Steam Press Release

Chris D

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NAMCO NAMED VALVE'S OFFICIAL CYBER CAFE RESELLER IN JAPAN[br]
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Tokyo, Japan -- August 3, 2004 - Valve(tm) Corporation, one of the world's largest developers of online computer games, has selected Japan-based Namco, Ltd. as its representative to distribute its already famous games, including Half-Life(r), Counter-Strike(TM), and Day of Defeat(TM), to the cyber cafe community in Japan. Namco is currently the only authorized cyber cafe reseller in Japan for Valve games.[br]
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Valve's Cyber Café program is the only way to legally obtain Valve's current and coming titles for commercial use in cyber cafes. Valve licensed cyber cafe operators also receive the benefits of Steam, an online network that insures licensed cybercafe operators have the most up to date versions of Valve games for their customers.[br]
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Additionally, Valve recently revealed a series of new games and features being added to the Valve Cyber Café Program over the coming months. Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2 will be added to the program for active subscribers in the Valve Cyber Cafe Program. These new games will be included as part of the regular subscription fee as soon as they are released. Valve is also readying a Cyber Cafe License Server. Among other features, the Cyber Cafe License Server will allow cafe's to manage their licenses on a concurrent user basis, locally update individual computers on a cafe's local area network (reducing bandwidth needs for updates), and allow individual users with personal Steam accounts to access their account on any computer station located at a cyber cafe site.[br]
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"We are delighted by the success we've experienced working with Namco," said Gabe Newell, president and founder of Valve, "And we look forward to extending that relationship as we work to meet the growing demand for action games in Japan."[br]
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"Namco has a long tradition in the development of location based entertainment businesses," said Tetsuo Tsuchiya, Namco's Manager. "We are eager to extend that tradition to the Japan cyber cafe community by working with Valve to develop this business in Japan. We are hoping to hear feedback from the cyber cafes so we can continue to improve the program and better understand how we can best support our customers."[br]
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About Valve[br]
Founded in 1996, Valve creates entertainment software titles, including Half-Life®, Counter-Strike(tm), and Team Fortress®. Valve's portfolio accounts for over 11 million retail units sold worldwide, and over 88% of the online action market. More information about Valve is available through the company's Web site at www.valvesoftware.com.[br]
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About Namco[br]
Established in 1955. Namco has a long tradition in a field of Coin-Operated Game Machines in Japan. In addition, we carry famous game titles such as the Pac-Man game, a massive hit in the 80s, and Soul Caliber, a worldwide famous game. More information about us is available at www.namco.co.jp/english/.
 
If you have had your comments in this news post go missing then I apologise. I had to delete the original one due to a formatting problem on the original posting.

Sorry once again :)
 
I hope this all boils down to Valve preparing for Half-Life 2's release. :)
 
WhiteBoy said:
I hope this all boils down to Valve preparing for Half-Life 2's release. :)
It's gotta be close. I anticipate a release in 8-12 weeks :D
 
Yah 8-12 weeks is still too far away to get too excited about, I so badly want to get excited (I've never anticipated a game ever as much as this one)...I want to experience that same euphoria that hardcore Doom 3 fans did..they have been waiting for 3 years or more to experience this week's release and the gold anouncement a couple weeks back, I enjoyed watching the planetdoom forums and the lists of stores who were having release parties and staying open till midnight and all that, I can't imagine when the final days start ticking down how fun it's gonna be here..it's gonna be nuts...I bet we are gonna crash the HL2.net forums the day it's anounced GOLD!!!
 
I think it's coming. Steam just got upgraded and one thing in the changes section was "Improved use of large cache files"

IT GOING TO BE SOON!
 
this is probly why the CS: S betas have been put off a few days. to set this up and extended the betas to the new cafe's in Japan to boost interest.
 
Anyone knows when they will start preloading for the cs:s beta and when we'll actually be able to play it?
 
The last estimation by Valve was 5th August start preloading and 10h Augsut to start playing. Bare in mind though that you will need to be an official Valve Cybercafe subscriber, own Counter-Strike: Condition Zero or have a free HL2 voucher from ATi to take part in the beta.

