ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

July 5, 2005 - 9:00pm

According to British website the inquirer, the secret behind the amount of money invested by ATI on Valve's Half-Life 2 is finally out. It appears that the Canadian graphics company pushed about USD 8 million Valve's way for the privilege of associating its products with the Top MegaGame of 2004

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This staggering amount of money was a combination of a variety of promotions involved in the ATI/Valve deal. USD 2.4 million was given to Valve in cash while an additional USD 1.2 million was spent on marketing for the game finally a further amount of USD 4.4 million was spent by ATI and partners in order to secure the bundling rights for H-L 2.

It is not certain if this deal breaks any records as nVidia is well-known for investing large sums in games as well but it seems likely that the deal proved profitable for ATI. The delays in the launch of Half-Life 2 prolonged the availability of voucher-containing ATI cards while we all know the success story that was the 9800/9600 series. Although we accept that the 96xx range was made up of fine products (probably the best available at the time) it still seems unlikely that a company would have been able to sell that many high-end boards without the H-L 2 association. The need of gamers to make the most of their H-L 2 experience and the voucher offer by ATI proved a deadly combination that did wonders to ATIs market share but also to its overall reputation in the graphics market.

The actual scale of the ATI/Valve deal and its success may even make the most cynical among you suspect ATI execs of the source code theft from Valve.

Comments

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

@ Anonymousat 17:45 6/7/2005$8.50 an hour, local gamespot knockoff, we get all the fanboys in town pouring in cause we got systems linked together, where they can pay 3 bucks to play for an hour, and I have to listen to thier fanboy chatter all day long, I did get to see a fist fight between a Halo fanboy and a HL2 fanboy once though, it was funny!

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

Anyways, back to the topic..I'd really wish that ATI & nVidia would put their money towards more effecient & compatible video cards, at a more affordable price. I mean really.. who f'in cares what kind of card you has, as long as it's at a performance & support level that'll have the best response.I mean.. all that money.. and for what? Paying off game developers to have their corporate logo flashed at gamers.. c'mon.. it's like some pervert in a trenchcoat flashing us..Let's face it.. all gamers really want is to not have to wait 10 minutes while trying press

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

Its not just that they bribe to get better compatible drivers the games they think people want to pay. So their cards come out on top due to a inside edge it's just how they do things now having their logos force fed to everyone is a bonus.

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

Anon @ 17:48..Is that for real or are you just kidding?If its true guys were fighting over halo and HL2 then something is seriously wrong with them!Jesus i just dont get it..some very wierd people about!!Oh btw you guys are working for peanuts. In usa? I work in F.O.T.L (a US company) in europe and we get equivelent of about 20 US dollars an hour

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

I got my voucher!I think it was a great idea, ilthough i ended up buying a 9800pro down the road, with the cost of the yet to be released game my 9600se was a steal!Even if the 9600se produced less then desirable results, it was a good trade off to be one of the first people to have the game.And i bet it pushed many a 9x00 card out the door, considering how bad doom3 ended up being...Ati made a very smart choice.Yes yes..i know hl2 was short, but there is more on the way, and cs-source beats anything id has ever come up with..and thats free.

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

Personaly I didn't care for HL2, I tried the demo, it was impressive looking, VERY impressive looking, cool physics too, and how about them outdoor levels! But I also tried the Doom 3 demo, Also very impressive looking, and it left me wanting more!(I'm probably one of the few people who feels the flashlight/weapon switching adds tension and a bit a fear to the experience)I think the two games are geared towards different players, but some people can't understand that.

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

This bribing goes on all the time. And the people who get screwed are the consumers. US! Stip these backroom deals! Reminds me of the bulls**t EA pulled with the NFL. Only EA Madden can use the liscence and Not Sega 2k sports series which is better. Bulls**t these backroom deals. Screws us all

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

doom3 and half life 2 are almost COMPLETELY opposite, thats why 99% of the ppl who like one of the two dont like the other one. Most ppl that like hl2 hate doom3 (me for example) and most ppl that like doom3 hate hl2. There are the occasional ppl who like both, and thats fine that just means they have a larger variety of 'tastes' in games. Face the facts ppl, anyone who says 'this game sux' or 'that game sux' is really just a person who only likes that game period. Their taste in games brings them towards that game. Doom 3 and half life 2 have 2 different moods, themes, etc, and the gameplay on both are extremely different. grow up and get over it. I feel the same is for those losers who are against EA games. OK, certain ppl like those games. I dont care how crappy u think the games are, but to me, battlefield 2, c&c generals, need for speed, etc are all great games, and if u dont like it, then f**k off who cares about you. They seem to make half of the most popular games, so why do u hate them??? is it just because of the name EA? If u didnt know the game was from EA, would u like it??

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

i like both d3 and hl2. D3 = new technology, pushing bar higher. HL2= funfactor with decent gfx for everyone.... Not everything in this life is black and whiteI dont think its a big deal or something, look at Nvidia investing into games, see their crappy logo everywhere. I bet they invest in games more than in research, tehnoloy and quality of their graphics cards

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

@Anonymousat 20:28 8/7/2005Yup! EA games are just as fun as anyone elses!And alot of people don't seem to understand that they are a publisher, so when someone says "I hate x because EA made it!" they are showing just how ignorant they are!

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

i quite like the nvidia logo on gta san andreas...yet the nvidia players get blue screen crashses and the ati ones get the ati vpu recover pop up, and then alt tab back to the game...i have an ati card and the game has caused the vpu to crash 4 times since i've been playing it, but i was able to continue due to the vpu recover, amazing i think!

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

i played doom3 in my old 5200 FX and even in the lowest settings i couldn't reach 23 FPS. In the other hand with Half Life 2 with the same video card i reached the 36FPS and in the medium settings. Half lIfe looked much better that Doom 3 although i may say that because i couldnt play too well Doom3. But to tell you the truth i think half life as for instance othe game: Max Payne 2 looked amazing for me.

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

I find that companies really should stop wasting so much money. Eventually, games will surpass the video card market because 95% of the people wont even be able to play it decently. This almost happened with Doom 3 and HL2, A lot of people (including me) are sick and tired of having to spend money on new video cards. Buying the latest video card costs bloody 700 bucks! Back in the day of voodoo 2, the best was about 300-400. It really pisses me off, but unfortunately executives are too money crazed. This kind of thing is everywhere, and could even cause a huge market crash in 20 years or so.

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

To be honest? There really is no point in the petty 'Ati vs Nvidia'. It really won't mean squat if you bide your time. In this world of companies eating companies i would not be surprised if they both actually signed a deal and merged. Besides, It also really don't mean stuff all if you have a pair of PCI Express Cards that will be anticipated really soon. And If you havent noticed, technology will never stop getting more powerful, so just wait for a temporary stop in production and buy your card/s. And i agree with the "fatcat executive" theory. It costs about $50-60 bucks to manufacture the cards, we just pay off their research.

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

I wonder how long ATI and Nvidia expect people to follow thier product release lines. It's a lot of money to spend each year, especially when what you've brought looks like a POS in comparison to it's successor product. I've followed every year for quite some time now, getting a high end card each year, but i seriously can't see and end or even a slow down to this process of thiers.

ATI H-L 2 Deal - The Cost Revealed

so i wonder how much nvidia payed out so far just for the pleasure of shoving 'the way its meant to be played' in my face every time i start a game (on my ati card)nvidia waste their time, ati spent wisely. after all they convinced me to buy my 9800xt simply because of their hl2 voucher and then upgrade to my x800 to get the best experiance with the game.I would have felt a lot worse if i went for nvidia just for doom3...

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