HL2: Episode One delayed

By Tom Bramwell Published 27 March, 2006

While Gabe Newell talks story.

Half-Life 2: Episode One is now due out on May 31st according to Valve, although it'll still launch simultaneously on Steam and at retail, priced $19.99.

Speaking to Game Informer at GDC last week, marketing director Doug Lombardi confirmed the slip - Valve had previously been targeting an April 24th launch.

Meanwhile, in an interview that also touched on digital distribution plans and Valve's future plans, founder and MD Gabe Newell said that it took him "seven hours" to play through the episode recently. "There's a lot of variability of how long it takes people to play," however.

Newell also offered a glimpse of what players can expect from the story, which picks up at the end of Half-Life 2. Now, this is probably redundant, but if you haven't finished Half-Life 2 yet you'll want to skip the next quote...

"You’re on top of an exploding building, okay, so how do you not all die. It answers a bunch of those questions. It also raises some questions about what the G-Man’s real role is in the Half-Life universe, so there are some surprises there for people," said Newell.

The Valve man also talked a bit about Steam and how digital distribution and free weekends, like the one used to promote Day of Defeat: Source recently, have gone over, and revealed more of the latter are planned. Furthermore, friend trials allow you to show stuff to your online chums - something we've also seen with NCsoft's MMORPGs like City of Heroes in Europe.

"If you bought a copy of one of our games you can give five trials to your friends. You type in your e-mail address and then you’ll see the first time that they play you’ll have this little screen where you can say, 'Oh look, he’s playing. Oh, he hasn’t played yet so I’m going to delete him and replace him with somebody else.' And give your friends a chance to play."

Newell believes strongly in digital distribution, as you might imagine, but added that he was cautious about how Valve uses it.

"I think you have to be careful. Digital distribution is not a portal. It’s not a different way for people to be a publisher. It’s tools for developers to connect with their audience," he said, adding, "I would be really surprised if, twelve months from now, any title doesn’t have some form of digital distribution strategy."

Half-Life 2: Episode One, formerly known as Aftermath, is the first in what Valve reckons will be a range of episodic content - with a second instalment already in development.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Furbs #1 6 years ago

    Valve in delay shocker...

    I cant wait for digital distribution to take off. Cheaper games, and earlier release dates!!! \o/

    Oh /o\

  • SeesThroughAll #2 6 years ago

    HAHAHAHAHAHA!

    That's Valve, heh?

    BWAHAHAHA!

  • Talha #3 6 years ago

    It sucks. First they change the excellent 'Aftermath' moniker to the bland (and illogical) 'Episode 1'. Then they delay it and delay it and delay it. Hey, Newell, Alyx's boobs were ALREADY perfect - please don't spend three years obtaining just the right degree of curvature!

    By the way, call me dumb, but what does this \o/ thingy mean?

  • Genji #4 6 years ago

    I... HAVE... THE POOOOOOOWEEEEEEEER!

    *music*
    G-MAN

  • t1nt`1n #5 6 years ago

    Whateeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...............

  • smoison #6 6 years ago

    Considering how much HL and HL2 story made sense, they may as well skip the story...


    Put Co-op in the damn game, and why does it cost 20 bucks directly from valve, when it will be 20 bucks at some retailers to?

    Digital distribution will mean we wont get a CD, we can get it almost instantly, but the price will never CHANGE!

  • Talha #7 6 years ago

    @smoison : For you the story didn't make sense - for millions others, it did. Nothing worthy of A C Clarke perhaps but it was deep, intriguing and well presented. Take the story out of HL & HL2 and you are left with fabulous artwork, competent-at-best shooting, and totally linear level design - not the stuff of dreams.

  • bunglebonce #8 6 years ago

    Digital distribution = bigger profit margins. It doesn't mean they'll be selling it cheaper.

  • space_ace #9 6 years ago

    uh, how did that happen?! :-D

  • towser #10 6 years ago

    @talha

    \O/ is someone waving their arms in the air and saying yay! or similar

  • Talha #11 6 years ago

    @towser : Thanks buddy - that's clever, now I look at it.

  • Eraser #12 6 years ago

    episode one? What's half-life 2 itself then?

  • reality_cheque #13 6 years ago

    Oh /o\

    OK, who hung Furbs upside down? :D

  • smelly #14 6 years ago

    why does it cost 20 bucks directly from valve, when it will be 20 bucks at some retailers to?


    Because if it was cheaper to download then retail would get REALLY pissed off and refuse to sell it. And retail is still their biggest market.

  • Tomo #15 6 years ago

    I would rather have it on a CD too :[

  • Talha #16 6 years ago

    In the face of all congregated geeks and tech-nerds and self-absorbed digital intellectuals, I hereby proclaim my true and undying love for packaged games on pieces of plastic with a cardboard box arround them. it just feels right - as opposed to a few gigabytes directly downloaded to your hard drive, and will go to hell with the slightest sneeze of the same.

  • Kiigan #17 6 years ago

    It's so fucking unprofessional to keep setting dates and then missing them though. If they aren't in a position to commit to a release date, how about shutting the fuck up? People will only tolerate so many delays and missed dates before they stop caring altogether.

  • Talha #18 6 years ago

    @Kiigan : Had it been any other dev, I would have agreed with you. They are Valve, though, and they know it, sadly.

    We are forced to care.

  • Artemus #19 6 years ago

    Only Valve could take this long on an bloody EXPANSION. I remember an interview where they said they could get further HL games out quicker now that the groundwork had been done. Pfft.

  • Kiigan #20 6 years ago

    Talha: yeah, I know it :) I'll just keep coming back and taking it!

  • CargoCult #21 6 years ago

    Ahahahah hahaha hahahaha hahaaahaaha haha!!!!

    *falls off chair in a completely cryptic manner*

  • freedumb #22 6 years ago

    hmmm...just logged into steam for the first time in about 2 months, and my account has been diabled. Anyone know what's happened, or had any similar experiences?

  • [TR] #23 6 years ago

    I stil think Valve should start doing their own thing and sell this one exclusively on Steam at a lower price.
    $20 is too much for around 6h worth of game, digital or retail.
    You need Steam and an internet connection to play it anyway, and this being episodic just makes much more sense to distribute it through Steam only.
    (since we're talking about Valve I can't really point out that no one would want to spend $20 every 2/3 months for more episodes)
    Edited by [TR] at 28/03/06 @ 09:02

  • Talha #24 6 years ago

    [TR]: A few months ago I would agree, but these days most 50 quid games end up at being about 10 hours long, so it is a fair deal.

    Every 2-3 months? Are you kidding? Make that every 2-3 years!

  • drumbaby #25 6 years ago

    Probably just stacking the barrels a bit higher ready for the gravity gun take down. Wahoooo!!

  • kangarootoo #26 6 years ago

    @smoison

    "Put Co-op in the damn game, and why does it cost 20 bucks directly from valve, when it will be 20 bucks at some retailers to? "

    Thats a standard thing outside of games. You have the Trade price and the Retail price. Distributors get it at Trade, becauyse thats what they are. We get it at Retail, because thats what we are. Fruit and Veg, Jewellery and Furniture are all the same. You might get a bit of a discount if you buy direct, but why should the creator throw away money people are clearly prepared to pay (which is what business all comes down to really).