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Eager FPS fans have been apparently unfazed by protracted delays and development troubles suffered by Pro-G’s Game of the Year 2004, as Valve’s masterpiece has hit 1.7 million sales at retail alone. That’s not including sales over Valve’s controversial Steam online distribution system.
The troubled game has been cursed with bad fortune and poor judgement by lead designer Gabe Newell, who announced that Half-Life 2 was definitely going to be released at the end of September 2003, whipping fans up into fever-pitch anticipation, only to disappoint them with more than a year of highly publicised delays, disappointments, and missed release dates, most notably the infamous theft of the game’s Source code in early 2004.
Valve have remained tight-lipped regarding sales figures over Steam, as they are currently engaged in legal proceedings with Vivendi Universal over the service. But it will be very interesting to see how big a dent online distribution can make in retail sales, even in the service’s infancy.
