There Are No Billboards On The Road Less Traveled By
When I start a new article I am met at the very beginning with a Frostian fork diverged in a yellow journalism wood. I might either take my time, develop contacts, and fully research the comments I am preparing to make, potentially uncovering unforeseen depths and complexities to seeming surface simplicities, or I might take the well traveled road and fling my fingers wildly across the keyboard in lusty innuendo, intoxicating hyperbole, and climactic assumptions. A lot of people end up pointing to FrostÂ's poem as a celebration of taking the road less traveled by, but if you read it carefully you begin to realize that its meaning is far more ambiguous. And, depending on oneÂ's mood, it often reads more naturally as a lamentation at unnecessary frustration when journeying the unfamiliar route than a call to individualism, so I choose to learn from a more close interpretation of the text, and do what is commonplace and expected. Thus, I join you all in rampant gut reaction, and turn my hazy gaze toward Vivendi publishing on the closing eve of Half-Life 2's release, as I let slip my tongue in violent outburst and shout: Seriously, what the hell is wrong with those people?
I realize IÂ'm a detached observer and not privy to the clever strategy within Vivendi that seems to think the best way to sell Half-Life 2 is to make sure nobody knows about it, but my untrained reaction to this obtuse tactic is that it is, in fact, no strategy at all. It is almost a kind of strategy antithesis, some manifestation of an anti-strategy which, should it come into contact with a quantity of real strategy, would annihilate itself along with a significant chunk of France. And then where would we get real Champagne from, I ask you?
Now, it might seem odd to you that Vivendi is so lackadaisical about, arguably, the most important franchise in PC Gaming. With Doom now safely marginalized as a significant threat, youÂ'd think Vivendi would be digging in its heels to cut a healthy portion out of the pie chart that is FPS gaming dollars. But, no; they seem to want no piece of money pie. The question then must be posed, why? And, I offer my answer, here born from that orgasmic well of irresponsible guessing, as follows. Are you ready?
It is because they are petulant children.
Now, if anyone from Vivendi reads this site [hold for laughter] IÂ'd like to assure you that when I call you a petulant child, IÂ'm obviously not talking about you in particular. Unless, that is, you are the guy who decided to give Half-Life 2 less promotion than a neighborhood garage sale, in which case, yeah, youÂ're exactly the guy IÂ'm talking about, you big crybaby.
You may wonder what I, unskilled in marketing and entirely without experience or credentials, know about marketing a major PC release, and my response is that apparently itÂ's a lot more than whoever theyÂ've got running the show in Vivendi. Never have I seen a company more enthusiastically prepared to sabotage their own product, exceeding even Lucasfilm and Interplay at the careful art of self destruction. And the unfortunate truth seems to be that all this carefully planned incompetence, dare I say buffoonery, is born from an internal spat over the release of Half Life 2 over Steam.
Now, granted IÂ'm so far off the path from verifiable fact, venturing into that undiscovered country of scrying intent, that I couldnÂ't find my way back to the land of responsible commentary with a topographic map, clear skies, and a sextant. [hehe, sextant] And yet, you just know IÂ'm right on this one. Valve had Vivendi backed into a corner, left unwilling to face the backlash from a further delay to pursue legal recourse against a developer for the unforgivable sin of taking a more appropriate cut for their hard work. Vulnerable to the exploration of new methods for delivering product to customers, Vivendi was virtually unable to prevent Valve from moving forward with its plans, and so the best course of action constructed by these experienced professionals appears to be a corporate tantrum.
Yes, itÂ's probably true that the copies sold direct to customers over Steam cut into VivendiÂ's share of profit, but itÂ's hard to imagine how abandoning the retail end of the operation will mitigate those losses. In fact, it seems as though Vivendi doesnÂ't want to make money off of Half-Life 2 at all, a game set to potentially move as many pieces over the long haul as any PC game to date. Instead, they seem perfectly content to sulk, bottom lip stuck firmly out, with arms folded disapprovingly. They might also be wearing diapers, I canÂ't really tell for sure.
