Buy The Right Box!

[{RA}SKYFURNACE]

When you buy HL2 make sure you get the right version.....FFS this is going to confuse everyone.......everyone = regular consumer.


Source:
http://halflife2.homelan.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5867&perpage=15&pagenumber=1


A screenshot of the email...

http://redsmeg.ozforces.com.au/p2p_email.jpg

Gabe Gabe Gabe!!!

As I'm sure you are aware the HL2 community is going crazy with the rumour that HL2 is going to be like a MMORPG and you will have to pay a fee each month via Steam to play HL2 multiplayer.

I don't believe this to be true but can you please put it to rest once and for all. PLEEEEEEASE.

Kind Regards

Matt

Here's my current thinking: Some people want to buy Half-Life 2 in a store. Right now we have three SKUs planned at three price points. One will have single-player only and not play MODs and we think of that as the mass market SKU (sold mainly at the Costcos and Walmarts of the world). The second is our traditional single-player plus multiplayer SKU that runs MODs and is sold at places like EBX. The third is the collector's edition SKU with lots of cool bonus stuff for people who like cool bonus stuff.

In the Steam world, some people will want to buy it once, like the middle SKU above. Other people will want to buy the game on subscription (e.g. $9.95/month). The good news for the "buy it once" crowd is, well, they only have to pay once. The bad news is that when we come out with new content (expansion products, TF 2, and presumably other games) then they have to pay separately for those. We're pretty sure that the $9.95 guys are going to get the better value, as we've been pretty good over the years at generating a lot of content.

Now nobody has done this before, so we're scratching our heads and massaging the plans to make sure we've got the best set of options. We've had some feedback that we should sell the top SKU (single-player only no MODs) on Steam, and my reaction has been "yeah, right, for the three people in the world who have a broadband connection, are sophisticated enough to purchase software over the Internet, but DON'T want to play MODs and multiplayer". Some people have said "I want a subscription, but I think the box and the manual are cool, so what about sending me those" and I think that's pretty interesting and we're trying to figure out what to do for them (needless to say Sierra isn't exactly jumping for joy at the idea of selling us boxes so people don't buy Half-Life 2 in stores).

But nowhere has there been a suggestion that people pay in the store and then pay a monthly fee on top of that a la the MMORPG.

Gabe

[SoBeiT]

Sorry it sounds like a huge mess in the making.

Somehow when it comes to money, Co's can think of more ways to get it from you then give you a fair value for your original 50 bucks!

[ElectricHead]

Why is it that nowadays game companies seem to just want to screw up everything?



EH

[Phanataz]

Ack. Someone draw me a diagram of the one im supposed to buy..

[Salyavin]

Let me see if I have this straight. There are 4 ways to get HL2:

HL2 single-player only that doesn't play mods - Walmart/Costco box for around $30
HL2 SP/MP that plays mods - EBGames/Gamestop box for around $50
HL2 Collectors Edition - same as SP/MP and plays mods with extra non-game stuff in the box for a premium price, say $70
Download via Steam for $9.95/month. Also get all future Valve games (the long delayed TF2, the vaporware CS2, etc) and exclusive content like maps and mods as long as you keep subscribing.

I see a lot of pissed off customers. Those who buy the cheap version are screwed if there are good mods that come out, because they can't play them without paying again for the same game by buying the SP/MP box or subscribing to Steam. Many will buy the more expensive box so they have that option, but do they really? Steam will need to have regular content (not just a new map here or there) each month or people will cancel (and are then screwed because they can't play HL2 anymore). Valve doesn't exactly have a good track record for providing timely content, so they may rely on mod makers and encourage them to make the good mods available only via Steam. Anyone who bought the HL2 retail box or CE to play mods will be screwed if they can't get any good mods. Sure, they can play HL2 multiplayer, but going by HL1, the MP in the base game wasn't all that. The real action was in CS, TFC, Jailbreak, DoD, etc.. Mods whose HL2 equivalents are likely to be snapped up for Steam.

Some may subscribe to Steam because you do better than break even if you get 2 games+1 exp pack in a year ($50+$50+$30 vs. $9.95 x 12), plus the exclusive mods, etc. However, they're essentially pre-ordering every future Valve game, whether it's any good or not. TF2 may suck donkey balls but you've already "bought" it by paying the $9.95/month up front. And if you cancel Steam because there's not enough new content, you don't play HL2 anymore... or anything else you've already downloaded. (It has to work that way to stop people from subscribing for only 1 month to get HL2 for $10).

