News: Episode One goes gold, Two has a release date and Three is announced.
Valve has announced that Half-Life 2: Episode One has gone gold and will be available on May 31. Episode One will be a standalone product, available both online and in stores, that doesn't require Half-Life 2 to play.
The long awaited update is actually part of a planned trilogy of new HL2 content with Episode Two coming by the end of the year and Episode Three by Christmas of 2007.
"Given the rapid changes in PC gaming, we expect episodic games will have the same impact on single-player gaming that Counter-Strike had on multiplayer," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "The frequent releases of upgraded technology and new content works better for both consumers and developers, and is one of the key reasons Counter-Strike grew to be 80% of the online action market. We decided that a follow-up to Half-Life 2 delivered in 18 months with our first episode was more in tune with what our customers want than waiting 6 years for another monolithic product."
Looks like we'll have more Half-Life news for a very long time indeed.
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