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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."
Everquest 2... check
Doom3... check
Half-life 2... check
Duke Nukem Forever... hmmm
(and Shacknews)
Hey Vivendi...seriously, fuck you.
Wow, that blows my mind that a company could be in such a state of denial. How does a situation like this happen? I could see some corporate mixup causing the game to be released early, but to then insist that it wasn't released is pure lunacy...
The game has to be activated via STEAM before you can play it. Even for single player.
ACtivation does not start until Tues. Nov 16th.
But you can drool over the box and wear your T-shirt until then!!
No unauthorized use. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
This will either result in:
- People downloading a crack
- People returning the game
- People deciding not to play the copy protection game
All three look good to me, and should hopefully promote a more copy-protection free future. As far as blaming Vivendi... Did Vivendi put the authentication in there? No?! Hmmm...
Whose fault is this really, then?
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
I want to play as much as anyone, but we've all known for some time that the release date is the 16th. They aren't doing anything wrong.
I really will laugh when someone cracks the authenticaion for single player play and releases the iso + crack before people who actually *bought* the game can play.
Valve really needs to find an alternative to Vivendi.
It does seem rather unfair that even the single-player portion of the game needs to touch the Steam authentication servers in order to become active; there appears to be no concession made to those who have no Internet connection (or are unwilling to allow the program to touch the public network).
Even Microsoft, with WinXP's activation, has a do-it-yourself option via telephone.
It's disappointing that a content *delivery* system like Steam is instead being used as a content *regulation* and *denial* system.
Here's the news link direct from valve:
& id =344
http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news
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.
You forgot the fourth option.
They wait two days and then activate the game and enjoy playing it. What's the big deal honestly?
I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class. Especially since I rule. -Randal, Clerks
Eh, the crack will be out faster than you can say 'Vivendi take the wang'. I wouldn't worry.
My first reaction was "wow, what a bunch of jerks Vivendi U are for keeping this game out of play any longer. I said to myself: 'I'll never spend any money on them (after HL2, of course) again.' But if I were in their shoes, i might feel differently.
What I mean is, if I had a deal with Valve that I would produce and distribute hard copies of HL2, then i would not want to be shafted at the last minute. Vivendi invested a lot of money in the raw materials to produce the copies of HL2 that are being sold. I'm sure it was a shock to them (it was to me, but i hated it for other reasons, i'm sure) when Valve came out with steam and started offering their product in a mode that totally bypassed Vivendi. While it is not illegal, it is certainly a dirtbag thing to do. If that was going to be the deal, Valve should have said so up front. perhaps old habits die hard for ex-MS employees.
In any case, VU would have probably been glad to stop all the legal nonsense and allow Valve to unlock much earlier if they had agreed to share a fair portion from steam purchases (since they're not discounted, apparently) with VU. of course that won't happen. in this case, VU would be shooting themselves in the foot to let any more early releases occur, because what gets sold early is going to be their main profit before the massive remainder of hard copies go to the bargin bin.
i'm just as disappointed as the next guy that I can't play until monday, and that i still have to use steam, for that matter (although that's improved a lot), but VU is just looking out for their best interests and that of their employees.
i'll start feeling warm and fuzzy w/ valve again whenever they hire icculus-the-person to do a port. :)
due to the contract from HL1 it made it so they had to use VU for HL2
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...
Audio of someone calling Gabe from valve: http://www.users.qwest.net/~amerrill/nirv-gabe_new ell.wav
This is amazing.
Valve built some kind of retarded copy-protection scheme into Half-Life 2. Now people who have bought the game cannot play it. They are blaming this on Vivendi.
Amazing. Just amazing.
(Please browse at -1 to read this comment.)
Eh? That makes my brain hurt. What did they say "in no uncertain terms?"
The image of them standing around and yelling "are the delays in opening the game to the customers their fault" is funny, though.
I'm guessing this meant to say "Voodoo Extreme has news from Steam that says, in no uncertain terms, that the delays are not Steam's fault."
