Valve gives Portal 2 a release date

By Robert Purchese Published 18 August, 2010

Stephen Merchant to vocalise.

Valve has reportedly said Portal 2 will be released on Wednesday, 9th February 2011. The game is in development for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Confirmation comes from gamescom, where CVG also heard that The Office co-creator Stephen Merchant will lend his vocals to the game. He'll bring the Buddy Sphere to life.

Portal 2 made waves at E3 when Valve boss Gabe Newell confirmed the game for PS3. He thanked Sony for not "repeatedly punching [him] in the face" because of his past comments about the console.

Portal 2 at Sony's E3 conference.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (44) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Sonic_D #1 2 years ago

    Yay to new Portal! Nay to that tosser Merchant's vocals being in it, he annoys me greatly.

    Edit: Blimey, didn't reckon on there on being many Merchant fans on here and I certainly wasn't trolling. I genuinely find him very irritating, his voice over on those Barclay ads in particular, boy he sounds like a twat.

    Didn't always dislike him though, back in the early days of XFM ('97/'98 before Capital took over) his and Gervais's show was great listening, really funny. However nowadays I find them both irritating and not funny.
    Edited by 1 at 18/08/10 @ 17:33

  • rojjer #2 2 years ago

    But will there be cake this time?

  • FogHeart #3 2 years ago

    Stephen Merchant? Great....but I must admit the 'placeholder' voice we've seen in clips - apparently one of the devs - was actually pretty good. Poor guy, his fleeting showbiz moment has passed.

  • Xardan #4 2 years ago

    I honestly dont think its going to compare to the first.

  • makeamazing #5 2 years ago

    Yep nothing wrong with Stephen Merchant. Not sure why anyone would call him a tosser, for what being an actor... some people have some serious emotional issues.

  • LR100 #6 2 years ago

    I think Merchant is a good choice.

  • Deckard1 #7 2 years ago

    I wouldn't call him a tosser, but he's not funny in any way shape or form. And he's a big ugly freak, but obviously thats not his fault.

  • The-Builder #8 2 years ago

    So what is the 9th February 2011 in Valve time?
    http://de veloper.valvesoftware.com/wiki/...

  • Shinetop #9 2 years ago

    Yay Episode 3!

    Hey, wait a second...

  • bodypopper #10 2 years ago

    Sorry Valve. No Freeman, no interest.

  • cw- #11 2 years ago

    Gief !!

  • Eraser #12 2 years ago

    "Cant wait for this, not as much as my girlfriend is though. Shes a very casual gamer, but for some reason Portal just grabbed her and she became completley obsessed by it.
    Ill get her this on launch day.......in return for sexual favours of course.     "

    This post alone is enough proof that you, in fact, do not have a girlfriend.

  • Emth #13 2 years ago

    Jesus @Sonic_D and @Deckard1 such vitriol! Smerch has to be one of the least offensive people in showbiz. And if you think Extras isn't funny I'd love to hear what huge list of better British comedies there have been in the last 10 years.

  • spekkeh #14 2 years ago

    I still think this game shouldn't have gotten a sequel. It loses its iconic...ness...icity?

    Still, giddy as a schoolgirl that it did. I feel cheap and excited.

  • dave-on #15 2 years ago

    Can't believe we have 15 comments here and nobody's mentioned Valve time.

  • ignatiusjreilly #16 2 years ago

    I honestly dont think its going to compare to the first.

    I think it'll probably be a better game than the first, but it'll never make as big an impression on me as the original. The whole portal idea and the whole darkly comic vibe were utterly new to me when I first sat down to play the game, and no matter how good it is it'll never be able to recreate that jaw-dropping feeling when I realised I was playing something very special.

    Still, can't wait, of course.

  • Shinetop #17 2 years ago

    Post number nine, dave. Number nine.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #18 2 years ago

    I'd love to hear what huge list of better British comedies there have been in the last 10 years.

    Perhaps most pertinently, there's The Office. Gervais & Merchant haven't managed to equal it yet, let alone better it, certainly not with Extras. But by the same token, that wasn't really down to Stephen Merchant's acting.

  • Widge #19 2 years ago

    No purchase due to no Freeman... the man is a VOID, he is practically not there anyway.

  • Goodfella #20 2 years ago

    I'm somewhat bemused to read negativity towards Stephen Merchant. He's a very talented writer and performer, have you not seen him in Extras, his screen time with Barry from Eastenders is priceless.

  • kinky_mong #21 2 years ago

    I am not a Merchant hater and in fact find him a funny guy, especially as part of the podcasts he does with Gevais. The only thing funnier than the though of his Bristolian voice in a Valve game would be if they managed to get Karl Pilkington for that role!

  • Iain815 #22 2 years ago

    I'm glad they ditched the original guys voice. I didn't like it one bit.

  • Vortex808 #23 2 years ago

    In Feb 2011? As if there's not enough released around then as it is.

    Still, Portal 2 is instant buy for me anyway. The missus'll not be happy as all the games in spring drop through the letterbox........

  • cw- #24 2 years ago

    @Vortex
    Buy Portal 2 on steam (assuming it's reasonably priced), she'll be none the wiser ;)

  • Shinetop #25 2 years ago

    What original guy?

  • Retro_ #26 2 years ago

    Stephen Merchant, good choice, funny guy, silently funnier than Gervais in many ways.

