Valve Heralds New Portal 2 Delay as Its Shortest Ever

[SilverUchiha]

Hard to imagine to many people getting mad?

I'm literally angry with rage! I'm madder than I've ever been!

Meh. A couple of months means that's about April. Right around my B-Day. That works alright for me. Now there is some time between this and DNF. Not buying one game after another so quickly.

 

[Kris015]

Ha ha ha ha, oh Valve.

 

[Lord Legion]

"In the year 2525, when portal 2 will finally arrive."

Rather have it late and polished to a glistening shine then, not. cough/Obsidian\cough

 

[UnravThreads]

I'm surprised people actually consider patience when it comes to Valve and their delays. I always thought it more prudent just to forget Valve existed until they actually announced a release date for something.

Nah. Best thing with Valve is to forget about their products until they've actually released. Ignore release dates, ignore schedules, ignore PR releases - Just wait.

so why does Valve get a free pass?

Except Valve don't get a free pass. They get a lot of stick (Primarily on their own forums, I believe) over their "poor" ability to release games. Left 4 Dead, for example, was supposed to get the most recent content pack a month after The Passing came out (Which itself was delayed, I believe), but I think it eventually took half a year for it to finally release.

However, Valve make up for it with constant support for their games (The HL2 games still get patches, and HL2 is six years old!) and their high quality games. BioWare (To continue your example), on the other hand, came under flak this year for delaying Return to Ostagar the day before release, which is utterly terrible. At least Valve have given much more warning. It's so far away as to not really matter, and one could argue that it allows Portal 2 to miss a fairly heavy release period (EA have a few games coming out around then such as Crysis 2, Dragon Age 2, Bulletstorm, Sims Medieval etc).

 

[LTK_70]

Valve Heralds New Portal 2 Delay as Its Shortest Ever

Did you get this directly from Valve, or do you have a source?

 

[Zhukov]

If Bioware announced a 14 month delay on Mass Effect 3, or didn't even give a release date at all and just said 'I dunno, when it's done.' People would be denouncing them and burning effigies of Shepard in the street...

I wouldn't. My reaction would be little more then, "Well, crap."

...so why does Valve get a free pass?

Because we're all used to it.

When a company announces a release date, the expectation is that they will stick to it. If they fail to meet that expectation, people get disappointed and angry.
But when Valve announce a release date, nobody expects them to stick to it. So when they announce the inevitable delay, nobody is particularly surprised or disappointed.

 

[Crowser]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Damn! this was the ONE game above all else that I was looking forward to =/
Two months delay better = double the length of the co-op damn it!

 

[Moriarty70]

Just being 'a little less late than usual' is not something to boast about, because you are still late. Sometimes it seems like Valve are the only ones who can get away with this, and I really do wonder why. If Bioware announced a 14 month delay on Mass Effect 3, or didn't even give a release date at all and just said 'I dunno, when it's done.' People would be denouncing them and burning effigies of Shepard in the street, so why does Valve get a free pass?

I wouldn't say it's so much a free pass as it is expected. They've set this up as their method of doing things from early on. Plus, their delays usually result in a quality title. It's the same way Blizzard gets away with it.

"It's done when it's done," is a big promise that requires a big payoff to get away with. If they didn't bring out quality material to back it up people wouldn't accept it and sales would reflect that.

 

[Kukakkau]

So they're happy about not being able to meet the deadline they set themselves..riiiight.

Guessing they're going to be cheering about longest delay with Episode 3 then.
(And don't quote me and say be patient = I don't really like valve games, medicore at best)

 

[ethaninja]

I'm guessing nothing can beat ep3

Ah well, I have a plethora of games to play in the meantime.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I'm voting that there's going to be another delay.

All bets welcome!

 

[The Arbiter of Cool]

This is my most anticipated game, but a two month wait is hardly anything to be upset over. At least now I'll have time to devote to Dead Space 2 and Dues Ex.

 

[bam13302]

This is not the sort of thing to celebrate.

It reminds me of the XKCD strip, a primary school teacher reassuring people he wears a condom while teaching. Strictly speaking it's better than the alternative but someone somewhere is doing their job very wrong. (Okay so it doesn't really but I wanted to use that quote somewhere)

Just being 'a little less late than usual' is not something to boast about, because you are still late. Sometimes it seems like Valve are the only ones who can get away with this, and I really do wonder why. If Bioware announced a 14 month delay on Mass Effect 3, or didn't even give a release date at all and just said 'I dunno, when it's done.' People would be denouncing them and burning effigies of Shepard in the street, so why does Valve get a free pass?

because they have done it enough for us to be used to it, and because they have continuously proven to us that it is worth the wait

 

[MmmFiber]

Just being 'a little less late than usual' is not something to boast about, because you are still late. Sometimes it seems like Valve are the only ones who can get away with this, and I really do wonder why. If Bioware announced a 14 month delay on Mass Effect 3, or didn't even give a release date at all and just said 'I dunno, when it's done.' People would be denouncing them and burning effigies of Shepard in the street, so why does Valve get a free pass?

I wouldn't say it's so much a free pass as it is expected. They've set this up as their method of doing things from early on. Plus, their delays usually result in a quality title. It's the same way Blizzard gets away with it.

"It's done when it's done," is a big promise that requires a big payoff to get away with. If they didn't bring out quality material to back it up people wouldn't accept it and sales would reflect that.

Blizzard has been getting away with that for a long while now. Diablo 3? Starcraft 2? Patch day for WoW? All of that would be ridiculous for a lesser company, but Blizzard delivers great games... just like valve. Portal 2 has a very high probability of being a great game, so most people will forgive a few months of delay. I know I will. If portal blows, though, valve will lose a lot of credit with me.

 

[Deathfish15]

This is not the sort of thing to celebrate.

It reminds me of the XKCD strip, a primary school teacher reassuring people he wears a condom while teaching. Strictly speaking it's better than the alternative but someone somewhere is doing their job very wrong. (Okay so it doesn't really but I wanted to use that quote somewhere)

Just being 'a little less late than usual' is not something to boast about, because you are still late. Sometimes it seems like Valve are the only ones who can get away with this, and I really do wonder why. If Bioware announced a 14 month delay on Mass Effect 3, or didn't even give a release date at all and just said 'I dunno, when it's done.' People would be denouncing them and burning effigies of Shepard in the street, so why does Valve get a free pass?

Valve can get away with it because...

A) They're not a publicly traded company so they don't have to answer to stock holders with product releases or even original IP's.

B) The quality in their products when released, and even the support post-release, far surpasses any other developer.

 

[Chris Sandford]

isnt it Obama's favorite game?
Maybe he can give Valve some "motivation" to finish it?

 

[Denamic]

Don't worry, Valve time is accurate.
They'll have another delay.
It's practically already decided.

 

[SpcyhknBC]

damn..

And to think it was going to be released on my birthday! D:

It's my birthday, though that's assuming no more Valve time

 

[Dr. Paine]

Well, give me more time to save up to buy it.

Also, you forgot that it's also coming out on the Mac.