Okay, let's preface this before I start getting flamed into oblivion: I don't think this will actually happen. This is a "What if..." scenario that's been playing around in my head for a while, and I've been trying to weigh up the pros and cons and I honestly think that what I'm suggesting would work in Valve's favor.
Obviously I could be wrong, and if you feel I am, I'd welcome the discussion. With that all said, let me begin.
(For ease of reading, I'm referring to the game as Half Life 3 or HL3 instead of Half Life: Episode 3)
So, imagine if you logged onto Steam tomorrow as you would normally. Only today is not normal. Today, you're greeted with a news item that simply has the Half Life 2 icon. Only where the 2 should be, there's a 3. You rub your eyes, and look again. Yep, definitely a 3. Below, you have a button that reads only "Wake up and smell the ashes". "Can't be", you think to yourself. So you go online, and do a Google search for Half Life 3. While that loads, you hit you're Twitter client and load it up, and open a new tab on your browser to bring up Facebook.
So this is my point. If Valve were to just release the game, with zero fanfare, no advertising, and no fanfare, where's the upside? Think about the scenario above, and let me go through each point WITH BULLETS:
- Every single person who played Half Life 2 has Steam, or is at least aware of Steam. That's your established fanbase all finding out about the game as soon as they turn their computer on.
- Forums and Facebook would pretty much explode with comments ranging from "OMFG HL3 WTFF I DIE!" to "Half Life 3 released today. I'm not going to work today. I might just end myself after i finish it as I have nothing else to live for." Reddit would also feel the burn, and searches for #hl3 would suddenly jump to to top of Twitter trends.
- Valve are the only company who could pull off a move like this as they own the game and the distribution channels, they have to answer to no one.
- Half Life 3 is one of a few games you could pull this off with, as the hype is still there for the release even after all this time, and people would buy it without reviews or previews due to the previous games' quality and the developers reputation.
- The past 2 or 3 years is the only time in history you could do this, with all the social networks that the target market are involved in, word would reach them within the day of the release. Also, the infrastructure is in place for people to be able to download the game in a reasonable amount of time.
The shock value would outweigh the lack of advertising. Gaming and tech sites would be all over this as it's never been done before.
There could still be a post release advertising campaign for the DVD release if they wanted, just to capture the attention any stragglers who live in mountains or the jungle.
To repeat one point, IT'S NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE. And would likely never be done again. The perfect storm of circumstances surrounding HL3 would be very tough to replicate, so the novelty value of a move like this would generate huge amounts of free publicity.
So there's my 2 cents. Do I think this is a likely scenario? No. Would it be undeniably awesome? Yes.
SOURCE: [LINK]http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/frb2k/why_valve_could_release_half_life_3_tomorrow/ [/LINK]
Frankly I believe Valve could honestly do this.
Obviously I could be wrong, and if you feel I am, I'd welcome the discussion. With that all said, let me begin.
(For ease of reading, I'm referring to the game as Half Life 3 or HL3 instead of Half Life: Episode 3)
So, imagine if you logged onto Steam tomorrow as you would normally. Only today is not normal. Today, you're greeted with a news item that simply has the Half Life 2 icon. Only where the 2 should be, there's a 3. You rub your eyes, and look again. Yep, definitely a 3. Below, you have a button that reads only "Wake up and smell the ashes". "Can't be", you think to yourself. So you go online, and do a Google search for Half Life 3. While that loads, you hit you're Twitter client and load it up, and open a new tab on your browser to bring up Facebook.
So this is my point. If Valve were to just release the game, with zero fanfare, no advertising, and no fanfare, where's the upside? Think about the scenario above, and let me go through each point WITH BULLETS:
- Every single person who played Half Life 2 has Steam, or is at least aware of Steam. That's your established fanbase all finding out about the game as soon as they turn their computer on.
- Forums and Facebook would pretty much explode with comments ranging from "OMFG HL3 WTFF I DIE!" to "Half Life 3 released today. I'm not going to work today. I might just end myself after i finish it as I have nothing else to live for." Reddit would also feel the burn, and searches for #hl3 would suddenly jump to to top of Twitter trends.
- Valve are the only company who could pull off a move like this as they own the game and the distribution channels, they have to answer to no one.
- Half Life 3 is one of a few games you could pull this off with, as the hype is still there for the release even after all this time, and people would buy it without reviews or previews due to the previous games' quality and the developers reputation.
- The past 2 or 3 years is the only time in history you could do this, with all the social networks that the target market are involved in, word would reach them within the day of the release. Also, the infrastructure is in place for people to be able to download the game in a reasonable amount of time.
The shock value would outweigh the lack of advertising. Gaming and tech sites would be all over this as it's never been done before.
There could still be a post release advertising campaign for the DVD release if they wanted, just to capture the attention any stragglers who live in mountains or the jungle.
To repeat one point, IT'S NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE. And would likely never be done again. The perfect storm of circumstances surrounding HL3 would be very tough to replicate, so the novelty value of a move like this would generate huge amounts of free publicity.
So there's my 2 cents. Do I think this is a likely scenario? No. Would it be undeniably awesome? Yes.
SOURCE: [LINK]http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/frb2k/why_valve_could_release_half_life_3_tomorrow/ [/LINK]
Frankly I believe Valve could honestly do this.
