While everyone is discussing the details of the source code theft from Valve another little drama is playing itself out in the background, one which has to do with the new release date for Half-Life 2. While Vivendi Universal, through their CEO, Christophe Ramboz, claimed last week that the game had now moved back to an April 2004 release, EBGames lists the game as becoming available on November 27. Exactly how EBGames would have such a precise date remains a mystery, fueled by Valve's resistance to publicizing a revised release date.
Although it is understandable how Valve and its employees may be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder after the latest revelations by the hacker, it is also very necessary for them to give their fans a date to look forward to. One possibility, unlikely though, is that they may have been asked to refuse all comments on the game by the authorities which may be carrying out any investigation into the theft.
It is important however, for Valve to react in some way to speculation on the release date in order to ease public fears which even go as far as to suggest that the game may never become available.
With a, somewhat, playable version of H-L 2 becoming available last week and with the revelation that the original Half-Life and CS were planned for release modified to run on the H-L 2 engine, Valve have to show everyone that they still have some form of control over their product. Remember that the hackers threat to release everything, still hangs heavy over Valve heads.