Note: my comment has no useful content. I'm just tired and cranky.
If you're angry that VU is being a pain in the ass about this, the best thing you can do is cut them out of the profit stream by buying the game online as opposed to the boxed copy.
John Carmack no longer "simply sits around coding violent computer games." Nor does he need to work for NASA. He has his own spaceship company!
http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/
Now, instead of teaching kids to blow up people one at a time, he's trying to blow up Texas all by himself.
. png
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.
I don't know if everyone see's the same advertisement as I do... but the one to the right of the story says Half Life 2 "In stores 11.16.04" :)
I found it kind of ironic hehe
Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
Whether you download it off the net or BUY THE BOXED VERSION, it will NOT RUN without "internet authentication".
How do I put it nicely.. YOu're fucked either way.
This is clearly just a scheme by Valve to further hurt its relationship with Vivendi. It's obvious that they want to end it, and this is the sort of publicity that they're getting before hand so that when they go to court, they can go point to this and say "Oh look! They won't even let the people who paid for the game play it! They're EVIL!". No. The 'evil' ones are the stores that actually sold the game. The official release date is the 16th of November, and the stores are bound by contract to only start selling the game on that day. If they do allow Valve to enable the game, then this validates this process, and gives the retailers free reign to sell any game as soon as they get it in stock, regardless of release date. This hurts other retailers, and utterly destroys the concept of being able to meet demand. Granted, Valve's Steam gave Vivendi the advantage here, unlike Halo 2, where those who bought it early could still play it. And don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of Vivendi myself, but the way this release has been handled put a damper on the excitement. This petty whining is almost ruining the game. Half-Life 2 is supposed to be the king of everything; after this I don't see it surpassing, or even coming close to, what Halo 2 achieved.
Hey - Vivendi!
I was going to buy the hard copy of Half Life 2 - however I just fired up steam. I don't care if it takes longer (which it probably won't) to get to play it. I am not giving you my money.
Especially after reading This article about Valve and Half Life 2. I now sympathize with Gabe and the delays the game had. I don't really fault him - people make mistakes.
Granted I understand Vivendi's side - but if a publisher only gets $7.00 from a retail game, you start to remind me of the RIAA Vivendi... Download here I come.
To quote George Broussard:
Fuck you.
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
This is nothing but the Alpha leak that was out earlier. Check the release dates on the torrents.
Will DNF come out when GWB is still president, or will it be Hillary or Arnold by then?
So who exactly decided to force people to activate it over the Steam network anyways? Vivendi sounds like a pretty bad guy, but really, come on now--we flipped out when TurboTax, Adobe, and MS all started activation, but what? Now it's just an accepted part of using software to the point where Valve takes no blame even though they made the decision to exert total control over even the single player HL2 installations?
I didn't know that HL2 would REFUSE to be run until the 16th no matter what. So, like a good little lemming, I went and bought a copy today when I was at Best Buy. For $80, I thought "what the hell, the higher price will be worth it because I can play it tonight and not have to wait until the 19th to play it".
"The 19th???" you say? "But the game comes out on the 16th, right?" Yeah, but what person with a real job and family can actually play games on weekdays?! Gimme a break....
So, in a way, it IS a big deal. Granted, no one is going to die over this, but it is enough to piss me off to the point where I am considering making a complaint to Best Buy about selling the game before I can even play it. THAT is just not cool...
I already had the HL2 preload. Someone could have saved me around $30 or so by telling me that no matter what I did I wasn't going to get to play the game early.
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
WTG with knowing all the facts. VU and Valve are involved in lawsuits with each other. VU doesn't want Valve games distributed over Steam because they wouldn't get any money as publisher. Valve counter-sued and now they're basically hating each other.
It's not denial. It's a legal tactic.
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'.
Too bad HL was funded almost entirely by Gabe Newell, and HL2 was funded IIRC entirely on HL(as well as CS) profits.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
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.