I reckon that somewhere between the 5th and 10th August, the beta will be opened to cybercafes only.
 
Im with chris, as far as I can judge from all the rumors out there, it seems like preloading will begin wednesday or thursday next week, and cybercafes will get the whole next weekend + 2 or 3 days of the following week, then the beta will be released to us all. But this brings up one issue. If CS:S is meant to be released with HL2, then the "beta" version might be the release version, since previous rumors have said that Valve were or still are days away from submitting their RC to Vivendi. This has me to belive that the release of HL2 will be in very late August, or in early September, which imo is more likely.
 
The anticipation has racked my being too long. The bitter disappointments have scarred my soul too deeply. I can no longer spend my energies looking for the Second Coming of HL...

... no more count-down clocks
... no more late hours watching Steam for Binks
... no more roving the forums, seeking clues, hope, justice
... no more... no more...

I will play D3! I will be free from the ravishes of unquenched desire! I will bath in the blood of Ghouls, and trod a land of Dark Spectacle!

... until HL2 arrives to return my soul.
 
MaxiKana said:
Im with chris, as far as I can judge from all the rumors out there, it seems like preloading will begin wednesday or thursday next week, and cybercafes will get the whole next weekend + 2 or 3 days of the following week, then the beta will be released to us all. But this brings up one issue. If CS:S is meant to be released with HL2, then the "beta" version might be the release version, since previous rumors have said that Valve were or still are days away from submitting their RC to Vivendi. This has me to belive that the release of HL2 will be in very late August, or in early September, which imo is more likely.
I actually reckon we can pre-load it tomorrow.

The beta won't be the version they release either because we're getting a cut down version of what they already have. We're only getting one map and they'll probably need to polish the models.

Apparently their processes for porting games to the new engine is pretty simple. What they have up to now has been done within 8 months as they only started in January. They haven't got a lot more to do.
 
Chris_D said:
I actually reckon we can pre-load it tomorrow.

There was some Valve guy that posted on the steam forums that preloading would not begin this weekend, lemme grab that quote.

EDIT: here it is

Mike Dunkle
Valve

Registered: Sep 2003
Schedule release is August 13th.

If it turns out there is a couple key features the cafes really need in the first release we may delay a day or two.

Mike

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07-30-2004 01:42 PM
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Mike Dunkle
Valve

Registered: Sep 2003
OK...I will put in place a plan to send out a cafe message at least every other week.

CS:Source cafe beta plans are moving forward. As predicted above it will not happen this weekend. Our plan for cafes is 1) pre-load CS:Source a few days before the cafe release date and 2) give the cafes one full exclusive weekend + a few days. We will announce the release date for cafes when we are 100% confident it will happen. We are factoring in that cafes need 2-4 days planning for weekend parties.

Mike

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07-30-2004 02:09 PM
 
30th July was Friday, so he meant it wasn't last weekend.

The top post you mention is actually to do with the Valve Cybercafe Server, which is a piece of software which updates the cybercafe clients and controls the amount of licences in use at one time.
 
Oh, then I confused myself :p Then yeah, tomorrow sounds very good in that case, and gold in 2-3 weeks isn't that unrealistic then?
 
MaxiKana said:
Oh, then I confused myself :p Then yeah, tomorrow sounds very good in that case, and gold in 2-3 weeks isn't that unrealistic then?
It's not completely out of reach. It is still possible we'll see it in the summer! If not then it'll be a Fall/Autumn release very shortly after the official end of summer (which is 23rd Sept I think).
 
Yeah, that seems resonable and not too far fetched. I just hope that they will be able to release the game worldwide at the same time, and not just via steam.
 
It'll be in American shops at least on the same day as it's playable on Steam. Europe and other parts of the world MAY have to wait a day or two more. But I'm getting it on Steam anyway.
 
Pitbul said:
this is probly why the CS: S betas have been put off a few days. to set this up and extended the betas to the new cafe's in Japan to boost interest.

quoted for emphasis as to why the betas have been delayed.
 
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