ItÂ's unfortunate, but despairingly predictable, that Vivendi would hold partnering on the distribution front with Valve as so anathema. I donÂ't really know, nor can I even guess, what plans were presumed to be made in advance, though Valve has never kept its intentions for Steam a secret. So, no one has room to be genuinely shocked at the conflict, the threats of legal recourse, and the animosity. What is surprising is that Vivendi has thrown its hands in the air, stomped around, and conceded complete defeat instead of making any notable effort to promote the game. Even with all these assumed answers, I keep coming back to the same question, why?
What positive ends could the vacuous hush around Half-Life 2 possibly achieve? Is it that Vivendi is trying to teach the plebes a lesson about publishing, that the mighty arm of the publisher shalt not be circumvented, that a developer doesnÂ't have the resources to market a game properly and there actually is a reason for the middle man to be around? Are they trying to make an example of Valve, essentially warning any future developers that if they should try to take more than their apportioned piece, then their game too will be kicked into a nebulous limbo? Do they imagine that this is a somehow fiscally sound strategy? If so, are they on medication and can someone please drive them home?
The obvious answer seems to be that this is supposed to be a kind of punishment; that if Valve thinks theyÂ're so all-fired awesome then they can promote their own damn game, so nyah! This is, of course, dumb. Even when outmaneuvered, Vivendi still stands to move a healthy number of products through retail, particularly with any kind of promotional effort put forth. In its own way, Vivendi, by mishandling this launch so irresponsibly, not only shoots itself in the foot, but further legitimizes the naysayersÂ' complaints that the PC market is failing. When arguably the most significant PC game in years barely gets any market presence, itÂ's all too easy to make the assumption that the industry canÂ't field a first rate PC title any more – wrongheaded though that assumption may be. This perspective will only be compounded when compared to the massive launch of Halo 2.
I guess it takes a special kind of stubborn pouting to sacrifice that much money, and I donÂ't claim to understand the thought process that leads to the current reality. In the end, it probably wonÂ't matter much to those of us who pick up the game, as it will be judged in the end on the product fielded. Still, the sickening silence from the hype machine is palpable in these final days before launch, and itÂ's a damn shame. With this entirely new and inappropriate tactic of marketing a major launch, certainly Vivendi is choosing a road less traveled by. LetÂ's hope it doesnÂ't make all the difference.
- Elysium
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I remember seeing HL2 ads in PC Gamer and EGM since last year. Much earlier, comparatively, than Activision started pimping Doom 3. Besides, HL2 actually sort of should pretty much sell itself, anyway. There's hardly a point in flying HL2 blimps and buying an ad space on a building in Times Square. Like, duh. It's HL2.
Besides, Valve would make an organization of massively staged, long-thought-out advertisement campaign similar to Halo 2 if they actually could work at all within some semblance of development schedules. You can't really create a promotion campaign if you're only going to deliver "when it's done". IF hopefully so.
Xbox Live tag Gorilla800lbs
I've seen much stronger late-campaigns from much less well recognized games on the same time frames. It's not that hard to get point-of-purchase materials into stores, but have you been to a Best Buy or a Gamestop lately with a lot of material? And, while you've seen ads in PC Gamer and EGM last year, you seen many recently? Last year there wasn't an issue between developer and publisher.
There's absolutely a point to "flying blimps and balloons". Half-Life 2 will sell itself to us, and that'll give it a respectable launch, but this could be a game that could be promoted to a much wider audience. Just because we know it's, duh, HL2, doesn't mean that it's going to fly off shelves. Valve and Vivendi have known for a couple months the rough schedule around which HL2 was really going to ship, and certainly since August it's been clear that HL2 was probably a November title. Plenty of time to generate interest.
- Elysium
If I'm not mistaken, the majority of game sales aren't to ultra-game-literate people like the folks here who've known about HL2 since early last year, but the kind of person who doens't know anything about a game unless s/he sees a poster or other promotional campaign tool beforehand. Thus, if they don't let those people know that HL2 is coming out, they're far less likely to buy it when it hits shelves. Vivendi is, indeed, being absolutely pig-stupid about this.
I envy your talent, Elysium, that was beautiful.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
I was pondering this the other day and pretty much came to the same conclusion, that it's just gotta be sour grapes.
