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Half-Life 2 goes Gold?


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I thought they took that site down and just put it back up?

 

I'm tinking TF2 will be freeware or $20 for anyone with HL2 and Steam. It might have sold for $50 a few years ago, today the field is just too packed with alternatives. As an add-on to sell more copies of HL2 though it would be sweet as honey wine.

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Originally posted by kfredericks@Jul 30 2004, 02:55 PM

Yeah, I was just kidding. I don't understand how this developer, could be regarded as such gods, yet something as simple as updating or taking down a web site that is 5 years old, can't be accomplished.

that is not the developers responsibility, its their publisher's PR department who manages that stuff.

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that is not the developers responsibility, its their publisher's PR department who manages that stuff.

Just as I don't blame Visual Concepts for their poor sales of their sports titles (I blame the marketing department), I can understand how Valve software's marketing department can drop the ball on their end. But I think that is a little too easy to say. Valve is a development house that kept tight control of their marketing departments for 5 years as they developed Half-life 2 in secret. The idea that they somehow do not have control, awareness, or interest in what their own web sites present about the projects their working on seems a little odd, to say the least. There really isn't much to debate here, and this isn't all that interesting. It's actually just kind of humorous.

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  • 1 month later...

It never stops.

 

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/09/24/news_6108100.html

 

The statement's implication is that VUG, angry with Valve's "public statements," could sit on Half-Life 2 for up to six months. But would VUG use this six-month window as leverage to force Valve to back down from demands contained in its original August 14, 2002 lawsuit?

 

 

This is becoming unbearable!

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The statement's implication is that VUG, angry with Valve's "public statements," could sit on Half-Life 2 for up to six months. But would VUG use this six-month window as leverage to force Valve to back down from demands contained in its original August 14, 2002 lawsuit?

 

If that ever happened (and got out as the reason for a delay) it would pretty much destroy Valve and Vivendi as companies.

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I don't know. People would definitely be pissed off: myself one of them but, in the end...everyone will buy it when it finally releases and, if it's as great as we hope it is, memories will quickly fade and everyone will be telling Valve how wonderful they are.

 

Just my guess.

 

I bet alot of these developement companies wish that they could just publish their own games, then they'd have total control. Must be too big of a pain in the ass or, too damn expensive or....both, otherwise I can't see why publishers aren't put out to pasture.

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Must be too big of a pain in the ass or, too damn expensive or....both, otherwise I can't see why publishers aren't put out to pasture.

 

Generally, publishers front the money for a game's development costs & pay the cost of any licence involved (e.g. film, characters etc). Most developers do not have the cash in the bank to fund their development cycles, and most developers don't have the contacts or kudos to get investment from other sources. The likes of Valve, id etc are the exceptions not the rule unfortunately, and all have the cash because of big hits in the past, essentially.

 

Additionally, the publisher negotiates with distribution channels, the publisher negotiates with retail & spends the money (hopefully) to get good shelf space & retail presence. The publisher spends the time & money (hopefully) to market the game, getting the game publicity & anticipation.

 

Without all of those, the developer would have to spend the time, effort & money to do all of those tasks themselves - none of them are small jobs.

 

Even with the promised nirvana of digital distibution, there's still a huge chunk of marketing to do & distribution to worry about.

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Even with the promised nirvana of digital distibution, there's still a huge chunk of marketing to do & distribution to worry about.

 

Yeah, but a publisher/distributors role in game development reminds of that scene in Office Space:

 

Bob: So what do you do?

X: I take the specs from the customer to the engineers.

Bob: So you physically take the specs from the customer?

X: Well no...

Bob: So you physically take them to the engineer?

X: Well, uhh...

Bob: So what exactly is it that you do?

X: Listen man, engineers don't like to deal with customers. I'm a people person dammit!!!

 

Distributors aren't totally useless, but they're still working at it. Just IMHO (obviously)

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Well I for one will always prefer to own an actual boxed copy of something that I can see and hold.

 

I've been thinking about this lately. If they announce HL2 gold and that day let you d/l, buy, and start playing via steam I'm going to do it that way. Why wait 2-3 weeks for it to show up in the stores, then run down, pay tax, take home, install and play when I can just pay online and play in an hour or so after downloading without paying shipping or tax?

 

Then again if they screw around and push it back for reasons that have nothing to do with the development of the game, I might just say screw them and not buy it at all.

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This is becoming unbearable!

 

I wanted to comment on why I find this wait unbearable. You see I am looking forward to Half-Life 2. Very much so but to be honest I care more about this seeing store shelves than anything with Gordon Freeman:

 

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/vtmb/index.html?q=vampire

 

Yeah, I know saying so is blasphemy amongst gamers etc. etc. I enjoyed Half-Life (though have never been a huge fan of it. I give it it's proper respect for what it accomplished however) and I am sure Half-Life 2 will be an out of this world experience but considering that no Source powered game can be released before HL2, well Vampire is much more to my liking and the reason I want HL2 out as soon as possible (considering Troika is almost done with the game from what I've heard.)

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