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HL2 Episode 2 Not Until Spring 2007
eToyChest has an article up entitled Half-Life 2 Bite-Sized Contempt. The author registers his dissatisfaction with the state of episodic content so far on Steam. While he liked Episode One, the projected released date early next year makes it hard to be excited. From the article: "Episodic content could really take off if done correctly, something which so far hasn't been the case. Episodes need to be of decent quality, arrive in a timely manner, and be made available for an attractive price. Then you will create a slam-dunk impulse-buy environment that solidifies the marketplace as a viable one — think iTunes Music Store for games."
Of course no one contacted Valve about this as they said today that the game is still on track for a Holiday 2006 released according to 1up.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3151546
Who the HELL wrote this story?
If you're in the US, Circuit City has it on sale this week for 8$, or grab their flyer and take it to most anyone else that price matches.
20$ was too much to ask for, but 8$ was just about right.
Maybe for Valve, but Valve is trying to change what happens with the INDUSTRY here, not just with their games. You have a few iDs and Valves out there for whom this is true, but you have a thousand times more Rituals for whom it's not so true. I won't be buying Sin Episode 2 if it's not delivered in a timely manner. Remember: video games are a $7 BILLION industry [PDF Alert!]. Valve has multi-million dollar games[1], but they're just a big fish in an enormous pond.
[1] I'm having trouble finding numbers for this, since Valve isn't publically traded, but I did find confirmation of 1.7 million units sold in late 2005. That's well over $30 million even at half the retail price on average, but well shy of the $7 billion mark.