The frustrating thing about this setup is that there's no way to make an informed purchase decision with the little information available. Too much is based on what the mod community may do with HL2 and how it's distributed. I for one liked the HL single player game and didn't care for CS et. al., so I'm leaning the Costco box just to continue the HL story. But there's already that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that if I do that, I'll miss out on something (like the cool They Hunger trilogy of mods for HL2). Bugger.

Cheers,
Salyavin

[radio667]

Grrrrrrrrr. i knew HL2 was too good to be true :(

[-F7]

That's funny...a guy worried about paying a monthly fee, trying to 'win one for the masses' and then decrypting a DVD for copying purposes (see taskbar).

Anyway, I doubt Valve would do any of this. It just doesn't make sense.

BTW who the hell is this Gabe guy>?

[Salyavin]

BTW who the hell is this Gabe guy>?Founder and Managing Director of Valve. http://www.valvesoftware.com/people.htm

Cheers,
Salyavin

[Phanataz]

I thought it was Mark Rein's brother..:D


And thanks for helping us understand that mess, Salyavin.

[Salyavin]

And thanks for helping us understand that mess, Salyavin.Hehe, my post is the extreme pessimist's view so it may not be as bad as all that. I just hate it when companies play "confuse the consumer" to get us to spend more $ than we need to. Did I mention I hate phone companies too? :)

Cheers,
Salyavin

[Creeper]

There's gonna hafta be some tricky EULA work if they're to keep custom mods as Steam-only. :mad:

[{RA}SKYFURNACE]

There's gonna hafta be some tricky EULA work if they're to keep custom mods as Steam-only. :mad:

well since they bought a couple of the big name mods ( dod / CS / TF / etc...) i think those are the mods they will control through steam, not to mention purchasing other popular Mods to make more cash off their sub service..... this has the potential to be like a vampire frenzy.

GG Community support = $$$$$$$

[SoBeiT]

See, I won't do the long term myself.

I may be there for a short time, but not years like UT.

People who "pay" for a service expect sooo much more and are almost always disappointed in what they get.

[Paladin]

I think a large part of the Steam thing is that this way, they can sell the demo for $9.95. You get the full game for a month (but you have to download it) to try it out. If you finish it fine. If you enjoy it so much you want the multiplayer/mod component, then you can hit the store. Since one of the other alternatives was to go the route of the Planetside beta and make the demo a FilePlanet exclusive. But then they have to share the $$$ with Gamespy, and I for one don't wanna give Gamespy any more money.

The only HL mod I ever played was Action Halflife, which I think I played twice. So I could do the Steam thing and come out ahead, assuming I can finish the game in a month or two. No muss and only a minimal amount of fuss. I'd get to play the whole single-player game for under $20.

Now as for confusing the consumer, I agree, that's main problem with this. Not so much the regular box vs. the collector's set, but the Walmart one bugs me. On the other hand, if the buyer isn't sophisticated enough to know there are different versions, they probably are only going need the single-player only. I just hope the Walmart version isn't packaged as Headcrap Hunter Extreme.

[IHopeToGod]

I'm not shocked by the subscription deal and the ability for Mods to make money since I already knew this was coming with Half-Life2;) . However this retail business of having a Half-Life2 with no multiplayer is pretty silly. Normal people especially parents are going to buy this handicapped version as presents for people who most likely wanted the multiplayer version. Confusing the customer is always a bad thing.

The "pay to play" idea will not have any effect on Mod makers that want to create free mods but with this money incentive you have to wonder if all the good Mod teams will want to charge you to play. But you will NOT have to pay to play multiplayer and normal mods that people create if you buy the regular version of Half-Life2. This keeps getting overlooked amid the unecessary complicated options Valve has chosen. I just hope Valve did not put in a bad multiplayer so that TeamFortress2 and CounterStrike2 will sell well (assuming counterStrike2 does not ship with Half-Life2)

Team Fortress2 (and perhaps CounterStrike2) will be full games now so you will be able to buy them in stores.

Half-Life2 and Valve is the only game and company that would have the balls to try something like this. It could back fire however because of the confusion. Well since Valve says Half-Life2 is 10 times better than Half-Life which many argue is the best First-Person shooter ever made maybe they will succeed. If they do other games will be doing exactly this. But once again You will NOT have to pay to play multiplayer and normal mods that people create if you buy the regular version of Half-Life2.