Exactly what they hope to accomplish from the approach still kinda eludes me though!
A little zen...... Headed your way........
Slightly modified:
And yet...
The last HL2 ad I saw was PCGamer (I think), with the crowbar/shadow. That's it. How many copies did the first one sell? How many people played it, hardcore gamers or not? How many people weren't aware that a sequel was coming out (as unbelievable as it sounds
)?
Well put, Ely, as always.
Don't you understand, Cliff? We put a chainsaw on a machine gun! That's it! It doesn't get more awesome than that! We've peaked, man! We've peaked! - ctrl-alt-del on Gears of War 2
That first paragraph hurt my brain.
Perhaps its the overall financial state of Vivendi Universal that is precluding a large scale promotional effort. Or at least in part.
no particular interest, no particular talent
Vivendi? Yeah they're real idiots.
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." - Churchill
Nice read Elysium, thanks for the effort. I concur with your assessment even if it makes me feel like I'm in Freshman lit class all over again.
The difference between Halo 2 and HL2 is that with Halo 2, Microsoft is also pushing forward the platform itself. The Xbox. Which is still an underdog on US console market. A big difference.
Xbox Live tag Gorilla800lbs
Whew, for a minute there (the first paragraph anyways) I thought diarrhea-mouth was back. Way to pull it out in the end.
Anyways, the only alternative approach I can come up with as to why Vivendi is stealth marketing HL2 is that they are waiting for the start of the holiday season before bringing out the big advertising guns. Perhaps the thinking is that people will be much more likely to buy HL2 from a store (rather than Steam) at that time.
Hey Elysium, aren't you afraid Dennis Miller is going to sue your ass off one of these days.
(For the record the above statement was a carefully veiled man-compliment. Since I hold Dennis Miller and his writing in the highest regard. Note: Since there was no bragging about sexual conquest said compliment had to be veiled in such a manner so as to not to appear overly emotional, and thus put me in a position of having my guy license revoked.)
"My motto is, if it's not strong enough to release bowel control, it's not strong enough!"
Morrolan
I think its because they already blew their budget for HL2 marketing. It would take too much time and money to organize another media blitz, especialy when the rates are hiked for christmas. Also, there is more than likely a ton more competition for the christmas advertising space. Im sure magazines, TV and billboards are booked months in advance of christmas. They may be mostly locked in as well.
However, you would think that they would have some christmas advertising planned in addition to the supposed "launch" blitz. I say supposed due to the whole we "will release on September 29th" fiasco.
Half Life spread on word of mouth. However, there is huge competition as seen by the miles of Halo 2 boxes in stores.
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
Since a state of hostility exists between VU/Sierra and Valve, it is also not surprising that the former does not want to pour extra promotion money into the latter. And any extra ounce of buzz can also whip the people into frenzy and push them into Steam's arms for instant gratification. VU risks absolutely NOTHING -- Valve numerously maintaned that they funded HL2 development 100% internally. So for VU the question stands as either making enormously huge heaps of money, or just huge heaps of money.
Xbox Live tag Gorilla800lbs
Like you're trying to find out which TAs are easy and which ones can be bribed with alcohol??
Don't you understand, Cliff? We put a chainsaw on a machine gun! That's it! It doesn't get more awesome than that! We've peaked, man! We've peaked! - ctrl-alt-del on Gears of War 2
VU is releasing HL2, too? News to me. Yep, ready to go!
“Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.” Atty Gen'l John Ashcroft, on secret NSC torture guideline discussions.
I'm not sure which end meets which goal in your analysis. I would assume making huge heaps of money wins given the two choices, and that certainly seems like a reasonable option should they put any muscle behind the launch. Regardless of the state of hostility, I would think business reasonable minds would be able to grow up and recognize an opportunity to increase their market presence and bottom line. Even when you put it like that, it still sounds like a tantrum to me.
There are a thousand differences between Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, but that doesn't preclude the absolute certainty that their sales will be compared. That said, VU stands to gain significantly by promoting growth in the PC gaming market, so missing the opportunity to generate PC gaming growth doesn't make a lot of sense to me either.
