Orange Box In Stores Wednesday

Ars Technica is reporting on an announcement from Valve: the Orange Box will be in stores on Wednesday. For those folks who purchased the pack through Steam, all five games will be 'unlocked' just after midnight that day. If you're like me and already owned HL2 and HL2:Episode One, the 'giveaway keys' should be available at that time as well. "In our last bit of Orange Box news, Valve has been running a television commercial for the Orange Box. It had to have been hard to make all those different games look like one cohesive package, but the company did a great job. The Orange Box can't come soon enough."

Comments

WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

> The official Orange Box Gifts FAQ also says that purchasers of the Orange Box via physical means will also be able to give away their licenses individually.

Once upon a time, when I bought a box full of games and had a duplicate, I just gave the CD, and the CD-key printed on the label, to my friend.

No vendor needed to know my email address, and they sure as fuck didn't need to know my friend's email address.

In fact, neither of us needed an internet connection and a subscription-based DRM system either.

Get with the times.

[gumpish]

In fact, neither of us needed an internet connection and a subscription-based DRM system either.

I have to wonder if there's any intersection between the people who complain about digital distribution of software (a la Steam) and people who shriek and throw feces at the entertainment industry for not changing their business model to center around digital distribution.

Re:Get with the times.

[Chris Burke]

Well he is talking about walking to the store and buying a physical copy, so I think it's a valid complaint. If the music industry's digital enlightenment involved them tying their online distribution to physical CDs so even though you bought a CD you still had to register online to actually use it, I think anyone who asked the music industry to change distribution models would be correct to say "That's not what we meant".

Online distribution is supposed to make getting media without purchasing a physical object easier. It's not supposed to make buying a physical object should you choose more of a chore. :P

Team Fortress 2 FTW!

[AdamTrace]

I pre-ordered the Orange Box just to get early access to Team Fortress 2, and so far I'm loving it.

It's very Counterstrike'ish, but with classes. What's cool, and surprisingly refreshing, is that the classes are actually VERY different, and lead to very different gameplay. The Spy is very sneaky, the Engineer is kind of a "pet" class where you spend most of your time fixing machines rather than in direct combat, the Healer is fun support, etc.

Good times.

not really outraged..?

[tehwebguy]

I have to say, I really think this is pretty cool.

Steam is the best gaming platform ever. It is truly awesome. It lets me lose my CDs as long as I have my password. It lets me fix the game files if something happens to them. It lets me keep track of my friends and play with them instantly.

I know DRM is inherently bad, I know. But it's almost like Valve took all those promises that the MAFIAA made (such as, "DRM will give us new our customers new ways of enjoying our products"), and making them real.

Re:not really outraged..?

[rhennigan]

I am in total agreement. Initially I hated the idea of Steam and wouldn't touch it for some time, but I eventually caved because I wanted to play HL2. Since then I order my games on Steam if they are available because I'm one of those people that always loses CDs and CD keys. The ability to keep track of your friends in game is quite a nice feature. One click lets you jump into their game, on their server. Other games, you would have to contact them via other means, and communicate an ip address, etc. Sure, it's DRM, but it works for us too, very much unlike the music industry.