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First Person Shooters (Games) The Almighty Buck

Half-Life 2 Release Date Broken 208

Posted by Zonk from the please-read-all-instructions-before-opening dept.
NextWish writes "Despite being clearly marked, numerous stores have begun selling HL2. This guy even got a phone call from EB telling him to pickup his pre-order, so he did what any one would do - He picked it up. (Pic #1 / Pic #2)" Update: 11/12 19:30 GMT by Z : Thanks to the anonymous reader who sent us a link to The Inquirer story discussing Valve's savvy regarding cracked or advance copies.
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Half-Life 2 Release Date Broken More

Half-Life 2 Release Date Broken

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  • That's great... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Japong ( 793982 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @02:29PM (#10800322)

    ... but with out Steam registration you're not going to get very far. He can't play single player, multiplayer, or anything else but look at the box and manual. You're waiting until the 16th, get used to it.

    • A local retailer has a warniong sign on the door that basically says you can register before the official launch but Vivendi will sue you.
      the reason is that by registering your copy the Steam servers assume that it's okay to activate all download copies and Vivendi claims this will cause big losses to retailers and itself.
  • Then can install it, and that is about it. It has to authenticate to steam. Since steam has not unlocked HL2, no one can play it. It will sit in the "Coming soon" section of steam just like everyone else.

  • Future Slashdot headline: Sierra/Value sue EB (Score:5, Funny)

    by bergeron76 ( 176351 ) * on Friday November 12, 2004 @02:30PM (#10800338) Homepage
    I can just see it now: Valve to sue Electronics Boutique over HL2 sales

  • CDS?!? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rastachops ( 543268 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @02:32PM (#10800349)
    Why is it that many games are still released on CDs? I heard that it's because Americans would have trouble if they sold just DVDs.
    [/troll]
    But seriously, why do games manufacturers still produce CD's rather than DVDs when DVD drives are so cheap now!
    • Because the large base of users with CD readers that still work and don't plan to change?

      • Re:CDS?!? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by MindStalker ( 22827 )
        Ok, but I'd love to see the breakdown of people with good enough graphics cards to play this, and yet don't have a DVD player. Even better what was Doom3's excuse?
    • Perhaps because DVD's die at the drop of a hat?

      I have an old beat up starcraft cd, major scratches and everything, put in last night for the heck of it , and it fired right up.

      I have had several DVD based games (PS2) die with only the slighest of Defects, Extremly annoying.
      • Isn't the PS2's DVD drive supposed to be notoriously bad though? (At least in early models)[1] That could be part of the problem as well...

        [1] Then again my mate has a launch-day PAL model that still works perfectly.

        • Re:CDS?!? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by HAKdragon ( 193605 )
          The original PS2 DVD laser crapped out pretty early on for many users. As did the laser on the original Playstations. It seems Sony refuses to put a decent laser in their system until after the systems have good market penetration. It makes me feel sorry about anybody who's buying a PSP at launch. For those who are wondering, this isn't an anti-Sony rant, I have both a Playstation and a PS2, both of which work fine, but there have bene large numbers of units who have had problems with their disc drives.
          • Don't count on the "market penetration" bit; their new smaller PStwo units also have disc drive failures similar to the standard units.
    • I still do not have a DVD burner/reader on any of my 3 machines. I have no use for one honestly. I am not going to watch DVD movies on my computer nor do I need it for backup purposes since I have a machine that I back things up on.

      Not everyone has DVD readers yet.
      • A similar argument was made when CDs were just coming out. Of course, the gap in data size was much larger then, but with the prices of DVD drives these days, there's little excuse not to pick one up next time you need an optical drive or the next time you buy/build a computer. A nice incentive would be if games started coming out on DVD (more).

    • Re:CDS?!? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by djdanlib ( 732853 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @03:09PM (#10800792) Homepage
      DVD drives are too inexpensive for the tired (and increasingly expensive) old argument of "Oh, I don't need to upgrade, my 16X CD drive works just fine. Eight or nine CDs is fine". Seriously, you can get a 16X DVD-ROM drive at Staples (AT STAPLES FOR CRYIN OUT LOUD!) for $45. And that's not a sale price, folks. If your system is of high enough caliber to run these games, it should have either come with a DVD drive, or you should have bought one when you built it. A combo DVD-ROM/CDRW drive shouldn't run you over $60. (It will at Staples, though.) I paid that for one over a year ago.

