News that Valve plans to ship release candidates to Vivendi Universal on September 15 has further fueled speculation that Half-Life 2 may not be released until November 2004.
The expected delay will come as a shock to fans of the game, already disappointed by the many delays to the original September 30, 2003 release date.
Some speculation on a possible September 30, 2004 release now seems very optimistic and unlikely considering Valve will not give a straight answer on the release, choosing to place the ball in Vivendi's court by stating We're currently planning to send release candidates to Vivendi by September 15th, however, VUG hasn't given us a ship date yet. Might be best for you to ask them directly.
It would seem, however, unlikely that a publisher could provide a release date before trying out the release candidates. So we are left slightly confused as to who is actually responsible for deciding that elusive date.
Vivendi has, of course, refused to comment on H-L 2, so we have a strange situation where a game, we are told, is about to release but no one wants to risk giving a precise date. Meanwhile, Steam PCs have already received 2 GBs of Half-Life 2 even though Valve is not sure of when the finished product may be ready.
While all the insiders claim ignorance regarding H-L 2s release, a recent report by Wedbush Morgan claims that November's Vivendi-Universal release Half-Life 2... will sell over 1 million units worldwide. This isn't the first time we've said this about Half - Life 2 but go figure.
