2 SR11

"Sierra regrets the cancellation of Half-Life for the Dreamcast due to
changing market conditions."

Those words spoken in a Sierra press release on June 15, 2001
proved to be the nail in the coffin for the official release of the
Dreamcast version of Half-life and the dagger in the hearts of the
countless never-gave-up-hope fans who still believed the game had a
chance.

Perhaps no other game in history created more of an emotional roller
coaster than this game. Announced for development back in February
of 2000, Dreamcast fans erupted in joy at the thought of playing one
of the greatest games ever created with graphical enhancements, an
exclusive brand new single-player mission (Blue Shift), new weapons,
and online multiplayer deathmatch. It was almost too good to be true.

Then, Sierra pleased gamers even more by moving up the release date
from late 2000 to September of 2000. And that's where it got crazy.
The game got delayed. Then the online capabilities removed. Then a
brand new online-only Half-Life was announced. Then more delays.
And more delays. And more delays. Then nothing...no news for
months. Then Sega announces the end of the Dreamcast's production
run. Then Sierra announces the end of the online-only Half-Life game.
Then more delays. All hope seems lost. Then near-complete copies
arrive at journalists' doors. The game is coming out for certain. Then
online retailers suddenly remove it from their release lists. Then we
wait. Then Sierra officially kills the game. And all because of
"changing market conditions"?

Were they serious? All that time and money spend in porting,
enhancing, and developing that game. Over a year and half of hard
work to the point were the game is basically 99% done and they sit on
it due to "changing market conditions"? I don't buy it, but if that's the
real reason then it has to be one of the biggest blunders in videogame
history. I mean, let's just think about it. This is a game that has been
called "the greatest ever created" and has one Game of the Year
honors by over 50 publications. Needless to say, anticipation was
high. And sure, there was some thunder lost---online play disappears,
Blue Shift loses its Dreamcast exclusivity, countless delays piss off
already angry customers, Sega kills the Dreamcast's hopes---but as I
found out 18 months after that infamous day back in June of 2001, it
was a blunder indeed (at least in an economical sense).

One might understand Sierra's reasoning to cancel the game if it was
in its preliminary stages of development, but this was not the case as
nearly completed copies of the game were distributed to journalists
over a month earlier. In fact, at the time of its cancellation Gamespot
reported that the game was actually complete. Nevertheless, Sierra
assumed that it would be more cost-effective to drop the game than
to release it. Rumor has it that Sierra had already spent over $1
million on the port. Add that to the 18 months they had worked on it
so far and their reasoning seems quite illogical.

And quite illogical did it turn out to be indeed. At a time when the
Dreamcast was still alive (albeit barely) in stores and with very few
marquee titles left in its lineup Half-Life undoubtedly would have sold
quite well. In fact, 20 months later, when the Dreamcast had long
expired its corner in the commercial market and the X-Box, Game
Cube, and PS2 had taken over the videogame industry, the Dreamcast
was still alive---supported by an unprecedented number of die-hard
fans. I was one of them. One who spent that 20 month Half-Life gap in
Internet forums still discussing the cancellation. Until one day when I
discovered that the what-could-have-been was the present reality and
witnessed one of the most amazing things I've ever seen: thousands
of gamers in various forums, IRC, and newsgroups downloading the
unreleased version of Half-Life DC. Thousands. Closing in on two years
after the cancellation and thousands of fans are still that interested
in the game. Just imagine if Sierra had released it in the Dreamcast's
prime.

And that was just then. There still remains interest even today. There
still exist websites offering the download. Gamers still maintain
interest in the game in forums----some learning for the first time of its
availability---while others continually attempt to buy and sell the game
on ebay. It's hard to estimate the exact number of copies downloaded
and distributed since it was leaked into public hands, but no doubt it
is well into the tens of thousands, and would have been much higher if
Sierra had released it. Now you can't tell me that Sierra's decision to
swallow the production costs of the game instead of trying to gain
some back in retail sales was a wise decision. True it would have cost
even more money to package and distribute the game, but I'm still
confident they would have reduced their overall costs more by
releasing the game: especially considering that at that time it would
have been the first and only console-version of the game.

If the decision was not foolish in an economical sense (just in case
there is something I don't know about the situation; I mean I don't
have access to Sierra's accounting ledgers) but at least in a sense of
fan support because there are a lot of fans out there that don't forget
decisions like that. And sometimes gamers hold the worst grudges
(especially for companies that issue ambiguous one-sentence
explanations for cancellations). I know I do. That's why I'll never buy
another EA game ever again, because they turned their backs on
Sega, the company that allowed them to become who they are today
(I apologize for that digression, but it still burns me).