With that in mind, unless you want to get everything in Steam, you're going to be forced into the orange box. Granted, this won't affect Xbox as much as it will PC, but perhaps some PC owners who were going to get the black box will now get the orange box and replay the games they already have for PC on their Xbox.
Valve canceled Half-life 2 Black Box. It's a version that's only available to the PC but I feel that it still has some relevance to the PS3 and 360 sales. Basically the Black Box version didn't contain Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2 Episode 1. So as it stands now the only PC version of this game is selling as the whole set, which most of the people who would buy this game already have those two games. This means that the only way for PC users who have the original Half-Life 2 and Episode one are forced to buy from Steam (which is download only). Downloads are usually counted as sales unless the company (in this case: Valve) releases their sales data. I also believe that this could drive sales on the consoles up. There are still a lot of people who don't like the idea of downloading games. Who knows maybe I'm just going in circles. I'm sure someone could argue that this has no bearing on the consoles but I want someone to put it together better than I have. Here's my source:
I agree with Joe80, this is definitely worth the money spent buying it. You get two complete other games, Portal and Team Fortress 2 and you get the expansions to Half-Life 2, the episodes. If Valve wanted to make some money, they could justify releasing each part of this package either over XBL( at like $10 for the each episode(what the current price of Episode One is at the moment)) or at retail, but are providing a good value and if Team Fortress 2 lives up to the hype and Portal turns out to be as innovative and fun as it looks, then this could be one of the best buys for anyone owning a Xbox360, even more so if you love FPSs.
I still expect this game to pull at least 1.5 million over its lifetime, maybe 2 million if enough people hear about it and if it is not released near the launch of Halo 3, which would cause it to become overshadowed and lose sales.
I certainly think it is. Players are getting: Half-Life 2 Episode One Episode Two Portal Team Fortress 2.
And they will all look and play fantastic. Many, including myself, have decided not to buy the xbox1 port because they know this is coming. This is a great value, something lacking with next gen right now.
Half Life 2 was already available on the X-Box and can be purchased at a budget price now. It's a great port, with only a few slowdowns in framerate when the action is intense.
So this release is basically for the episodic content and multiplayer mods. Is that enough for gamers to spend an extra $40?
I have to admit this game is a great addition to the console market and long overdue. HL has had iconic status when it comes to FPS on the PC and online gaming.
I just hope that sales figures don’t rely too much on the PC players moving over to console. Now this is a personal opinion but keyboard and mouse is the most responsive and easiest to use form of control in FPS's. I have a feeling PC gamers will find the control frustrating compared to the PC I know I have but that’s me I guess.
But in saying that it’s an awesome game and an awesome series, I got money on it and I hope it does well.
I suspect that if Valve sells this game for $50 (or even $60, though $50 would generate more sales), that it will sell like crazy, up into the 2 million range over its lifetime. This game is a great deal, as it is really a package with many games in one, from Portal to Team Fortress 2 to Half Life 2 itself. It would be hard to imagine someone fresh off of Gears of War or Resistance: Fall of Man, not picking this game up to further their next-gen FPS experience.
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