Is Valve's "Black Box" completely cancelled?

My beef with it isn't the whole HL2/EP1 are 'freebies' or the orange box is 'bad value for money'. My gripe is Valve are deliberately giving existing customers a lesser deal.
 
Killerkebab said:
My beef with it isn't the whole HL2/EP1 are 'freebies' or the orange box is 'bad value for money'. My gripe is Valve are deliberately giving existing customers a lesser deal.
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I do understand that, this is how I felt when I heard. But how are they getting a lesser deal if the other two games are completley free?

I'l tell you why all this is happening, it's how people read marketing. I guarantee this would not be happening if the front cover were less like this:

Featuring:
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Tem Fortress 2
AND INTRODUCING Portal
-----------
also includes Half-Life 2 and Episode One
Click to expand...

and more like this:
Featuring:
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Tem Fortress 2
AND INTRODUCING Portal
-----------
also includes Half-Life 2 and Episode One FREE
Click to expand...
Regardless of any media, price or any other force, if the word FREE were simply printed on the front, there would be not one sour face!
 
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drunkenmaster said:
completely and utterly the wrong view point.

the ever normal standard of games is single player + multiplayer for roughly £25-30. the idea of episodic content shouldn't detract from the fact that any other game split up in 3 parts would still have some kind of multiplayer free.

hl2 had cs:s (whatever i got had it free), for years valve have been trying to split games apart as much as possible so the extra £5 you spend becomes £1 on 4 different parts, then it becomes an extra £10 but only £2 extra per episode, but its less noticable.

they are slowly but quite massively increasing their prices and everyone is saying how good value it is.

crysis + multiplayer will be £20-25, hl3 as it was, should have be £20-25 WITH some kind of multiplayer, thats standard. hl2 was for me i think £25 with multiplayer. so far, if i bought the orange box i would have paid £12 for ep 1, £25 for ep 2, and for all we know they'll make us pay £35 for ep 3 + everything else free.

black box £15 for ep 2, portal and tf2 as it should have been. they bumped up the price, added on 2 games that 90% of people buying ep 2 already had thereby making a 66% increase in price. the 10% of people that didn't have the game get a good deal, but the majority don't get a good deal.

even if ep 3 is its minimum price of £12, then the standard buyer will have spent £12 ep 1, £25 ep 2, £12 ep 3, + tf2 and portal. thats the price of two full games, for one game plus its multiplayer plus, though fantastic, an hours game of portal.

crysis could make the multiplayer use the engine but change the style, the weapons and everything and simply split it and sell it as a separate game, thats what valve are doing. but they, and all other games with single and multiplayer combined don't do that.

but if valve continue to simply split games in two, double the cost and add in a tech demo for free and we pay it. then in 2 years crysis plus its multiplayer will cost £45. and CNC4 will sell the single and multiplayer separately for £25 a piece.

I got the blackbox for free with my card, so i'm happy, but had i not the only real way to get ep 2 was the orange box.

Also, this idiotic idea of giving away the first two games free, the person that gets them for free, then wants to play ep 2, so he gets the orange box, and boom, he's paying for 2 games he doesn't need.

marketing genius by valve, yes, massive money spinner for them, yes, ripping us off massively, yes. should we let them get away with it encouraging everyone else to do the same NOOOOOOO!
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Agree with you 100%, well said.

Episode 2 and Portal aren't games, they're mini games - not worth the asking price at all
 
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Orange box is a con unless you want all the crap that comes with it.

I don't want Episode 2. I dont want Episode 1. I don't want Portal. I don't want HL2 again.

I just want to buy TF2 from my local shop. But I can't, unless I buy a load of stuff I do not want and will never play.
 
Are some of you being purposely dense? I'm finding this thread quite disturbing.

Here it is in plain flippin English:

Evaluate what you are getting in the orange box, if you add up what the three main games cost it doesn't take long to realise HL2 and Ep1 are NOT COSTING YOU MORE. I mean holy ****, it's really very simple!

Oh and you, over there standing up to the valve like the big con artists they are for offering us five fantastic games at the wallet raping price of £27: Go and download TF2 for the measly £15 it is on steam... and if you dare talk about the injustice of not being able caress the disc of an online game then I swear I'l take up voodoo.
 
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[TW]Fox;10279526 said:
Orange box is a con unless you want all the crap that comes with it.

I don't want Episode 2. I dont want Episode 1. I don't want Portal. I don't want HL2 again.