...I found out earlier today (saturday evening) that if you happen to mention to a best buy employee that the game in your hand isnt supposed to be out for another 3 days, they happen to flip the fuck out....
"Good night, good work, sleep well, I'll most likely kill you in the morning." - Dread Pirate Roberts
I'm copying this directly from an above comment, but it is important.
The retail version of Half Life 2 is effectively a copy of the Steam cache of HL2 on discs. In order to play the game, you have to log in to the Steam authentication servers and activate it. This is being forced, as the game did not ship with the module containing the actual executable code(likely dubbed "half-life 2 client.gcf"), so the Steam authentication will allow buyers to acquire the last piece they need to play the game. Since the game didn't ship with this code however, no one can possibly crack the game ahead of time - the best they can do is work around the auth module and wait until the executable is released on November 16th.
The first people to play the game will be those who buy it, people waiting on the "free" version will likely be waiting at least a day for it to be cracked.
I have an expectation that I be able to use it then. I do not go buy a hamburger and then wait for permission from Wendy's to be able to eat it, I can devour it while driving away if I like.
If Vivendi doesn't want the game on the market, they need to take the appropriate steps to prevent it from going there. This crap of selling it but not letting you use it till later is just that: crap.
Why is it that people seem to think that creators of digital content should have some kind of unlimited rights to their works. If anything the constution allows a more limited set of rights than on physical property. There has been a long standing concept of Doctrine of First Sale. That means once you sell some IP, be it a book, CD, whatever, you lose control over the copy. Peopel can destrouy it, resell it, whatever, they just can't copy or derive works from the content.
Sorry but Vivendi is just wrong here. If they want to cut the games lose to retailers and allow sales, the damn game better work. Had I bought a copy, I'd be filing a lawsuit on Monday in small claims court (since software companies tell retailers not to take returns on opened merchandise).
your peenar, seenyor, she is so teeny.
Put that away before you embarass yourself with it, son.
1) Producing and shipping lots of CDs and boxes, while not all that expensive, isn't something you can just run out and do. Takes lots of machinery and setup. It isn't really cost effective for a game developer to get all that, a much better idea to outsource it to a publisher. They go and handle all the physical end of it, since they are good at it.
2) The distribution bussiness, like most things, it's all above board. You'll find if you are a nobody in the bussiness you just can't get big chains to sell your shit. It's probably illegal, but nothing that can be proven in court. Either way, it's not just something you can break in to.
Now also many developers lack the requisite funds to develop their games and the publishers put those up (in exchange for a cut of the sales). That's not the case with HL2, but another reason why someone might use one.
However for big names like Valve, Epic and iD it's just that it's not really feasable to distribute it themselves. They jsut write the games, leave it to someone else to handle getting it in stores. It's not only easier but actually cheaper for them.
It's going to be fascinating to see if and how long it takes the folks who must be lined up right now to crack it when they can see the traffic to the auth servers.
Regardless of that, the question about what happens if Valve go tits-up is a very good one and actually should apply to any vendor selling protected software. The fact it's $40 instead of $400,000 is irrelevant - there are 400,000 customers potentially losing what they've bought. Unless, that is, the EULA says different.... Has anyone out there with a box actually ready the EULA?
When I worked for a vendor (UK based), we always had to lodge the source code with the NCC (kind of governmental computing standards org) who held it in case we went TU. If we did, the authenticated purchasers had access to the code. Pretty fair solution all round.
Seems like this is something consumer groups and EFF could pick up.
Mike Bakke (not anon but too lazy to reg)
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
The first people to play the game will be those who buy it, people waiting on the "free" version will likely be waiting at least a day for it to be cracked.
Which, for valve, will be a victory. First time in a few major game releases will the paying owners get to play before the people with leaks.
Also, for the CD's AND for those who will buy HL2 with STEAM this is true (HL2 still says 60% preloaded), despite the fact that those gcf files are encrypted valve would really like to pull a clean release off, then break apart from from VU and such with there homebuild distro system.
