HL2 EP 3 verschoben - VALVE konzentriert sich mehr auf STEAM Publishing

" "Half-Life 2: Episode 3 delayed

March 31, 2009 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the final release of the upcoming Half-Life 2: Episode 3 will be delayed due to the global economic crisis and its impacts on Valve.

Half-Life 2: Episode 3, the next instance of the best-selling Half-life franchise and sequel to award-winning Half-Life 2: Episode 2, was due for release in November 2009 and has now been pushed back to mid 2010. Due to the most recent developments on the world markets Valve was forced to lay off parts of the development team responsible for Half-Life 2: Episode 3. This will not affect the work on the recently announced Left 4 Dead DLC ("Survival Pack"), but the development of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 will subsequently be slowed down.

"We are not proud of this, but we were forced to make this decision. The depression hit our customers hard and resulted in a large decrease of sales," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "Running Steam and its many services is both on a higher priority and financial risk right now."

"Using the crisis as a chance to refocus - with eyes open, turn forward - we decided to focus on our role as digital content publisher as well as on the responsibility not only for our own game franchises and titles but also for the more than 500 titles we are currently distributing via Steam on behalf of different developers and publishers all around the globe." said Steam developer Matthew Rhoten.

About Valve
Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington. The company's portfolio of entertainment properties includes Half-Life®, Counter-StrikeT, Day of Defeat®, Team Fortress® and Portal. Valve's catalog of products accounts for over 30 million retail units sold worldwide, and over 80% of PC online action gameplay. In addition, Valve is a developer of leading-edge technologies, such as the Source game engine and Steam, a broadband platform for the delivery and management of digital content. For more information, please visit www.valvesoftware.com"