PvtRyan
Party Escort Bot
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- Jul 17, 2003
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I can't think of a good one really. First of all, it's Vivendi reporting this, and as wel all know Vivendi was never.... reliable. This time it's more believeable because the headman supposedly said it, and Reuters and CNN report it too. And some argue that Vivendi is now more believable than Valve because they reported the delay back in June. But were they really right about that one? I don't think there were any plans to delay it back then, just recently. But that is a different discussion 
So why would they delay it? Obviously because of the theft incident, but what would that solve? I don't think they have to rewrite the whole code or even the whole network code, sure they need to change stuff but they can't rewrite the whole code before april.
Can't they just release mini patches every week to replace the code so the source becomes useless? Steam is ideal for that.
Releasing in 2004 brings too many problems, for instance they will need to maintain the attention from the community for another 6 months, SIX months. I don't know if there is a gamer alive that will be just as interested now as he will be in 04-2004.
April comes at a really bad time too, now there is a power vaccuum that can easily be filled by HL2, in april and after that HL2 will have to share that marketshare with Doom 3, STALKER, Battlefield: Vietnam and Far Cry.
Now for the HL2 vouchers that come with the ATi XT series, those would be useless and ATi have paid 6 million for NOTHING, maybe good ATi support but those vouchers would be useless. If this delay is real, then the proud XT owners can claim HL2 6 months after they bought there card, which isn't even state of the art anymore. Promoting XT cards with a HL2 as a DX9 game isn't even usefull anymore, there will be plenty of full blown DX9 games around april or may.
NOTE: I'm not saying it can't be delayed, just that it will be very poor timing and a disaster for Valve. I don't think having an updated code then is worth the six month delay.
So why would they delay it? Obviously because of the theft incident, but what would that solve? I don't think they have to rewrite the whole code or even the whole network code, sure they need to change stuff but they can't rewrite the whole code before april.
Can't they just release mini patches every week to replace the code so the source becomes useless? Steam is ideal for that.
Releasing in 2004 brings too many problems, for instance they will need to maintain the attention from the community for another 6 months, SIX months. I don't know if there is a gamer alive that will be just as interested now as he will be in 04-2004.
April comes at a really bad time too, now there is a power vaccuum that can easily be filled by HL2, in april and after that HL2 will have to share that marketshare with Doom 3, STALKER, Battlefield: Vietnam and Far Cry.
Now for the HL2 vouchers that come with the ATi XT series, those would be useless and ATi have paid 6 million for NOTHING, maybe good ATi support but those vouchers would be useless. If this delay is real, then the proud XT owners can claim HL2 6 months after they bought there card, which isn't even state of the art anymore. Promoting XT cards with a HL2 as a DX9 game isn't even usefull anymore, there will be plenty of full blown DX9 games around april or may.
NOTE: I'm not saying it can't be delayed, just that it will be very poor timing and a disaster for Valve. I don't think having an updated code then is worth the six month delay.