I may have anticipated this game a while ago, but all reason for me to spend my money on it has left. As far as multiplayer goes, I just can't justify paying money for a rehashes of old games that were once free additions to a game that already had a fun multiplayer. The single player might be it's saving grace, but that's not enough for me to spend $50-$80 on. Perhaps when some entertaining mods are made I'll grab it from the bargian bin :)
He has his own spaceship company!
Yeah, too bad all they've managed to do is crash a rocket. Who here wishes Carmack would stop trying to bloody build rockets and code some more violent games?
*raises hand*
Don't you hate meta-sigs?
Does anyone know when exactly they will allow you to unlock the game?
I know it's supposed to happen on the 16th, and I assume midnight, but is that EST or perhaps GMT?
Or if they go strictly by the international dateline, then in the U.S. we really only have to wait until roughly midday on Monday to play.
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...
Question. What about people who purchase Half-Life 2 retail, but simply do not have access to an Internet connection? (IE, they can't authenticate via Steam.)
When do they get to play HL2? CAN they at all?
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.
If Valve unlocked it, people would flock to buy it on Steam, or at least I suspect that is VU's thinking. Only BB are selling it early, and VU want to make as much money as they can, and we know from the litigation that they're not happy with Steam in the first place.
Maybe if every retailer was selling it early, they'd let Valve unlock it, but at the moment with only one retailer pulling in money for VU, it just doesn't appeal.
Ok so to start of I've pre-ordered my copy of HL2 from amazon. Hopefully I'll get it on Tues 16th, possibly the 17th. I have nightmares about going to authenticate with Steam and it's be so overloaded I'll have to wait even longer, but seriously take these points into account:
- HL2 is easily the biggest release this year. Here we are 2 days before the release date, and there is no leak. As of yet no cracked versions floating around on suprnova, even though you can pre-load it & the SDK is out. That is unheard of! What was the last game to come out that didn't leak onto torrent sites way before the official release date? Far Cry? nope. Doom 3? nope. Total War? nope. You can even go get a legit copy from shops (in the US I read anyway) and you STILL cannot play before the release date that has been set. That is a success on all fronts. The fact that you've been allowed to purcahse a copy is purely the fault of the shop - the date is the 16th and has been for a while now.
- You don't have to constantly authenticate with steam to play. Once per install is whats needed. Obviously if you don't have a net connection that sucks, or if you're stuck behind a firewall or NAT'ed somehow so steam won't work. Sorry but that's just the way it is. What about people with old machines? They can't play. What about people with very old gFX cards? They can't play. What about linux users? They currently can't play. Non-net users aren't the only ones unable to enjoy it, but the majority of people will be okay. And about the installing in 20 years time question - yeah that may be an issue, but really how many games do you play from 20 years ago?
I don't care about the content distribution aspect of steam. I'd even opt for it, because the money would go straight in the maker's pocket, and not in the shop/distributor/publisher/whatever.
What gets me fired up however is the ridiculous restrictions they have on STEAM. Want to give your old half-life version to a friend or your little brother? No can do, only option is give your account and password to them (at which point, you might not be able to play your new game at the same time, if they're on the same account)
Want to play your half-life 2 in 10 years, to reminisce or whatever? Good luck.
What I don't like about this scheme is that the consumer gets zero protection for their purchase.
If they fix these issues, like NOW, and not "maybe at a later date". I'd be ok with it. (transfering/detaching CDkey from an account, sunset clause in license about games being unlocked in 5-10 years etc)
You are fine to install steam on multiple PCs and login using the same details. So long as you dont attempt two concurrent online gaming sessions, it should work fine.
Personally, I think it's garbage too, but that doesn't mean I'm going to try to make a statement by not buying it.
As if Vivendi/Valve would listen to one non-customer's complaint and not millions of people who actually purchased the game. That attitude, dude, is also garbage.