      It's time to upgrade now if you haven't yet. Just imagine. No more "Oh, I HAVE to buy the CD version because I was too cheap awhile back." Instead, you'll be saying: "Sweet, my first DVD is Half-Life 2!" And soon enough you'll be saying, "Whoa, my computer monitor is far better for watching DVDs than my 19 inch Walmart special television!"

      As far as media longevity, I have this to say. Stop storing your media outside the proper cases! If you've got a problem with piles of discs lying around, then get cases, and a shelf or box for your cases to sit in, and keep that by/on/under your computer desk. Don't use those awful sleeves or books for storage, either, because they contact the disc surface. If you don't think it matters, why is there an ISO standard (18925) for disc storage? There is no difference between the media's protective surface in either technology, so they are equally easy to scratch, break and gouge. If your drive can't read a scratched disc, then your drive is bad. I have DVDs that are as old as purchasable DVDs can be, and they have not degraded one bit due to age.

      Who wants to go to the store, and have to buy the CD version because the DVD version is sold out and nobody thus far has purchased the CD version? Not me. It's almost happened.

      Remember floppies? Must we go through the same thing again? Please insert Disc 6 to continue!
      • I don't have a problem with the idea of requiring people to have DVD-ROM - frankly, it's past due. My biggest reason has less to do with the inconvenience of disc swapping during install (though obviating that need is delicious) and more to do with the fact that if disc 4/6 goes wonky then I'm SOL when I go to install a game. But, I have to take some small issue with this:

        As far as media longevity, I have this to say. Stop storing your media outside the proper cases!

        It's not very helpful when so many

      • Remember floppies? Must we go through the same thing again? Please insert Disc 6 to continue!

        I remember hefting a game at the store and having it weigh 16 pounds because of all the floppy disks inside. I think the last huge game that I bought on a floppy was a Star Trek 25th Anniversary game, and I remember that coming on 20-some disks.

        We are certainly heading down that path now with CDs, though they weigh far less. CD drives were outlandishly expensive and scarce when games like 7th Guest and Myst cam
        • Interestingly, the new Myst game, Myst IV requires a DVD drive to run and it isn't selling all that well from what I've heard.

          Me? I'll buy a DVD-ROM when my CD-ROM drives stop working. They're both only about a year and a half old and they work fine and, as of yet, there's nothing out there I want that's on DVD-only except Myst IV... and I can live without Myst IV.
        • Of course, what about us who have laptops that weren't purchased by us, and the person who ordered it didn't order a CD-RW/DVD (like requested)? Oh, and this model has a non-removable optical drive. (It's a Dell Uninspiron 1100)
    • I heard that it's because Americans would have trouble if they sold just DVDs.

      That has to be one of the dumbest anti-American rants I've ever read. Somehow, I think you posted just so you could snipe at America...

      What's your point?

      • We America, vote good! ha ha! Vote DVD2004, big joke! Now where my lardcake...
      • I think the point was that Half Life 2 is only being sold on DVD in Europe for example, and this is pretty much the trend for all recent games, i.e. you can't even get the CD versions anymore. Why is that? Clearly there is some reason no publisher is willing to risk DVD games in the states.
    • I'm going to have to agree, I don't really mind having to install with 4 cds once.. but I do mind:

      Games that are so cheap all the cds come in crappy paper sleeves. Now they're all scattered, or I have to put them in one of those annoying cd organizers.. ugh.

      Games that come in poorly manufactured 4 CD case things where all the little holding tabs break off constantly. What the heck? These things -always- break off, then the cds slip out of place in such a way that when you open the container they could
      • So I think if PC games just came in DVD cases even if they were CDs, I think I'd be happy

        Max Payne came in such a case, inside one of the small form factor PC game boxes. I forget if the manual was in that case.

        Max Payne 2 came on 2 CDs. Its entire package was one of those cardboard jacket type deals where the case slides out and unfolds into 3 or so segments.

        Those are the only two games I have that came in DVD-size cases. Others come in various types of jewel cases, or cardboard or paper sleeves.
  • the result of some unresponsable assistant manager, nothing more. Like the rest have stated, he's going to have to wait until the 16th to create a hl2-accessable steam id, simple as that.

  • Radeon, eh? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by wizbit ( 122290 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @02:35PM (#10800386)
    He's sporting a "Radeon X800" from the looks of the pamphlet next to the keyboard in the second pic. Which reminds me: I heard somewhere that ATI's are relatively bad gamer cards and was wondering, what with D3 and HL2 around, what are the gamers using these days?

