“We’ve managed to get an official statement from Valve Software on the release date of Half-Life 2 being pushed back. Here is word that I got directly from Doug Lombardi of Valve Software. Valve seems to have been having some mail issues so you may not see this on other sites, however we can confirm with absolute certainty that this is valid:”
The previously announced September 30th release date for Half-Life 2 is being pushed back. We are currently targeting a holiday release, but do not have a specific “in-store” date to share at this time. We will release that information as soon as we have confirmed a new date.
Not much of a suprise, though there was a lot of rumbling about a steam only release on the 30th. That didn’t make much sense to me, and this seems like the best idea.
Why did they wait so long to announce it? They had to know at least a couple of weeks ago they weren’t going to make the deadline. Especially if they’re now targetting a holiday release.
Cause they want to act like this just happened all of the sudden… like they were still planning 9/30 and just something came up and dog gone it they won’t make it.
When they probably knew since E3 when it would be ready.
I think they were planning to release it limited on steam… but obviously that was messed up. Guess that could give em more time to iron out some bugs or something.
Why is that? Because it’s bad that people talk about the game and the release date all the time for half a year? That release date generated a zillion miles of virtua ink.
No one would have given them flak (and people would still be drooling as much) for announcing a fall or even winter 2003 due date. The whole SEP 30 AND YOU CAN TAKE THAT TO THE BANK is just an easy way to shoot yourself in the foot.
No one would have given them flak (and people would still be drooling as much) for announcing a fall or even winter 2003 due date.[/quote]
Sure they took some flak (OMG FLAK!), but the earlier release date generated more talk which offsets the flak.
The whole SEP 30 AND YOU CAN TAKE THAT TO THE BANK is just an easy way to shoot yourself in the foot.
Is “shoot yourself in the foot” a euphemism for less sales? I can’t quite picture the analogy of Valve’s collective foot in severe pain as the internet has exploded with talk of Half-Life 2’s new release date. Again.
I wonder how many other games are either going to get pushed back or pushed out in reaction to this? Nobody wants to release at the same time as that juggernaut, and if you’ve been planning release all along for Thanksgiving week, this could be disruptive to the marketing folks. So, I’d expect to see some things come out a little early, or sat on to give HL2 some breathing room.
The source for that was the Inquirer. Also known as the American branch of the Register. (They don’t say it outright, but there’s a LOT of circumstantial evidence.) Now, the Register is highly entertaining. The problem is that, well, I just don’t trust them. At all. I stopped reading them for news when (A) a friend suggested that I was reading a tabloid, (B) I realized this friend was RIGHT. So anything that comes from the Inquirer, I just toss out on the spot.
Incidentally, I’m not sure where the Alcatraz thing came from, but I suspect the inventor of that detail laughed his ass off at all the people who repeated it.
EDIT: Let’s be clear about this. I believe that there is an ATI bundle. I also believe that it will happen when HL2 is done, and that Valve knew about the likelihood of a delay early enough to make the above Inquirer story so much trash. How could they not know of a delay that’s going to push them back by a month and a half? I’m sure, however, that people will be able to buy an ATI-HL2 bundle when HL2 actually makes it to STORES.
damn I ordered the parts for my new system hours before reading this… so my JIT upgrade for HL2 is sporked… watch P4’s and radeons halve in price over the next month.
Yeah, I don’t think the delay was intentional in order to get more publicity. It’s definitely causing some bad will. Heck, I’m pissed, and I never really expected it to ship then. But I really hoped it would, so I could take out my frustrations on some head crabs when this month’s deadlines finally passed.
As for ATI’s launch, I’ve been to plenty of “launches” where they announce and celebrate a new product but don’t get it onto store shelves for another month or two.
