We'll See Orange Come October 9, 2007

[-:Nighthawk:-]

As far as I can tell, the main complaint here about the $50 price tag is that all of the "episodic content" hype that VALVe has been spoon feeding the community the past couple years. Both episodic content and the Steam delivery service have been toted as ways of making new releases come sooner and at lower prices.



I paid $60 for the HL2 Silver package and got HL2, CS:S, HL:S, basically the entire back catalog of HL games, and the promise of DOD:S when it was released later. I didn't complain because a full featured hit title usually runs about $50, and I got plenty of goodies to go with it.



Now you look at the Orange Box, and you realize all of a sudden that you already own the largest portions of content in the package. So really it's Ep2, TF2 and Porthole that you're getting for $60. When you're only a fan of the HL series and don't care for the extra multiplayer (TF2) or a concept minigame (Porthole) then you're looking at paying $60 just so you can play a short Episode.



Basically, here's the analogy. Anybody seen those 3-DVD bundle packs at Walmart or some other abomination of a retail joint? Sure, from one perspective you could say "WOW! Three movies for only $20!" But on the other hand... if you only wanted one of the movies in the bundle... it doesn't matter how many other movies they include: you're paying $20 for a single title, and that's not much of a deal.



End point being that for anyone just coming into the series, this is a phenomenal deal. For someone who wants all three of the new titles, it's a fairly reasonable price for the games being offered. For someone who just wants one of these new games, however... the price point is pretty lousy.

[DevgruSeal H.E]

That's all good and true, but suppose you actually decide to give Portal a try, and you actually..Enjoy it?

[Thortok2000]

Edited by [user="152360"] @ [time="1182100624"]

Regardless of whether you like a product you're forced to buy, the fact remains that you were still forced to buy it. It is money, out of your pocket, that you were FORCED to spend, that you would rather spend on something else, but you CAN'T. Your only option is to not get the product you want, or empty out your wallet spoon-feeding Valve 5 times as much money as they should be getting.



All I want is Episode 2. That means I'm going to be paying $50 for a 5 hour game. And that deal sucks.



Games should be worth about a dollar per hour of gameplay if you were to play through it your first time. (Single player games.) Zelda was about a 40 hour game, I want to pay about 40 dollars for it. Episode 2 is a 6-8 hour game, I want to pay 6-8 dollars for it. Knocking it all the way up to twenty, I can swallow that, though I'd prefer 15 or less, but up to 50 knocks it WAY out of the price range I'm looking at for a 6-8 hour game.



That means it's going to cost me over 8 dollars an hour to play Episode 2, my first time. Typically you don't re-play single player games /that/ much, so for calculation purposes that's just one play-through. Eight dollars an hour. That's like if Zelda cost $333. Sure, Zelda's great and all, but I'm not going to spend 300 bucks on a video game.



The price HAS to go down, I HAVE to have the option to buy Episode 2 individually, or Valve doesn't get my money. It's that simple.

[-:Nighthawk:-]

Don't get me wrong... I think I'll enjoy both Porthole and TF2, and $50 isn't outrageous for all three games. Assuming VALVe doesn't rape my beloved CZ with ads the way they've done with CS1.6, there's a decent chance I'll purchase this package.



The point remains however, like Thortok above me... not all customers are interested in getting a massive bundle. If episodic content is going to live up to any of the claims that VALVe made about it, there will have to be, at least after the initial release, an option to purchase HL2:Ep2 alone, without a bunch of interesting but unrelated titles lumped in to jack the cost up.

[ukHazard]

All indications are that you can buy what was the Black Box through Steam. Just not off the shelf.



If you bought Silver, like I did, then you bought through Steam anyway, so the Orange Box would be irrelevant.

[Que_?]

I'm sure you can buy the game on Steam. Valve was talking about how new releases will come sooner and at lower prices. So I don't think the would lie again. Would they?

[Diamond Dust]

ukHazard wrote..

All indications are that you can buy what was the Black Box through Steam. Just not off the shelf.



If you bought Silver, like I did, then you bought through Steam anyway, so the Orange Box would be irrelevant.

Exactly, if you want cheaper episodes then you buy through steam. It makes more sense to sell the 50$ package in stores, but shipping out separate boxes for hl2 ep2, tf2, and portal to sell in stores doesn't seem to be a good business decision.