[DEFINITIVE] Half-Life 2 Thread


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I'd like to add that VU brought this on themselves.  The whole reason Valve created Steam was because they were sick of publishers taking all the money for making a $0.25 copy.  Publishers are greedy ######, plain and simple.

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Well if this is the case, why do they charge the same as retail? Oh, right, same reason as the publishers: greed.

Tangiable costs make up 50% of a game purchase cost. That is the shop (gets a big cut), delivery (from the factory in china or whereever to the shops) and printing the CD and manual itself.

Frankly Valve should charge $35 for HL2 Bronze - why not $25, I hear you say. Well there is credit card costs, plus bandwidth costs. Add a little extra for the development of steam and that seems right.

Well if this is the case, why do they charge the same as retail? Oh, right, same reason as the publishers: greed.

Tangiable costs make up 50% of a game purchase cost. That is the shop (gets a big cut), delivery (from the factory in china or whereever to the shops) and printing the CD and manual itself.

Frankly Valve should charge $35 for HL2 Bronze - why not $25, I hear you say. Well there is credit card costs, plus bandwidth costs. Add a little extra for the development of steam and that seems right.

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woah were is it 25 bronze? not on my steam!

Update: George Broussard of 3D Realms had this to say on Shacknews:

Hey Vivendi...seriously, **** you.

Broussard is my new hero. I mean sure we are all ****ed he hasn't released DNF, but if that man can whip out and rag on VU because HE wants to play HL2, he's my hero.

Well, of course he's upset. He needs to play the engine which he will announce he will be shifting his "game" to!

But seriously, all you ever hear from Broussard is about what game he's been playing at the moment. And you wonder why he'll never finish that damned DNF.

Well if this is the case, why do they charge the same as retail? Oh, right, same reason as the publishers: greed.

Tangiable costs make up 50% of a game purchase cost. That is the shop (gets a big cut), delivery (from the factory in china or whereever to the shops) and printing the CD and manual itself.

Frankly Valve should charge $35 for HL2 Bronze - why not $25, I hear you say. Well there is credit card costs, plus bandwidth costs. Add a little extra for the development of steam and that seems right.

584921157[/snapback]

i am under the understanding that they cannot have the price any lower. i could have sworn that in the past i have seen that valve cannot undercut vivendi's prices, as it is against their contract.

I have a question about Halflife Source, does anyone know if Valve are going to release this as a stand alone add on?

I know it comes with the silver deal, but I didnt want to pay for that (I got an ATI voucher).

Do you think it will ever be avilable as a download?

anyone called any of the stores (us) and asked if they are doing launch a lauch party or anything? what stores did a launch party for Halo 2?

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There is no launch party everyone that was probley planning on buying it has already probley bought it. Hell, I did... :rofl:

Well if this is the case, why do they charge the same as retail? Oh, right, same reason as the publishers: greed.

Tangiable costs make up 50% of a game purchase cost. That is the shop (gets a big cut), delivery (from the factory in china or whereever to the shops) and printing the CD and manual itself.

Frankly Valve should charge $35 for HL2 Bronze - why not $25, I hear you say. Well there is credit card costs, plus bandwidth costs. Add a little extra for the development of steam and that seems right.

584921157[/snapback]

Valve gets less then half of the profits from each product sold, even though they are the ones who created and funded it. And yes, as others have said Valve cannot charge less then $50 as it would be in violation of their contract with VU. Oh and the CD, cardboard box and manual cost VU around $1 per copy in all, which means they are making around 25 times what they pay. It's called buying in bulk.

i am under the understanding that they cannot have the price any lower. i could have sworn that in the past i have seen that valve cannot undercut vivendi's prices, as it is against their contract.

584921306[/snapback]

Hmm... An anti-competitive price fixing agreement... Someone call the EU

After taxes, HL2 Bronze cost me ?34.00 - which basically is no cheaper than going out and buying it in the shops here. But I just wanted to get CS : Source to play immediately before too many newbies get on there and wanted to support Valves content delivery system as despite a very shaky start and a lot of bad mouthing, it seems to have matured into a very good product!

:))

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