A post by Gabe Newell
on the H2fallout.com forum has confirmed that Valve has met the, previously announced,
September 15 delivery date for its Release Candidate to Vivendi. The news was confirmed by
Doug Lombardi and Newell himself in order to avoid the possibility of another Fools Gold
fiasco.
This news story does not, in any way, mean that Half-Life 2 has gone gold. It
is extremely significant however, as the delivery of the RC means that a version of the game
deemed by Valve to be fit for release is now in the publisher's hands.
Knowing the
troubled history of H-L 2, it is easy to see how things may go wrong. For starters, Vivendi
could reject the RC for a wide variety of reasons, more cynical reporters would suggest
timing as another possible reason for an RC rejection. If that becomes the case, Valve will
have to address its publishers concerns in another RC and so on.
The best case
scenario involves Vivendi accepting this RC quickly which would take us to the next step,
the Gone Gold announcement. One possibility is that bugs or errors discovered are allowed to
remain in the game and rectified in a quick patch. Once Gold the game could (potentially) be
immediately delivered to those who have already preloaded it using steam.
However
uncertain, Mr. Newell's announcement marks a significant step forward in the game's
development cycle and indicates that this troubled title is about to make its eager fans,
very happy
gamers.