    Feb 9th 2011.... buy Portal 2, there, it's in the diary !

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #27 2 years ago

    Feb 2011 is a good time for me: FAR too many games to play this Christmas! In fact, I'll probably still be knee-deep in Fable by then...

  • Alf-Life #28 2 years ago

    The placeholder voice was horrible! (Sorry, unnamed Valve dev)

    Can't wait, love Smerch... great move, hope he gets to play with the script too! :)

  • Deckard1 #29 2 years ago

    @Emth

    I didn't say extras wasn't funny (though it was pretty poor compared to the office tbh) - I'll stand by the fact that merchant has been painfully unfunny in pretty much everything I've seen him in though. The podcasts are good, but thats due to gervais and pilkington, not him.

  • bodypopper #30 2 years ago

    @Widge No purchase due to no Freeman... the man is a VOID, he is practically not there anyway.

    Neither is Master Chief. At least Freeman has a face.
    I'd rather 'be' Gordo in a game with a proper story and characters to care for than shoot stuff through holes so it appears somewhere else and that. It just didn't grab me. Sorry for being 'wrong'.
    Really though, I'd rather play Episode 3. Or Counterstrike Source 2. Or even Team Fortress 3.
    Not even the mighty Merchant's involvement can thrill me much.
    Edited by 1 at 18/08/10 @ 16:11

  • gjgjg #31 2 years ago

    holiday day booked.
    Merchant? Why? Why put him in there? Id rather not recognise the vo, ruins the atmos. he'll prob put his 'stamp' on it too, clashing two worlds of entertainment. And reality office comedy v fantasy puzzle shooter dont go down so good. Urg

  • hiddenranbir #32 2 years ago

    Peep Show? Thick of It? I thought they were better than Office. :( I loved Extras more than office, too.

    Anyway, I liked Merchant in Tooth Fairy, I think he has good vocals for that thingamajig.
    Edited by 1 at 18/08/10 @ 16:26

  • Dolly #33 2 years ago

    I absolutely loved portal as part of the orange box, which was without a doubt the best value I've ever got out of a £40 full price game. I'm still not entirely sold on paying the same price for the sequel for some reason though. Just something niggles me about it that I can't quite put a finger on. I think it's the thought of going back to the original grey lab again maybe, after the genius way that the first one ended with the promise of what was 'out there' waiting for you. I hope there's more variety in the backgrounds than has been revealed to date, and that we get to escape the labs confines. Hopefully they're keeping a lot back to not spoil us. (I'm not criticising the lab by the way, as it perfectly served its purpose of being a 'sterile' testing environment).
    Never regretted buying a valve game to date though, so will still be a day one purchase :)

  • harshahorizon #34 2 years ago

    Q1 2011 would be a blood bath

  • smithdown #35 2 years ago

    Finally we shall have our cake and be able to eat it too.

    @kinky_mong: Karl's droning Manc accent would be a pretty awesome addition. Maybe that can be an unlockable. Whadya say Valve?

  • TSYNDMonkfish #36 2 years ago

    I wish they hadn't announced SM was in it - it would of made for a great surprise when they released the game to hear his voice.

  • GaryHoward #37 2 years ago

    Awesome, seriously can't wait for this, but not too sure which console to get it on since I have a Xbox 360, a PS3 and a PC. I'll probably get the PS3 version, just to see if what Gabe Newell said about it being the best on that platform is true. And awesome again to them choosing Stephen Merchant as a voice-over, loved the Office, Extras, the podcasts with Gervais and Pilkington, etc, so I am a fan. Glad0s and Merchant will indeed make this sequel a more entertaining one, I guarantee it. Please February, hurry up! :)

  • TadejVig #38 2 years ago

    February 9 2011... so around december 2011. Great.

    Portal 1 is awesome, and I love Valve so I'm definetly prepurchasing Portal 2. Love it.

  • Sonic_D #39 2 years ago

    Re: British Comedy better than The Office or Extras in the last ten years:

    Sean Lock's 15 Storeys High is the best British comedy of the last decade in my opinion, real shame he has chosen to just do panel show stuff now, but then the way this series was treated by the BBC I guess I'm not too surprised. Also loved both series of Look Around You.

    The Office and Extras both pay homage The Larry Sanders Show, the best US sitcom ever (followed by Arrested Development). They both don't come close to touching the level of quality of The Larry Sanders Show.

  • curtlikesmeat #40 2 years ago

    I'd like to echo the sentiment of Karl Pilkington also being invovled, possibly as a perfectly round ball.

  • ExplodingClown #41 2 years ago

    At least it's not Ricky "oh have I mentioned my celebrity 'friends'" Gervais. Can't see why we can't have a decent unknown voice actor who needs the work though. Save Mr. Merchant's no doubt exorbitant fees, put them toward getting HL2 Ep 3 out.

  • GitSomE_UK #42 2 years ago

    Gervais, Merchant & Pilkington = Cunts

    Portal 2 is ruined now as I'll always be thinking of that arseing Barclays advert.... what was wrong with the fella in the demo trailers?

  • trip919 #43 2 years ago

    I love Portal and Merchant - excellent combination. Can't wait!
    Edited by 1 at 18/08/10 @ 22:31

  • Alf-Life #44 2 years ago

    @curtlikesmeat

    lol! yeah... ironic really, the Buddy Sphere would be the perfect character for Karl! (Head like a fucking Buddy Sphere!) :p