Half-Life 2 Delayed Again?

[soaringxh3n]

SUCKS FOR THE PEOPLE THAT PRELOADED HL2

[WuTanG146]

so if i got the story right... vu is in pretty much a lose-lose situation. They're trying to delay the release of HL2 as a way to get Valve to backoff on their lawsuits because they know Valve want the game to be released asap. But either way, VU would lose money since delaying teh game will cause them to lose revunue, but they would also lose money if valve followed through with their lawsuit. So I guess their dilemma is to see which option will allow them to lose as little money as possible. Seriously though, with a record like VU's I wouldnt be surprised if no other game developers in the future will want them to publish their games.

[mmsickboy]

at this rate duke nukem forever and tfc2 will be out first.

[HowlinMadMurphy]

Edited by [user="181293"] @ [time="1096168405"]

Most of you are missing something here: Vivendi Universal is a telecommunications giant. They own (among many others) Universal Music (biggest music company in the world) General Electric, NBC, and a bunch of the major French TV broadcast companies. According their website, they made over 30 million dollars last year, and their holdings and assets are worth billions. They have to know that delaying HL2 can't really hurt the sales enough to matter, and if they can successfully use it as leverage with Valve and gain control over the intellectual property rights for the Half-life franchise, they stand to make a lot more in the long run. So it's worth the risk to them. Not to mention that Valve isn't entirely on the up-and-up. Sure, they have a right to look after their intellectual property (and there is a legitimate question as to whether VU's acquisition of Sierra really included the rights to the HL franchise). But Valve has tried to downplay the potential profitability of the Steam platform in court (under the current deal, VU makes no profit off Steam sales of HL2) when in reality they expect it to be a big part of their financial success in the future. VU is no angel (few giant multinational corporations are), but Valve isn't entirely innocent in this either. It's just a shame that the fans will have to sweat this one out for a little bit longer. Sigh.

*\rant over.

[Dragonjojo]

mmsickboy wrote..

at this rate duke nukem forever and tfc2 will be out first.

really? i hope they have a nice internet connection at the old folks home then because i can't wait to play tfc2!

[Noleafclover199]

Dragonjojo wrote..

really? i hope they have a nice internet connection at the old folks home then because i can't wait to play tfc2!

baahahahahaahahhaahha we will be like 86 in a wheelchair playing cs source cause it finaly came out, and doom6 will suck a lot. and right before we find out the ending of hl2, we have a major heart attack.....and die

[pedage]

"Whoever wins, we lose"



First AvP 2, then the presidential election, and now this?



Whatever happens, the gamers are going to suffer.

[{(COMMANDO})008]

//z38stinger wrote..

you can taste the noobish speculation



Nobody knows what the hell is going to happen.



VUG and VALVe could make an agreement to give VUG x percent of profits through Steam-sold HL2 copies and start selling HL2 before the holidays, making truckloads of moolah.



VUG could sit on it for 6 months and be like "Nanny nanny boo boo!", then give the game the gold status in March.



Do I want HL2? Hell the fudge yeah.



If you read that "Hostage?" article again, it says that VUG is bound by the 2001 SPA (service protection act?) to release the game in the next six months, as long as the RC is blatantly bug free.



What does this mean? It means that the game, which could and should be good to go, is going to be released on or before march 2005(depending on how well a job VALVe did on debugging, which I am quite confident in). This makes me content, and I (unlike hordes of impatient, pimply faced fanboys and forum whores) can and will wait until the time that HL2 is released, at which time I will purchase my copy through Steam and enjoy it quite thoroughly.



Thats my story and I'm stickin' to it, damn it.

that not true vu can realse the game or why would valve try to push them to realse it earlyer then 6 months

[pedage]

I'm kind of with z38stinger on this one, though. School is kind of taking up most of my time now, and I don't really see where I'd fit HL2 into my schedule. Still, I think that if VU decides to flex their corporate muscles and just hold the game until March 05 just because they can afford it, I'd have a serious problem with them. Maybe Valve will strike out on their own after a while (doubtful, given the size of the company and undisclosed terms of contractual agreements). That, in theory, would be nice.

[acc_int]

I strongly suggest VALVe to rip the agreement in half :P



BTW - Gabe didn't come today. He said he's gonna have to do some stripping in a strip club near our home :)

[Se7eN!]

BASTARDS

[Tony_Soprano]

well this is my really old screen name so oh weel what can I do....



I rarely post in the forums because I find it more interesting to usually read everyone else's posts, but I felt I needed a reply in this case.



Bottom line VU has some leverage over Valve at this point. Will it affect the profitability of HL2? Most likely not. Will it influence my decision to download HL2 through steam? Without any hesitiation will I d/l HL@ through steam if they resort to hardball to delay such a great game from reaching consumers. Not only does delaying HL2 affect the industry as a whole for software developers, but it also affect the hardware industry too. Great games infulence hardware makers in a huge part to step up production of better video related stuff to drive the industry to a point which it has never reached before. I hope someone with a good head on their shoulders at VU will realize juast because some part of what is going on to affect them financially will not make a hard headed decision and play hard ball. Of course it wont hurt them in the short time. But I believe it will hurt them in the long run over the next few years because a lot of dedicated players will boycott any products they can purchase through alternate methods. I hope the great industry that we enjoy at this time doesnt become part of corporate strong-arming. I hope they make the smart choice and release HL2 on schedule to insure we will have this time for the logest time to come to enjoy the effort of the brillant people in the industry who give us the best software to play with, and keep all of it going to drive games to become the biggest media frenzy since the CD was released.



well I blabbed enough. Please dont flame only respond with intelligent comments



nuff said

Later all

[N*-DAnk]

netcatch wrote..

well... i know what im going to do now...



*logs into VU customer support...*



>=)



u should do the same

here http://www.vugames.com/forum.do



VU HL2 forums SPAM bitch right too them everone sign up

[HowlinMadMurphy]

I find it hard to believe that VU might be hurt by this PR-wise. People may complain now, but once it's released nobody is going to bother to boycott or otherwise act out against Vivendi. And they've got enough on their plate that a few gamer's or game company's ire wouldn't really matter to them anyway.

[Mr. Chris]

*mocks users with his copy of DOOM3*



Heh, anyways..crap like this that is pulled by VU is really gonna anger the community even more and people will end up not giving a shit about HL2 anymore thanks to VU (mostly) and Valve.