- Elysium
Interesting post on the Steam News page has just popped up in the last hour or so...
Half-Life 2 For Sale?
November 13, 2004, 4:57 pm · valve
If you have purchased a copy of Half-Life 2, we are sorry you are still waiting to play. This is not Valve's choice. Vivendi is insisting that the game has not yet been released, and has threatened that Valve would be in violation of its contract if we activate the Half-Life 2 Steam authentication servers at this time.
Thanks for your patience and we will update you when we have more news to share.
Sounds like some fairly terse phone calls might be being exchanged !
A little zen...... Headed your way........
Them thar was some fancy writin' Tex. Lotsa words you used up to say that you got no idea, but are willing to venture a guess. Shore be nice if we could git some substantiation to them thar musings, but by all accounts your guess may be more than likely correct.
Don't be saucy with me, Bernaise. - Count DeMonet
FalseGravity - My first blog.
From my perspective, Vivendi's actions actually have a semblance of reason behind them. Sure, it doesn't make them geniuses by any standard, but it's not just random tantrums.
First, anybody that quotes Half-Life sales stats as proof of anticipation of Half-Life 2 needs to take a good hard look at what actually happened. Half-Life started selling 80 million billion copies when Counter-Strike got big. For a while there Counter-Strike revolutionized multiplayer internet gaming. What's Half-Life 2's contribution to multiplayer internet gaming? Counter-Strike. Again. This time, the graphics sure are purty. They didn't change the game at all, however, and not having Coutner-Strike 2 in the box leaves about 80% of HL1's fans in the cold. Of all the people I know that liked HL, most of them never even started the single player. Probably myself and one other person actually played the single player and liked it.
Second, Vivendi isn't the one that started playing political games with Half-Life 2. Sure, it's easy to blame the big bad publisher and take the dev's side, cause they've probably got a little bit more legitimacy to their claims. After all, they did actually do the work and pay for the development this time. However, they hitched their Steam wagon to Half-Life 2, now the game is suffering for it. Steam isn't universally popular, and a CS:Source candy cane doesn't gloss over Vivendi's legitimate concerns. Why are they legitimate? After all they're the publisher, they're just evil, money grubbing control freaks right? Well this whole debacle just goes to prove devs still need publishers. And if Valve needs Vivendi, completely ignoring their concerns and generally being asses about the whole thing probably wasn't a good idea. In fact, I'd submit the whole debacle is largely due to Valve's behavior toward Steam and Vivendi, after all Stardock doesn't seem to have a problem with their publisher and they do internet distribution.
Finally, remember when I called publishers control freaks? Well, I think that's entirely true. But the part that alot of gamers seem to gloss over is that so is Valve. You think Steam has anything to do with getting you the game faster? Or stopping cheating, or any of the other side effects it has? It has to do with one simple thing, control. Valve wants to take control from Vivendi, just like Vivendi wants to keep control away from Valve. They're both fighting the same political game, and very little of it has anything to do with the game or us gamers. Both sides are fighting for control, and we're stuck in the middle. When you play politics with art, we lose.
"We've learned irishmen have huge nipples, and that intellectual film critics are all huge gaywads. But most of all, we've learned that creeping corporate influence over the news media ... protects us from terrorism" - Norm Archer, Onion Movie
By the same token, I've noticed that it seems to be a fair bit more expensive to order a game(Political Machine) from Stardock than to get it at Best Buy.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
I have to disagree here. In fact, I know very few people who played CS without ever having played and finished the single player game. In fact, when the game was released it was wildly successful and GOTY on the basis solely of that single player game. While CS was an excellent second wind and likely doubled the lifespan of the game, it was just that, a second wind.
Well, I don't think that's what I said, exactly. I'm not a fan of VU, per se, but I think you're unnecessarily generalizing what's been said with a bias I don't share.
Steam was pretty much hitched to HL2 from the beginning, certainly over the past two years so having a fit about it now is pretty near sighted of VU, if that's the case. Secondly, who knows what Valve could've accomplished on their own, or if developers as a whole were given more access to retail outlets, so let's not say we _need_ publishers. The structure of the entire industry can and more importantly should undergo a reorganization, turning over greater control to the people who put in the actual work. Do you disagree?
