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Big news from the world of VALVe; Gabe Newell has spilled the beans to all us gamers on how we are going to acquire the highly anticipated sequel to Half-Life. Over at Planet Half-Life a confirmed Gabe Newell e-mail was posted revealing Half-Life 2's different pricing plans and purchasing methods. For those of you concerned about the pay to play rumor, fear not! You can purchase the game normally as a boxed unit from a retailer or through Steam with a one time payment. This will allow you to enjoy the mods, multiplayer, and of course single-player content of Half-Life 2. However there is a catch; when new content is released by VALVe, such as expansion packs, Team Fortress 2 or Counter-Strike 2, you will have to pay separately for those games.
Gabe Newell also went on to talk about the Steam subscription service which does allow you to receive new content as soon as it's released with no additional charge. So if you purchase Half-Life 2 as a game subscription via Steam there will be a monthly charge, most likely around $9.95/month, but you will get free access to any additional content such as the afore mentioned games.
Another thing to note for all you gamers out there stuck in the dark ages is you can purchase a cheap single-player only copy of Half-Life 2 from a retail store which has no mod or multiplayer support. And if that doesn't do it for you there will be a collector's edition package with "cool bonus stuff for people who like cool bonus stuff."
Update: In another e-mail correspondence, this time carried out by GNS Project, Gabe Newell confirmed that those who purchase the cheaper single-player only package of Half-Life 2 can upgrade to the full multiplayer/mod-supported version later using Steam. More info on that as well as Gabe's two cents on the whole fiasco here.
A copy of the original e-mail can be found at this forum post. The legitimacy of this correspondence has been confirmed by both Gabe and Planet Half-Life.
Gabe Newell also went on to talk about the Steam subscription service which does allow you to receive new content as soon as it's released with no additional charge. So if you purchase Half-Life 2 as a game subscription via Steam there will be a monthly charge, most likely around $9.95/month, but you will get free access to any additional content such as the afore mentioned games.
Another thing to note for all you gamers out there stuck in the dark ages is you can purchase a cheap single-player only copy of Half-Life 2 from a retail store which has no mod or multiplayer support. And if that doesn't do it for you there will be a collector's edition package with "cool bonus stuff for people who like cool bonus stuff."
Update: In another e-mail correspondence, this time carried out by GNS Project, Gabe Newell confirmed that those who purchase the cheaper single-player only package of Half-Life 2 can upgrade to the full multiplayer/mod-supported version later using Steam. More info on that as well as Gabe's two cents on the whole fiasco here.
A copy of the original e-mail can be found at this forum post. The legitimacy of this correspondence has been confirmed by both Gabe and Planet Half-Life.
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