Half-Life 2 confusion continues apace – Specific date claims debunked
Release candidate received. Wrangling ensues
The first version of Half-Life 2 to be offered by Valve to Vivendi is currently in review stage at the French publisher, SPOnG learned today. Despite this news, specific release dates have been debunked in the latest twist in what is becoming a rather messy and protracted case of developer/publisher relationship breakdown.
Speaking to us this afternoon a VUG official offered the following statement. "Last week we received a Half-Life 2 release candidate from Valve. In its current state Half-Life 2 is brilliant and looks astonishing. VUG is in the midst of determining whether the game meets the gameplay standards of the company and more importantly the devoted half-life fanbase. This is standard for every game and is particularly important for hl2 given its technical depth. We are hopeful we can communicate a ship date very soon.”
And as was pointed out to SPOnG by a highly-placed source close to the project this morning “How anyone can think there’s a specific date for the game I really don’t know. Taking dates from retail is a proven way to end up with a wrong date. The fact that there is no final approved version of the game means that there is no specific release date in any territory.”
Vivendi officials speaking on the record simply insist that Half-Life 2 will be available in stores before Christmas.
We’ll bring you a full update as soon as we hear official word. Keep it locked!
Speaking to us this afternoon a VUG official offered the following statement. "Last week we received a Half-Life 2 release candidate from Valve. In its current state Half-Life 2 is brilliant and looks astonishing. VUG is in the midst of determining whether the game meets the gameplay standards of the company and more importantly the devoted half-life fanbase. This is standard for every game and is particularly important for hl2 given its technical depth. We are hopeful we can communicate a ship date very soon.”
And as was pointed out to SPOnG by a highly-placed source close to the project this morning “How anyone can think there’s a specific date for the game I really don’t know. Taking dates from retail is a proven way to end up with a wrong date. The fact that there is no final approved version of the game means that there is no specific release date in any territory.”
Vivendi officials speaking on the record simply insist that Half-Life 2 will be available in stores before Christmas.
We’ll bring you a full update as soon as we hear official word. Keep it locked!
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Comments
config 1 Oct 2004 16:10
1/3
Let's face it, if it's at release candidate stage, Valve believe it to be finished and expect no significant changes to be requested from VU.
The vast amount of HL2 preloads that are being pumping out over Steam would back this up - why ship terabytes of data if there's a risk that it'll have to be done again at the expense of bandwidth and core customer satisfaction?
The vast amount of HL2 preloads that are being pumping out over Steam would back this up - why ship terabytes of data if there's a risk that it'll have to be done again at the expense of bandwidth and core customer satisfaction?
DoctorDee 1 Oct 2004 16:46
2/3
config wrote:
Let's face it, if it's at release candidate stage, Valve believe it to be finished and expect no significant changes to be requested from VU.
Yeah, but what the developer thinks is finished, and what the customer thinks is finished are sometimes massively different. I believe you have some familiarity of this.
config 1 Oct 2004 17:41
3/3
DoctorDee wrote:
config wrote:
Let's face it, if it's at release candidate stage, Valve believe it to be finished and expect no significant changes to be requested from VU.
Yeah, but what the developer thinks is finished, and what the customer thinks is finished are sometimes massively different. I believe you have some familiarity of this.
Indeed I do, but in this case I get the feeling that there's already been a good bit of too-ing and fro-ing between VU and Valve as it is a release candidate rather than a beta and, as mentioned, Valve are seeding the preload files over Steam.