Page 17: On Top of the Rock
If Gabe Newell had his way, he would have spent September 30, 2003, lying low at the Valve office. He was deeply embarrassed by the slipped date and frustrated that the fans were berating Valve on the Internet. In other words, he just wanted September 30, 2003, to quietly pass. Unfortunately, that wasn't a possibility. He had a prior obligation: the Half-Life 2 launch party, which graphics-card manufacturer ATI had scheduled months in advance--fully assuming, of course, that the game would ship on September 30.
ATI, which is rumored to have paid more than $6 million to Valve as part of a broad endorsement deal, planned a massive fete to celebrate the launch of the game and a new ATI graphics card. ATI rented out the entire island of Alcatraz in San Francisco and planned to host the party inside the prison. Newell wanted to pull out of the event but couldn't. It was an obligation to a business partner--a partner that was "none too pleased we missed our date," he says.
On the afternoon of September 30, Newell arrived at Pier 41 in San Francisco and boarded the ferry that would take him to Alcatraz. It must have been his worst nightmare: to be trapped on an island with the world's gaming press, a group that wanted nothing more than to pelt Newell with tough questions about Half-Life 2's release date.
At about 8:30pm, Newell, dressed in a red polo shirt, walked onto a makeshift stage inside the prison. No one knew what he was going to say. Was he going to address the botched release date? Was he going to show a new demo of the game? This was Newell's chance to win back the fans he'd alienated and misled. All he had to do was say he was sorry and show that the game was nearly done. But he didn't do that. In what seemed like a carefully prepared speech he praised ATI and then showed a very brief "benchmark" demo of the Source engine. Half-Life 2 was nowhere to be seen.
The press was floored. Here it was September 30 and Valve still wasn't showing Half-Life 2 to anyone? Not even a level? Once again rumors started swirling about the state of the project. Would it even come out in 2003? Newell, who desperately wanted to get back to Seattle, was briefly cornered by GameSpot as he tried to leave the prison. "I hate release dates," he said. "No matter how hard we try we screw them up." And with that comment Newell slipped out the door and caught the first ferry back to the mainland at 9:30pm.
Newell just wanted September 30 to end. And who could blame him? Six months earlier, this was the date he promised everyone they'd be playing the game. And now no one was playing the game. No one, that is, except a young man in southern Germany.
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