Half Life 2 delayed because of stolen code?

[KenM]

I just read that Half life 2 will be delayed until April 2004. They said the delay was due to the code being leaked/ stolen. Can someone tell why if the code that the game is based gets stolen causes the game to be delayed? I assume they have multiple back up copies of the code/ work. They can just work from that.

 

[DanMcS]

I just read that Half life 2 will be delayed until April 2004. They said the delay was due to the code being leaked/ stolen. Can someone tell why if the code that the game is based gets stolen causes the game to be delayed? I assume they have multiple back up copies of the code/ work. They can just work from that.

Stolen is kind of a misnomer, because it wasn't really removed from the possession of Valve. It's not like "I stole your sandwich, so now you don't have one." They still have everything they were working on, but someone copied it. So this really couldn't have set them back, since they didn't lose any work.

It's possibile, though, that they feel they need to rework some of the internal security features to keep people from cheating when it is released. Having access to the source could theoretically make it easier to crack and write cheats for the game.

More likely, IMO, is that the game was behind schedule anyway. They always are. This provides a face-saving way for Valve to announce the schedule slip and say they aren't going to hit the Christmas release for this year.

Of course, I'm a progammer, not a game developer, so this is just my guess.

 

[Lazybones]

I agree with Dan's interpretation. For a game with the multiplayer pedigree that HL has, it would be a serious issue to have a bad release marred by a flush of gamers online using wall hacks and aimbots.

Should be interesting to see HL2 and D3 going head to head next spring.

 

[shadowlight]

It looks like it may not actually be delayed:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11984