Apparently you’ll be able to buy the game with SP-only without the ability to play mods, and SP + MP + mods will cost more. There’s also a subscription plan on Steam with a monthly fee for those who want access to all of Valve’s content, in addition to a “buy it once” option.
Talk about messing with a tried-and-true formula. I don’t mind Valve trying to maximize their profits, but if this is true it’s a bad sign of the things to come.
On the other hand, you could look at it as a discount for those who only want to play the SP game and aren’t interested in the multiplayer at all. Like me. I won’t be chugging down Valve’s bandwidth for the next 5 years, so why should I subsidise those who will?
When I think of Valve’s content I think of…let’s see…Half-Life…and…nothing else. Unless he means Gearbox’s expansion packs, that god-awful Gunman Chronicles, Neil Manke’s stuff, taking a free mod and selling it a la DoD or CS, I can’t think of Valve’s “content”. I thought that was all Sierra stuff, in which case I could see paying $9.95 a month if I was guaranteed at least one new mod a month, the now-mythical Team Fortress 2, new levels for HL2, etc.
This is the first I’ve heard of this “release three different SKUs” effort, but I’ll probably go with the collector’s edition because A) I can’t get enough of cloth maps or little light sticks that are supposed to be light sabres, and B) I don’t want yet another monthly charge on my card.
It’s not the price of the retail units that bothers me, although there’s no suggestion that the SP only version will be any cheaper than any other Triple-A title, so it’s not really a discount (although no firm prices have been announced, so who knows.) Valve is certainly justified in exploring different ways of distributing their products to their customers, and if they’re successful, good for them. There’s just something about this that makes me wary, but I’m having a hard time articulating it so early in the morning.
Terrible idea, sure sell it over steam, but only sell one kind of version. You buy the single player only version… two years down the track a good mod comes out… you want to play it… you don’t have multiplayer in your version… what then? go out and buy the “full” version… fuck having a singleplayer only… may as well ask you to pay for playable demos too.
Personally, I don’t like the idea because of the problems it causes for the mod community.
One of the reason’s the Mod community for HL was so big was because, Half-Life being the great game that it was, everyone had it. Which meant, everyone could mod it. Which meant the audience for your mod was potentially huge.
Now, even if HL2 eclipses HL’s sales (not likely but you never know), you’re not going to have the same potential audience for your mod. As much faith as Newell might have in the typical user, I don’t see them going out to the store to buy another full copy of HL2 because they heard there’s a great new HL2 Rally coming out.
When I think of Valve’s content I think of…let’s see…Half-Life…and…nothing else. Unless he means Gearbox’s expansion packs, that god-awful Gunman Chronicles, Neil Manke’s stuff, taking a free mod and selling it a la DoD or CS, I can’t think of Valve’s “content”. I thought that was all Sierra stuff, in which case I could see paying $9.95 a month if I was guaranteed at least one new mod a month, the now-mythical Team Fortress 2, new levels for HL2, etc.
This is the first I’ve heard of this “release three different SKUs” effort, but I’ll probably go with the collector’s edition because A) I can’t get enough of cloth maps or little light sticks that are supposed to be light sabres, and B) I don’t want yet another monthly charge on my card.[/quote]
Most notably would be their release of TFC, and their buying CS, then still releasing it as a free mod with full developer support.
Read what Gabe said - the no SL SKU is going to Walmart, the Normal Version is goign to EB, and the Monthly is going on Steam.
I don’t think most people that buy HL at Walmart even know what a Mod is. I’d be interested in seeing the number of people that bought Half Life compared to the number that play online.
I think it’s pretty shrewd manuveer by Valve - if they come out at a $29.99 price point at Walmart (or lower) for the single player version…Just think Deer Hunter, but with actual game play. We’ve had all kinds of discussions about Walmart and their magic price points in the past - games that are sub $30 sell a ton.
The montly subscription wouldn’t work for me because I’ve pretty much given up online FPS’s since I quit playing QW TF lo those years ago - but it might work for some people, espcially if they’re able to produce enough content on it.
It doesn’t sound like they are trying to figure it out, though–it sounds like they have it all figured out already. Gabe seemed pretty clear on how their whole distribution scheme was going to work. It sounds like something they have had planned for a while.
I think the $10/mo subscription is just about perfect for me – I tend to buy games, play 'em hard for a couple weeks, then let 'em collect dust.
IE, HL2 is only gonna set me back ten bucks – and iif I decide I want some of the cool stuff they release later, I’ll just re-subscribe for a month then!
This also suits the way my group o’ LAN buddies plays absolutely perfectly – if we all decide to play multiplayer HL2 for a couple weeks, it only costs us $10 for fully legit copies. If every publisher went this route, we’d be able to move on to the next game at the end of the month.
Very, very cool.
Hey Gladguy – how 'bout kicking out Painkiller via Steam? You’d get a solid month or two out of our crew, would be about a hundred bucks (if we did two months). Otherwise, it’ll probably be just me, and I won’t get to shoot up my buddies.
Yeah, that’s true. I’m not sure where Valve got the idea that they have a reputation for churning out content, either. Maybe they will, but the pace at which they’ve developed all their past games… er, game… isn’t particularly reassuring.
Why is it everyone immediately focuses on the $120 per year figure?
Essentially, you can rent an installation of HL2 for $9.99 per month. There are so many games to play, I can hardly finish most of them. HL2 looks a little bit special, so I’m sure I’ll just gallop through it - once. How many of the millions who bought Halflife actually ended up using it online at all?
I really like the approach they’ve taken, with different products for different markets. They’ll need to put a big THERE IS NO MULTIPLAYER CAPABILITY IN THIS BOX warning on the Wal-Mart type Single Player editions or there’ll be temper tantrums, mother’s loving gifts rejected by spotty boys.
