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Half-Life 2 Orange/Black Delayed to End of 2007
Wowzer writes "EA and Valve today announced the product configurations of Half-Life 2's The Black Box and The Orange Box, while at the same time confirming another worldwide release date delay from summer 2007 to winter 2007. If you thought the delay was the only bad news, then artwork fans haven't seen the ugly new boxart yet."
Who cares about the box art when you can buy it through Steam. :-P
Y
Who needs a box anyway, most of us are buying this through Steam.
Oh, wait, this is Slashdot. Steam is evil. Sorry, forgot about that..
*drools about Portal*
What's wrong with the box artwork? It's just as creative as the cover of The Beatles' 'White Album'.
I, for one, am absolutely SHOCKED at this news.
As I have mentioned before, packaging a product with TF2 is like throwing it into a black hole from which no release date can escape. Yes, the current TF2 is totally different from the old TF2, but it still carries the same curse. For all I know, TF2 is completely done and ready to ship, and Ep2 or Portal are holding up the works. That is irrelevant. That just means that TF2 has infected the other products with the curse, in much the same way a rat will infect another creature with the plague.
I wouldn't put any money on this thing getting released in Winter '07 either.
In other news, why include two different links to the same exact article in the write-up?
To my knowledge, the 360 and PS3 won't have access to Steam and so you'll have to buy the Orange Box separately.
On a tangental note, it might be a good idea for Valve to develop console friendly versions of their platform since both consoles support hard drives and launching applications from these hard drives. Plus, it'd open them up to a whole new revenue stream with considerably more money attached. If I could use my current Steam ID on my PS3 to download PS3 friendly games (like the Orange Box), I'd definitely do it.
I could be 100% wrong but could this decision be (at least in part) that EA and Valve are waiting for the userbase of the XBox 360 and PS3 to hit a point where it would be worthwile?
...
An article I saw on google news earlier today was titled EA: Microsoft, Sony, We Have a Problem argued that EA's bottom line was being hurt mainly because they banked on massive success for the PS3 and XBox 360; it is debateable as to whether this is true or not. My thought is that if you were anticipating releasing a game to a combined console userbase of 20-25 Million users worldwide, or 10+ million users in North America the latest forcasts in sales of the PS3 and XBox 360 would likely mean that you'd want to delay your game by 3-6 months.
Just a thought though
Steam + dial-up Internet + download doesn't work all that well. Steam + dial-up Internet + physical copy does work.
Who dey?
3D Realms breathes a sigh of relief on behalf of their Duke Nukem Forever.
I remember when Gabe stated that HL2 would be coming out, right around the time the ATI deal was going on. I went out and bought a shiny new 9800 Pro, only to find out a few weeks later that HL2 was delayed a year. I wasn't too bitter, as my new card made a bunch of new games play quite nicely, and it lasted for quite awhile.
I do find that Valve's release estimates have been pretty consistently horrible. New game companies often make mistakes when estimating release dates. Valve's been around for awhile, though, so you'd think they'd be doing better. Personally I think it's a result of trying to release on multiple platforms and bundle lots of components into one package.
I'm not sure episodic content is really episodic if there's over a year delay between releases. It's starting to feel more like an expansion pack or something.
EA has complained about the entire generation from the PSP onward. They're shoving love all over Nintendo and complaining about Sony and Microsoft. I wouldn't have a problem with this except for the fact that 90% of their problems on the new consoles are their own. They complained the PSP was too difficult to develop for, which is proven by showstopping bugs on Madden 06, NCAA Football 2007, and insanely long loading times in other games like Sims 2. Does the PSP have a problem with the UMD? Yes. Is EA's problem justified? No. Rockstar had no problems adapting their games to the PSP with very short loading times by streaming the media, which is exactly what we saw Bethesda doing for Oblivion on PS3, so the fact that a big box developer like EA can't program worth a damn is not entirely Sony's fault.
Personally, I've stopped buying EA games. I'll buy Spore, but that's it. Until they start developing quality code, I'm not listening to a word they say.
Valve's been pulling this stunt for a long time but atleast they bring out their product eventually (or they shelve it for keeps) as opposed to Duke Nuke Forever.
If this is how episodic gaming is supposed to work this sucks. To me episodic gaming means a somewhat stable stream of content. Instead we have content, delay delay, content, delay ,delay.
So, who will be out first? Duke Nukem Forever, or Team Fortress 2?
The HL2 game was cool, until Steam got in the way and killed the game in the middle (unrecoverable). IMHO the Steam engine is a huge impediment to the game -- I will never buy another game running on the Steam engine. (Good graphics if you can run the dang thing.) Tech support was awful (just re-install -- yeah like I want to spend another 3 hours doing that!)
I cry when I look at the state of PC gaming. Gone are the days when the "art" of creating a game and the passion developing it trumped timelines and budgets...
That said, is there another reason we are seeing this delay? Specifically on the PC side... Direct X 10 is here, and as i've read Episode 2 will use it... perhaps they are waiting for a few million gamers to swap over to Vista in order to enjoy the better eye candy... Just a thought.
No words of wisedom here.
I did the same with my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder card (didn't have the HL2 freebie). When the game finally came out a year later, the game was still smooth. :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Would Sony approve it? Would Microsoft approve it? Console makers want to approve every title that goes on their platforms. For example, instead of submitting a proposal for a title to be added to Steam, Microsoft wants publishers to submit a separate proposal directly to Microsoft for each 50 MB episode that goes onto Xbox Live Arcade.
I'm waiting for Half Life 2 Yellow, with free miniature stuffed pikachu
Speed of Light = 299 792 458 metres / second
Speed of Sound = 340.29 metres / second
Speed of Valve = 1-2 games / decade
I might actually buy Vista in order to play Ep2, if it requires Dx10, or looks significantly better on it.
However, I hope Valve realizes what they're doing here. This isn't like Halo 2 for the PC, where everyone who cares that deeply about it has already played the Xbox version, and they're already working on a new moneymaker (Halo 3). Most gamers aren't fanatic enough to buy Vista for that one game. I don't know about Valve's financial situation, but if Ep2 requires Dx10, it's possible Ep3 will never come out...
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
It certainly is eye-catching, you must admit. And seeing as most games out there have some sort of copycat-hero on each box, posing proudly whilst attacking some demon/alien hybrid beast: you'll have this certain boxart sticking out like a sore thumb: which I think is an advantage.
No seriously - why support steam?
... 9+ months maybe even 12 - it was full RRP of 59.99 for Silver long long long after the game was out- ridiculous.
I've now purchased 3 things through steam, HL2, HL2 Ep1 and Sin episodes.
For each one of these I've purchased the game was cheaper by 10->40% in some stores in under 2 months.
No I'm not exaggerating, any gaming forum, the game is still darn hot and people are posting "hey guys, sin ep1 is at best buy for 9.99 on special" etc
So it's HALF what I paid for the digitally distributed version?
Seriously they need to get their pricing model fixed
Oh and HL2 - the price drop on Steam took