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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."
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...
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
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).