ATi's R420 launch and Half-life2, some thoughts.

digitalwanderer

digitalwanderer

wandering
Legend
I was doing the PM thang here with some friends, and wrote this to one of them speculating about ATi and HL2:

Me all sneaky-like said:
As for HL2, I'm ALMOST willing to bet that ATi gets an exclusive on the release of it for a couple of weeks to a month before it's launched at retail.

I think you'll be able to buy it from Valve using Steam, redeem a HL2 voucher, or get it bundled with a new ATi card for a while before you can go down to your local software store and buy it. I think it'll be released TO SOFTWARE STORES this summer, but it will be AVAILABLE around the R420 availibility.
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I figure Valve owes ATi for last year's fiasco, and I know Valve wants a brief period of exclusivity with it...

Any opinions? Am I way off base here or do you think it could happen?
 
Ok so they have already pissed off everyone who bought an ATi card with a hl2 voucher, now you think they should piss off everyone else to make it fair?

Not gonna happen. They aren't that stupid.
 
It would only piss off those people who weren't willing to buy it via Valve, weren't wiling to buy a new ATi card to get it, or don't already have the coupon for it, and who ain't willing to wait for an extra month.

Yeah, after all the shit that went down I think they'd do it.
 
digitalwanderer said:
It would only piss off those people who weren't willing to buy it via Valve, weren't wiling to buy a new ATi card to get it, or don't already have the coupon for it, and who ain't willing to wait for an extra month.
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And what minor % of their customer base do you suppose that comprises?

Well it would be the only thing that Valve could do that was actually dumber than letting people believe the sept30 release date right up until late sept. so perhaps you're right.
 
AlphaWolf said:
Well it would be the only thing that Valve could do that was actually dumber than letting people believe the sept30 release date right up until late sept. so perhaps you're right.
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I was gonna say, do you really think Valve gives two shits about what their customers think? ;)
 
Valve is in the business of making money. Doing things with no business upside makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Valve already has those coupon customers, they don't need to do anything to please them. It's the other customers they are going to worry about.
 
I'd be genuinely surprised to see this happen. Firstly, the Steam network can't handle a release like HL2 at this point in time, and going exclusive with ATi at the expense of retail will piss many, many people off.

I think you're wrong here, although I've seen more bizarre things happen. Put this one in the "nah" pile for now :)
 
Hey, I DID say this was just a weird thought...dinnit I? ;)

Y'all raised too many good points. Valve would be morons for doing it, but I can't discount the possibilities that they really are morons about such things given their past history.
 
That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. There's such a thing as a game publisher, and Valve isn't one. You think they'd piss in their own pool by going around their own publisher like that? Jesus smarten up.
 
Johny Dread said:
That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. There's such a thing as a game publisher, and Valve isn't one. You think they'd piss in their own pool by going around their own publisher like that? Jesus smarten up.
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Welcome to B3D, glad you ain't shy or nothing. :rolleyes:

You HAVE heard of Steam.....right?
 
digitalwanderer said:
I figure Valve owes ATi for last year's fiasco, and I know Valve wants a brief period of exclusivity with it...

Any opinions? Am I way off base here or do you think it could happen?
Click to expand...

This would (1) rapidly lead to everyone getting warez versions, and (2) piss the retail stores off. The retailers hold a lot of power. Distributers have to book space in and even pay for shelf space. All it takes is for one of the big retailers like Walmart or EB to decide they are not interested in giving shelf space just to get the dregs of sales (after it's been all over the net), and Valve loses a lot of money.

Timing is everything. They can't hype the game with reviews and adverts for launch, and then not let anyone buy it for a month.
 
PaulS said:
Firstly, the Steam network can't handle a release like HL2 at this point in time
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Well you might be right given that it has failed almost every decent bandwidth test since its inception except CS:CZ (which isn't comparable to the demand of HL2 obviously). However, Steam does have serious bandwidth on paper ( 2,080.00Mbps), with a contract for extra content servers on demand, and I'm highly doubting Valve hired Bram Cohen (the creator of Bit Torrent) for nothing... Who knows it might actually work if they have a P2P update and use the pre-loading mechanism...
 
they will give ATI vouchers first place in line on Steam then go retall on Steam. But Retail in stores will be at the sametime. Then those ppl will have to get on Steam also. And yes i would say Valve is more behind there fans then any Dev out there, Hey when your on top ( like id) lots of people hate you, but more people like your product, bet its 98% to 2%. Steam users will get the Demo first.
 
One smart thing they did with Steam was allow preloading of CSCZ content before the game was actually going to be sold. This let them minimize the bandwidth hit they got when they actually *did* release CSCZ, and this meant Steam preorders for the game were available instantly. I can see them doing the same for HL2 with the ATI vouchers and Steam preorders.

Now, if ATI isn't completely burned over valve, I could see them redoing the bundle with R420 *if* it made financial sense to do so.

Cut the Valve guys some slack. If they step up to plate and deliver, HL2 looks very promising at the moment. I'm willing to allow for one transgression (though the Sept 30 release date crap was very sketchy), but only if they can actually deliver. They certainly have lofty goals.

Personally, I'm going to be buying HL2 on CD. Nothing like the actual physical product in my hands. Steam's interesting, but I never liked the idea of downloaded copies anyway.
 
It won't happen. Like Mr Bond said, they are going to allow you to pre-download HL2 to stretch out bandwidth but it will not be playable until the retail version hits store shelves.

They may, however, ship out copies to those that have the voucher a couple days early.
 
no problem i found it to be interesting reading. Besdies I'm still sitting on two vouchers. Not that I game at all but I do have two vouchers.
 
digitalwanderer said:
Johny Dread said:
That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. There's such a thing as a game publisher, and Valve isn't one. You think they'd piss in their own pool by going around their own publisher like that? Jesus smarten up.
Click to expand...
Welcome to B3D, glad you ain't shy or nothing. :rolleyes:

You HAVE heard of Steam.....right?
Click to expand...
yeah I also know how much it sucks. You think they could meet the demand for HL2 when the thing is barely working as it is? Think.
 
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