With a lot more legitimately. As has been pointed out in the thread, HL2 is entirely funded by Valve. They have a greater right to control their product than seems to have been granted.
I agree this is an issue of control, and I'm hitching my wagon to developers. That's not to slight all publishers, or say they are irrelevant, but the share they are taking of resources and profits outweighs the legitimacy of their contributions.
- Elysium
Elysium, I have your technique figured out. You write a random witty title, and then you fabricate an article to go with it. There is simply no other explanation for oblique comparisons to Robert Frost.
ICARUS FOUND YOU!
RUN WHILE YOU CAN!
Sadly no, the title is always the very last thing I write. The entire Frost concept began with a thought about Vivendi and roads that should stay less traveled.
- Elysium
"Man-compliment?" Is that anything like a man-boob?
"Men like sex, thus boobies! Oogaba!" - dejanzie
"If ads put your sanity to the test
come on down to Rat Boy's nest!
light up a stogie, and soon you'll see
how rock can be commercial-free!
'I'd hit it!'" - HP Lovesauce
The whole situation doesn't make much sense. Certainly I could understand VU not wanting to promote the game just to end up boosting Steam sales, but how would that happen? Anyone who knows about Steam already knows about HL2, since Steam pretty much beats you upside the head about it. Anyone who doesn't know about Steam isn't going to learn about it from an in-store poster exhorting them to buy the box sitting right in front of them. I really can't imagine advertising for HL2 boosting steam sales unless they mention steam in the ads--since VU is making the ads, they'd have to be complete imbeciles to mention the download option.
They may feel that the cost of advertising wouldn't provide enough of a return, which is possible. HL2 is a very high profile game already, and if spending an additional $5 million in advertising only boosts your sales by $2 million, you've just wasted a lot of money. Because of the sales already lost to Steam, this might be riskier than usual.
Maybe VU are being big babies and sending out an FU to Valve, but maybe the whole Steam sales thing simply has them scared to invest money in advertising that might not get a viable return.
Ducki, re: the stardock pricing vs. bestbuy, I think that's simply a case of retailer markdowns vs. MSRP. A few weeks ago The Political Machine was $20 whether you bought it online or at a store. The stores have marked it down (probably due to slow sales) but the online price hasn't changed yet.
Graktar, Orc Hunter
Sorry, I was without internet for a while, I don't know if you'll read this but here goes anyway.
We will have to agree to disagree here, without some sales numbers showing "sales before CS" and "sales after CS" we're both just speculating. So I'll just nod and say "ok".
I didn't really mean that you were saying that, it was sort of a lead in to the last paragraph. Basically, the article is asking "Why?" about VU's behavior and I'm just trying to point out that they're no different than anyone else, so I exaggerated the position that they were somehow special in their desire to control other companies behavior. The question should be "Why wouldn't they?" The entertainment industry in this country hasn't been about making money since 1999, if it ever has.
I don't necissarily disagree, though I'd like to say that I don't think it'll change a thing. If developers self-publish, but don't change how the system works we're simply shoving pieces around the board. We're still playing the same game, and eventually the developers will end up just like the publishers are now, bloated, out of touch and horribly inefficient. VU's problems have little to do with the speed of delivery or cardboard boxes. Treating the internet like a way to sell you CDs without the CDs isn't going to change a thing. The old cliche is power corrupts, and giving the power from the publishers to the developers isn't necissarily better because they're the one's "doing the work". It's the system itself, and if Valve owns all the pieces, they're eventually going to be just as bad as VU.
Again, this is a moral value judgement that has absolutely nothing to do with what's going on. It's about control, and what side you're rooting for has little to do with the fact that we have absolutely none of it. So bemoaning the fate of Half-Life 2 and pointing the finger at VU is about like bemoaning the state of politics and blaming the Republicans because you're a Democrat. Sides reversed, you'll have the exact same behavior.
"We've learned irishmen have huge nipples, and that intellectual film critics are all huge gaywads. But most of all, we've learned that creeping corporate influence over the news media ... protects us from terrorism" - Norm Archer, Onion Movie