ATI comments on HL2 bundle
"Have some other games in the meantime."
ATI has issued a statement this weekend on the status of the Half-Life 2/Radeon bundle offer, which was announced alongside a raft of new ATI graphics products on September 30th, the game's original release date, during lavish launch parties in Munich and San Francisco. Since then of course, Half-Life 2 has been pushed back and back and blighted repeatedly by incidents including the theft of source code and illegal distribution of the E3 demo code through warez channels.
In the statement this weekend, ATI encouraged fans to "contact Valve" for more information on the status of the release, which seems like a bit of a cop-out to us, given how tight-lipped the wounded developer has been in light of recent events. ATI also revealed that anybody who bought into the Half-Life 2/Radeon bundle can now get their hands on an added bonus, using the product key from their HL2 coupon to access the "Valve Premier Pack" via Steam - a package entitling them to Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress Classic, Deathmatch Classic, Ricochet and expansion pack Opposing Force. The deal expires when Half-Life 2 becomes available.
On a related note, we doubt this is the last time we'll hear the words "Valve Premier Pack". Given the developer's predilection for premium content delivery via Steam, we wouldn't be too surprised if it turned out to be one of the Steam subscription options once the much maligned download service finally comes together.