    • Either (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Nomihn0 ( 739701 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @02:42PM (#10800484)
      Gamers are using both ATI and nVidia cards, in nearly equal numbers (if I recall the Valve survey correctly). To be honest, the two companies are competing to be the most powerful for brand recognition, not for use. As much as I want one for status, and I'll readily admit this, I do not need an nVidia 6800 sucking down electricity as fast as Homer eats donuts. I'm not running predictive weather simulations on my graphics card.

      If you want to have a reasonably priced, competitive, computer system for gaming, you're going to have to do some research. You'll have to see whether the specific game you want to play runs better with nVidia or ATI drivers, you'll have to determine which midrange card is cheaper, and you'll have to decide between a cheap 256mb card or a speedy 128mb one (both bus and GPU speed). There are so many marketing ploys in effect right now, it's difficult to do a good job. Regardless of what you do, somebody will criticise you. I presonally use an nVidia card. [flames below]
      • I beleive in the steam hardware survey, the most used card/GPU is a nvidia geforce4 mx 4x0.
        Which is pretty crappy these days.
    • I got a Radeon 9700 Pro. Works great on high settings in both Doom 3 and FarCry. I would expect it would run HL2 reasonably well also.
    • Slightly OT: But ATI just released new linux drivers [ati.com] that work with Doom 3, and according to the ID website [idsoftware.com], ATI cards are now supported with the new driver. I just played the demo through with the new drivers without a hitch.
    • Right now most gamers are buying the NVIDIA 6800 series video cards. The performance between the top end ATI and NVIDIA cards are close on DirectX 9 games. However ,the 6800 series offers support for DirectX 9.0C and Shader Model 3.0, while ATI does not. The NVIDIA drivers offer better support for OpenGL (Doom3) and for Linux. And if you are rich and want the fastest on the planet you can use "SLI" to run dual 6800's

      Not to mention a lot of the 6800 cards come with the game Far Cry which is one of the best
  • Didn't something like this happen with Best Buy a little while ago? I don't remember if it was HL2 or something else (probably something else). Man, stores need to start paying attention to things!

    - dshaw

  • Guy I know on IRC got an early copy ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by oldosadmin ( 759103 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @02:50PM (#10800578) Homepage
    http://forum.oldos.org/viewtopic.php?t=2318 [oldos.org]

    Apparently someone he knew saw them on the shelf and called him, he bought it, the registration wouldn't work, and he got that email.

    Yet another reason to hate activation.

  • Who cares... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by JavaLord ( 680960 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @02:50PM (#10800585) Journal
    Despite being clearly marked, numerous stores have begun selling HL2.

    It says not to display them, not to avoid selling them to the people who pre-ordered. It makes no difference since they can't play anyway.

    This guy even got a phone call from EB telling him to pickup his pre-order, so he did what any one would do - He picked it up.

    It makes sense, why not sell them to the pre-order people now, then on the games release day you don't run into the issue of having the game on hand but not being able to sell x amount of copies to the people that didn't pre-order.

    If they can't play the game anyway, what difference do the physical CD's make?

  • What's the big deal (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Matt Perry ( 793115 ) <perry.matt54@ya[ ].com ['hoo' in gap]> on Friday November 12, 2004 @03:13PM (#10800829)
    Why the big deal over release dates? Why ship the product and then tell them to hold it until the 16th? What is that supposed to accomplish anyway?

    This isn't a troll, I'm just wondering what the motivation is behind companies doing that.

    • Re:What's the big deal (Score:3, Informative)

      by Zed2K ( 313037 )
      From what I understand the main reason is that it gives all stores a fair chance to sell it on the same day. The big stores get way more copies than the small stores and usually send their own trucks to pick up the copies for bigger games. If the big stores started selling it as soon as they got it it would hurt the smaller stores.
    • the idea behind simultaneous worldwide release is to combat piracy. i didn't really give it a thought until around the time Alpha Centauri was coming out, and was reading the forums regarding the worldwide release (and how SE Asia was a hotbed of pirated games owing mainly to much delayed release times). Game comes out, pirates immediately start selling copies in regions that don't get official release for weeks/months later. Seriously cuts into profit margin of company. Thus, the push to release the ga

    • Re:What's the big deal (Score:5, Informative)

      by Chyeld ( 713439 ) <chyeld.gmail@com> on Friday November 12, 2004 @04:24PM (#10801584)
      If you want your product to be carried in the big stores, they want something in return. If you are a big store, you might be able to bully your way into releasing the product in your stores earlier than other stores. Thus, driving sales to you. However, if you go and sign such a deal, you have a much harder time getting into the other stores, since obviously they can't release it earlier and since the people who really want the product will have gotten it from the one that released it early.