I just want to buy TF2 from my local shop. But I can't, unless I buy a load of stuff I do not want and will never play.
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Then buy it on steam or don't play it at all.
 
[TW]Fox;10279792 said:
Episode 2 and Portal, however, are.
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So why aren't you buying TF2 on it's own? Is this not common sense? Has everyone forgotten how buying things works!?

It's only £15.....

Please, stop the madness!
 
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ASAIK they will come with disks for installation of game files but they won't work until you've created a steam account and register the codes to that account.

I'm pretty disappointed that they cancelled retail black box as well. I read somewhere that they will still offer the 3 game package on steam just not in retail outlets.

The way I see it the black box for £15-£20 could have been the deal of the year. Not saying that the orange box is a bad deal but to me they're asking us to pay £7 extra for the 2 games that most people already have.

I'm going to wait and see what happens.
 
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drunkenmaster said:
completely and utterly the wrong view point.

the ever normal standard of games is single player + multiplayer for roughly £25-30. the idea of episodic content shouldn't detract from the fact that any other game split up in 3 parts would still have some kind of multiplayer free.

hl2 had cs:s (whatever i got had it free), for years valve have been trying to split games apart as much as possible so the extra £5 you spend becomes £1 on 4 different parts, then it becomes an extra £10 but only £2 extra per episode, but its less noticable.

they are slowly but quite massively increasing their prices and everyone is saying how good value it is.

crysis + multiplayer will be £20-25, hl3 as it was, should have be £20-25 WITH some kind of multiplayer, thats standard. hl2 was for me i think £25 with multiplayer. so far, if i bought the orange box i would have paid £12 for ep 1, £25 for ep 2, and for all we know they'll make us pay £35 for ep 3 + everything else free.

black box £15 for ep 2, portal and tf2 as it should have been. they bumped up the price, added on 2 games that 90% of people buying ep 2 already had thereby making a 66% increase in price. the 10% of people that didn't have the game get a good deal, but the majority don't get a good deal.

even if ep 3 is its minimum price of £12, then the standard buyer will have spent £12 ep 1, £25 ep 2, £12 ep 3, + tf2 and portal. thats the price of two full games, for one game plus its multiplayer plus, though fantastic, an hours game of portal.

crysis could make the multiplayer use the engine but change the style, the weapons and everything and simply split it and sell it as a separate game, thats what valve are doing. but they, and all other games with single and multiplayer combined don't do that.

but if valve continue to simply split games in two, double the cost and add in a tech demo for free and we pay it. then in 2 years crysis plus its multiplayer will cost £45. and CNC4 will sell the single and multiplayer separately for £25 a piece.

I got the blackbox for free with my card, so i'm happy, but had i not the only real way to get ep 2 was the orange box.

Also, this idiotic idea of giving away the first two games free, the person that gets them for free, then wants to play ep 2, so he gets the orange box, and boom, he's paying for 2 games he doesn't need.

marketing genius by valve, yes, massive money spinner for them, yes, ripping us off massively, yes. should we let them get away with it encouraging everyone else to do the same NOOOOOOO!
Click to expand...

EP:2 (orange box) DID come with a multiplayer....team fortress 2. And its probably one of the best mpfps released for a long time. *AND* you got portal as well, which is again, one of the best games i've played for a long time.

So according to your calculations a single player game + multiplayer game should cost £20-£25.

The orange box consists of 4 single player games and a multiplayer game for £27 and you don't call it good value? :confused:
 
DaveyD said:
I'm not suprised they haven't put it on sale, but it goes to show how good value to Orange box it. At the end of the day, you can give away, or even sell, the extra Half-Life 2 and Episode One you get with the Orange Box.
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umm dunno if you are able to sell the Half-Life 2 *gift*, valve say they will ban the sellers' account.
 
Valve have inflated the standalone prices of EP2 / TF2 / Portal to make the orange box seem like a good deal

its all a big scam been saying it from day one

if they never cancelled the black box and then sold it for around £20 or less there would be no problem
 
alexisonfire said:
EP:2 (orange box) DID come with a multiplayer....team fortress 2. And its probably one of the best mpfps released for a long time. *AND* you got portal as well, which is again, one of the best games i've played for a long time.

So according to your calculations a single player game + multiplayer game should cost £20-£25.

The orange box consists of 4 single player games and a multiplayer game for £27 and you don't call it good value? :confused:
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no it DID not

if you only bought EP2 will you still get TF2 or will you need to buy that as well?
 
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