Half Life 2/ATI Bundle pullout


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Reported here.

"During the introduction of the 9800XT and the 9600XT, ATI pulled off one of the biggest coups with the announcement that the XT series of cards will include Valve's highly anticipated Half-Life 2. Unfortunately, ... a coupon was issued instead where the end user would have the option of downloading the game via STEAM or paying a nominal sum to get a physical copy of the CD delivered. Although the delay of Half-Life 2 was a disappointment, gamers rejoiced still; the Half-Life 2 pack in with the 9600 XT was an excellent value as the game would be close to 50$ and the 9600XT at the time of announcement was only 199$."

"Unfortunately in recent weeks there has been a snag that has been introduced - many of ATI's partners are pulling out of the 9600XT Half-Life 2 bundle, both unexpectedly and abruptly."

"Powercolor's version of the story is that ATI pulled the Half-Life 2 bundle"

"[ATI say]: Beginning in December board partners had the option of purchasing the bundle from ATI for a small fee with all RADEON 9800 and RADEON 9600 series products except the RADEON 9800 XT which continued to include the bundle without charge. So, there hasn't been any change in the availability to our partners and they all have the option to continue with the bundle or not"

"A list of manufacturers and whether or not they include Half-Life 2 with their retail products is listed below"

============================

Manufacturer | 9600XT HL2 Bundle?

============================

Sapphire | Selected Models

Transcend | No

Connect3D | No

Gigabyte | No

ATI | Yes

Asus | Yes

Powercolor | If purchased before Dec 31

GECUBE | No

HIS | No

FIC | No

VisionTek | Yes

============================

"This situation, to put it succinctly, sucks, from end users expecting Half Life 2 with retail versions of the 9600XT as PRs from ATI does not make it sound like that it is an optional thing. While it is understandable that the unexpected additional cost of bundling a game may throw a wrench into the plans of manufacturers financially it would be nice to see them try to remedy the situation and be more forthcoming and explicitly state whether or not their particular card includes the bundle. How can this be done? Powercolor has taken a step in the right direction by offering some of their customers the coupon even after they have apparently decided to opt out of the plan. Sapphire does a good job of stating which cards have the bundle and which cards do not, all in one handy Excel file located on their website. Gigabyte needs to pull their press release or issue another one saying that the game is not being included. There are few things worse than being misled as a consumer and it leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth."

"Although there is obviously some miscommunication between ATI and its partners, they should be held somewhat responsible for what their partners include in their cards as Half-Life 2 was heralded with such fanfare during the XT series launch and the inclusion of Half-Life 2 was something that clearly set the 9600XTs above the competing 5700 Ultra. Maybe it would be possible to setup a 1-900 line or some sort of UPC/receipt registration program for those customers who purchased a 9600XT board that did not include Half-Life 2. Charge a nominal fee to cover the cost that they would have passed onto their partners, charge an administration fee for extra work this entails; the bottom line is that something should be done so customers are left out on the lurch."

"ATI has changed a lot as a company in the last couple of years. They are leaving behind a legacy of less than stellar drivers and suspect optimizations. No longer are they playing catch up games with the competition but have positioned themselves as a market leader. This is one of the first potentially major PR issues that ATI has had to deal with in recent memory and hopefully they will deal with this in a manner that would be acceptable to both them and the end user like a market leader should. Gamers are a fickle bunch and showing some goodwill can do a lot in championing their products even further towards enthusiasts"

More info to be found here, here, and here.

For those of you who are lucky enough to have a coupon....hold onto it tight! They may be more rare than was first thought :rolleyes:

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I dunno that ATI can really be held responsible for this... they themselves made the deal with Valve, but we don't know specifics on if that deal was supposed to carry over to ALL of ATI's hardware vendors, do we? (been a while since this deal was announced, so I don't remember). My guess would be that Valve left the option open to each of ATI's vendors whether or not they wanted to include the deal - most likely for a "nominal" fee.

I think it's pretty damn sweet of ATI themselves to have done this deal... Just my $0.02 ;)

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:| my hercules ati radeon 9800 pro came with a voucher... *goes and locks it away*

*cat burglars into Groovedude's Vault, dodging laser beams and moving slowly to avoid motion detectors and using some sorta futuristic signal blocker on security cameras....but upon lifting it, triggering a trap causing a chase sequence like Raiders Of The Lost Ark......*

Or not.

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:ninja: My option is more simple go to the store and buy the fu*king game. It's not that hard and beside valve will make enought for all of us. It's not like they will just make a million or two. :happy:

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*cat burglars into Groovedude's Vault, dodging laser beams and moving slowly to avoid motion detectors and using some sorta futuristic signal blocker on security cameras....but upon lifting it, triggering a trap causing a chase sequence like Raiders Of The Lost Ark......*

Or not.

Muhaaaa :laugh:

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Thank God that I got my coupon. I think that I will just download it off of Steam, and find some way to burn the Steam file to CD to have the back up.

I love ATI.

why back it up?

you can redownload HUNDREDS of times over!

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i gota hl2 coupon, bought 2 send off for it, btw those people tryin 2 get the voucher code off that pic sum1 put, dont bother caz u need the real copy, a photo copy, and receipt of proof of purchase and the barcode off the box it came in!! talk about wanting alot, bitches! :cry:

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i gota hl2 coupon, bought 2 send off for it, btw those people tryin 2 get the voucher code off that pic sum1 put, dont bother caz u need the real copy, a photo copy, and receipt of proof of purchase and the barcode off the box it came in!!  talk about wanting alot, bitches!  :cry:

You only need those if you are sending off for the CD. If you are downloading it from steam, the voucher code is what you need. Now can you see why some people might be interested? :yes:

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err?

S92F-RK2HX-PPGZX-SOKT-DT41Q

I changed some random characters to help defend your copy, but the gist of the code is to show you that you should perhaps ask a moderator to remove that post. (Photoshop is my friend).

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