      As a result, most of the time everyone has the same release date. Not only does this keep the smaller stores from just saying 'forget it, we won't be able to sell any' and still give the big stores a date to promote.

      The reason these things are shipped so early, is that the date needs to be far enough ahead of the ship date to help clear up any shipping screwups. Otherwise, if something goes wrong and one store is left out on release date, they aren't going to be as willing to carry your games in the future.

      The store agree to this for the same reason, if you don't agree to stick to the release date, then the product won't be shipped to you till the last minute. If something happens then, you've missed your best selling opportunity and probably lost a few customers to the stores that were carrying it.

      This sort of scheme is used for pretty much any product that has a 'shelf-life' in terms of demand. You aren't going to ever see any release day parties for the newest version of the Swifter Jet Dry Rhomba Auto Mop, because it'll still be selling (or not) until the end of it's product life. But things like music, movies, games, and even (to a limited extent) books, all are considered to sell most of what they are going to sell in a short period right after they come out.

  • Seems fair (Score:5, Funny)

    by Klowner ( 145731 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @03:16PM (#10800860) Homepage
    If you're keeping score, if anyone has broken a release date, it would be Valve (3 or 4 times at least now).

  • VALVe Responds, EBGame's employee's fired. (Score:5, Informative)

    by NextWish ( 131206 ) <ghuntley@@@ghuntley...com> on Friday November 12, 2004 @03:17PM (#10800872)
    VALVe Responds http://img120.exs.cx/img120/4149/hl2receipt.jpg [img120.exs.cx]
    Hello, We noticed that you just registered a Half-Life 2 key. Where did you come across a copy of the game? You're not in trouble or anything, but you're registered pretty early, and the game isn't activated just yet. Thanks, Erik Johnson Valve


    EBGames Employee's Fired
    In an E-Mail sent to all EBGames associates, the president of EBGames has stated that the persons who broke the street date at their stores have been terminated. As well, should anyone else break the street date the employee, manager, and district manager will all be held responsible. The e-mail was sent yesterday at aprox 5:30 PM EST.
    [hlfallout.net]

    HL2 store release also broken in germany! http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010087.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010088.JPG [uploadit.org] http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010089.JPG [uploadit.org] http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010090.JPG [uploadit.org] http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010091.JPG [uploadit.org] http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010082.JPG [uploadit.org] http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010083.JPG [uploadit.org] http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010084.JPG [uploadit.org] http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010085.JPG [uploadit.org] http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010086.JPG [uploadit.org] http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010076.JPG [uploadit.org] http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010077.JPG [uploadit.org] http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010078.JPG [uploadit.org]

    Other sources of information: Rage3D [rage3d.com].
    HLFallout [hlfallout.net].

  • Another example as to why release dates are stupid (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Mean_Nishka ( 543399 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @03:43PM (#10801165) Homepage Journal
    Seriously, what's the point? They drive such a demand for the product that they pratically create a market for pirated and jumped release dates.

    I think Valve's STEAM distribution system is going to revolutionize the industry much like iTunes is doing for music. It's a shame they couldn't let HL2 out quicker

    Companies can release the day they go gold to pre-empt the pirates (you can pay to get it quicker), and it will ultimately allow smaller studios to regain their foothold in the industry.

    • "I think Valve's STEAM distribution system is going to revolutionize the industry much like iTunes is doing for music."

      Thats just what I want, a system that centralizes all the mods so I have to go through Valve to get my gameplay fix, and that won't even let me play singleplayer without a friggin internet connection. I will NOT be purchasing HL2 SOLELY because of the fact that they require product activation for singleplayer.

      Valve got greedy, and since people will end up buying HL2 anyway, they will only

      • "Thats just what I want, a system that centralizes all the mods so I have to go through Valve to get my gameplay fix, and that won't even let me play singleplayer without a friggin internet connection. I will NOT be purchasing HL2 SOLELY because of the fact that they require product activation for singleplayer."

        Its a ONE time activation. Just like XP which you are probably using right now. Or are you refusing to buy that also. You can't complain about internet access because you have just posted here, s
        • Wow, very brave statement making a lot of assumptions.

          First off, XP came with my computer, I did not need to activate it. Just because I have internet access and use it to post to Slashdot does NOT mean I will have internet access on the computer I would have played HL2 on.

