When word finally gets out in wide circulation that you still can't play the copies from the stores till the 16th, a couple hundred thousand boxed copies will probably have been sold already. Since Valve ostensibly controls the Steam servers, the anger is directed at them and not Vivendi. People get pissed at Valve and Steam. Hmmm...
Apparently there were memos to Best Buy stores that the previous street date (the 16th) was no longer valid and to release immediately. Since Best Buy deals with Vivendi, not directly with Valve, where do you think that directive came from? I'm guessing Vivendi or their representatives. Maybe someone can find out.
At any rate, I usually buy games retail (from Best Buy no less). I think that this time I'm probably going to purcahse over Steam. With the exception of activation, it seems that you get more for the same (or lower) price with Steam, and I know that all of the money will go to Valve. If you read the EA whitepaper from yesterday (on Slashdot), they indicated that a common split of profits from a $49 retail sale is something like this:
Retailer $17
Console manufacturer $8
Marketing and Distrubution $4
Publisher/Studio split $20
I imagine that on the PC platform that $8 for the console people probably is also split between the pubs and studio. At any rate, if you're buying over Steam, $45 of this equation goes to Valve and $4 to marketing and distribution. Even with the added cost of maintaining Steam, the design studio still comes out making several times what they would have from a boxed store sale. And IMHO, it's far more important to support and reward the design studios for making a great product than to support Best Buy or Vivendi (who I am generally indifferent to).
We've said it many times before, the Internet and widespread availability of broadband is giving birth to a paradigm shift where content consumers are able to directly reward content producers instead of lining the pockets of content distributors. It's a beautiful thing.
Anyways, that's my two cents.
I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO authenticate for single player. Putting the CD in the drive is one thing, but having to have an internet connection is another. Doesn't matter if it only needs to connect once. That is bullshit.
And the shifty bastards in their marketing department make it so you have to sign up and create an account before you can do that.
I suggest people put their money where their mouth is and don't buy HL2.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Some people have more capacity than you may, and they may not currently have a desire for recreation, or may consider what they do to be "fun". Don't put them down. Don't be like the French, where you can be arrested for working more than 35 hours per week.