http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=148950&skip=yes
As much as TF2 and Portal might rock, if they’re going to derail the whole point of episodic content…
Weaksauce.
Do the episodes tell a continuing story? Maybe they have George RR Martin writing them?
Valve: Look! We’re creating episodic content, so we can release to you on a timely basis!
Valve (Months later): Guess what guys? We decided to throw two unrelated games into the latest episode! What a deal!
Valve (Many months later): Hey guys. This is taking longer than we thought, but it takes a long time to develop 3 games in one!
I love your games, Valve, but geezus christ you can be a bunch of retards sometimes.
Their business model is truly cutting edge. They release a new $20 episode with 5 hours of gameplay every 18 months, in contrast to everybody else that releases a new $50 game with 10 hours of gameplay every two years.
…
Wait, does that math work?
It’s really a shame that Valve is taking so long to pump out this content. As long as the HL story continued in any meaninful way, I would gladly throw down $$$ for a decent chapter every month or two, but they haven’t delivered it.
Also, that would be closer to the definition of “episodic.” Maybe Valve meant to say “sporadic.”
Has Valve EVER released anything on time in their ten years as a company? I cannot think of a single product for which the originally announced release date was even remotely accurate.
So that means we will not play EP 3 untill 2009, right?
When people were banging on about Episodic content I was thinking every 6 months or so. 6 months or so I can live with, but Jesus Christ people, what’s this now, a year?
Ep. 1 was decent, but it was about as good as any expansion pack. Cool if you liked the original, but not as exciting as a full-blown sequel.
If they’re on-time (the new Summer '07 on-time) with Ep. 2, it’ll be over 2 1/2 years since HL2 was released, and we’ll have another 5 hours of a tweaked HL2 engine game, a sourcified version of an Indy game, and a graphically updated version of the same TF gameplay we had 7 years ago. I’m losing interest just thinking about it.
Well, the next one is going to be $30 I believe because they are bundling another game with it. You’d think that with digital distribution you could give customers the flexibility to opt out of buying the extra game. It’s not like physical media taking up a SKU in a store. I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t let you simply buy the $20 episode by itself if you desire.
So if they do one $30 bundle a year, that’s probably more revenue for them than if they do one $50 game every 2-3 years. Didn’t HL2 take five years to make? That would be one $50 game every five years or $150 worth of episodes over the same time.
With digital distribution on their own platform and the valve/half-life brand pushing sales, I can see them doing quite well selling one $20-30 episode per 12-18 months. HL2:ep1 was in the retail top 5 for a couple of months and I would assume they sold a bunch of steam copies too. I know I downloaded mine.
Question is whether they would do better releasing a full game every 2 years like everybody else. And I daresay they would, if they could make a game in two years.
Well, remember that in theory they’re getting a much bigger slice of the pie on Steam sales. But yeah, the whole episodic thing doesn’t seem to really be working the way it should.
Maybe in the world of RTS or something, but I thought it developed HL2 in a far more exciting way than any FPS expansion I can think of… hell, I’m struggling to think of a decent FPS expansion from ever.
They took their method of telling the story through the characters to telling it through a single person who accompanied you throughout the episode, without becoming a burden, while building on the personal bond between you.
I thought they they stayed faithful to the formula, while moving in the right direction. What more could you want? I just wish the episodes didn’t take so long, especially as I couldn’t give a damn about the bundled stuff.
Your answer is in this question: Has Valve ever released anything shitty in their ten years as a company?
While I agree that delays are generally not a good sign in the gaming biz, certain companies use them wisely.
I think it’s a testament to the quality of their products that people get so annoyed about these delays. I know I’m bloody well going to buy Ep2 regardless :)
Do you remember how long a gap there was between HL1 and HL2? This is a timely basis, in Valve terms.
Well that was third-party after all… still, it does have the Valve name on it. Does it count?
— Alan
If this were Sin episodes (when is the second one due anyway), I might be kind of annoyed, but HL2 and Ep 1 were good enough that I don’t really mind since I know that Ep 2 will probably be up to those standards. It’s not like I don’t have tons of other stuff to play in the meantime. And the gap just means I’ll probably replay the games anyway to get ready, and I don’t mind that either.