          I am insulted by your flamebait claim that I am a cheapass and don't want to pay for it when I would love to buy HL2 as I think its a game worthy of paying for. However, I am not going to be buying it on principle because I want to put

    • Companies need release dates... how else would companies set a date to start selling their products? What the hell are you talking about?
      As for why they don't release games when they go gold, it's because if Valve just started selling via the Internet, they wouldn't get any business from people with slow internet connections, and retailers would say "Sierra, you're telling us you're not going to sell this hugely anticipated game in the standard channels? Well fuck you, we'll keep your products off the shelf

  • Mo Hype Mo Money! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by blueZhift ( 652272 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @03:45PM (#10801190) Homepage Journal
    All of this hype is just getting me high! Given that you can't play the game until the 16th because of the online activation, the broken date doesn't cost Valve anything. Now there will be yet another story in the mainstream media about Half Life 2, and if the story about the fired EB employee is true, then they may even get a little TV time. All of this marketing without spending a dime!

    Now, I don't have any proof that this is all intentional, and it probably isn't. But the guys at Valve must be pretty happy with all of the attention. In our strange twisted world, I could see a class action lawsuit on behalf of HL2 pirates demanding a piece of the profits for all of the free publicity and promotion they've been doing!
    • the broken date doesn't cost Valve anything

      It costs Valve goodwill and credibility. I'm sure there are numerous people going into a store and purchasing the game with no foreknowledge of the official release date or that they won't be able to take it home and start playing. When they discovered that they've just paid a chunk of change for nothing (at least nothing for this weekend) its going to piss them off. I know it would piss me off. When I bought the game on steam I was still working under the ass

      • Geez, gamers today have like, the biggest sense of entitlement I've ever seen. Whatever you desire, little prince!
        • What you don't think he's entitled to what he payed for?
          He paid for a game that was do to be done by a certain date and got NOTHING, not even an apology for the delay.
          Course it's possible you were joking, in which case I've missed it completely.

          Mycroft
  • Help please, for those of us who are clueless. Does this game have a single player mode - can someone without an internet connection play this game?
    • Is this game multiplayer only?
      No, it's not. There's a single player mode.

      Does this game have a single player mode - can someone without an internet connection play this game?
      Although it is playable SP, you still need an internet connection, at least to activate it. This is valve's form of copy protection - similar to XP's activation scheme - but I don't think we'll be seeing a pro corp version of HL2. I think it may be possible to connect to the internet once, enable steam offline,then play all you

  • What sucks you in? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 12, 2004 @07:16PM (#10803288)
    The mystery!

    There is a lot of talk about why their marketing is so brilliant, but I think we are missing the real clincher by a long shot.

    What is getting so many people talking and frustrated is they know they have the damned game loaded on their machine, yet the can't play it. How often have geeks had to change settings, updated drivers, tweaked this or that on their machine to get the newest game to work?

    It's so counter-intuitive for gamers to patiently wait for anything. THAT is why it is brilliant marketing. The game is so close, yet so far away.

    Kudos to Valve for figuring this out. It is now fair for everyone. Those that follow the rules, and those that break the rules, no matter you get the game at the same time.

    Of course the gamers will thank the developers with their hard-earned money. I dont believe pirating has ever signficiantly hurt the gaming industry. I believe those who pirate generally can't afford the software anyway and those who priate AND could afford the software, is a very small percentage. No that is not truely what the lawful gamers appreciate, they don't really care if someone gets a free ride.

    What we appreciate is for once our money and our patience and following the rules buys the same access as the thieves get. For once, following the rules pays off big. For once, I don't have to hear about some spoiled coddled 16 year old kid that spent $1800 on eBay for an early copy when $0 of his money went to those who deserve the credit for writing the game.

    I still think the most brilliant part is having it so close yet... so far. It is loaded but it isin't working! Our normal instinct is to go to the forums and find the answer. What switch do you throw? What config file do we edit? Well there is no answer, but as time honored tradition dictates, we talk and talk and talk until one is found. In this case, I doubt there will be one until the 16th.
  • ... which reason the sales are so stratospherically high for. After the dust settles in a few weeks and we're able to compare HL2 sales to other blockbusters somewhat objectively, how would you determine what percentage of the sales are attributable to the extreme lengths of the anti-piracy and not neccesarily just the fact it's a good game or not?

    Will game companies just off the cuff attribute any possible record shattering sales to the ultra DRM ? If so, will HL2 forever alter the course of PC gaming w

  • What if... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by nicksthings ( 678040 )
    Great copy protection scheme they have, no doubt. But, what if someone who purchased Half Life 2 didn't have access to the internet and therefore couldn't activate the game via Steam? Maybe this is unlikely that someone who would own a PC capable of running the game wouldn't have an internet connection, but I'm sort of curious how that would be handled.
  • I don't see the point in keeping people from playing when they legally purchased it.

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