In an interview with Game Informer, Valve boss Gabe Newell mentioned that the juicy Orange Box is basically done, which means Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2 are in the final phases of last minute bug squashing and getting an extra coat of shiny polish.
Newell also elaborates on why the planned Black Box, which would’ve only contained Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2 just for PC, was cancelled. Considering Steam is becoming the next big thing for PC, having all the individual games or in several different packages available on Steam was just easier to pull-off.
"That was resistance from the retailers. They didn’t want more than one SKU. If we were going to do the one SKU, we were going to do the one where we put everything into it rather than making people buy separate stuff."
Since the Orange Box will be available for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 owners, a question was asked regarding the ever-wondrous idea of cross-platform gameplay. While Newell said that wouldn’t be available, over at Valve HQ, they do have cross-platform action running from PC to Xbox 360. But as for why it won’t be publicly implemented?
"We play Xbox versus PC all the time, but what the constraint is there is what’s allowed by the console companies and what’s supported by them. They seem to have strong opinions on what you should and shouldn’t be able to do. They work now when we play them. It’s more being stopped from doing that from the various console manufactures plans for their own more walled approach to that."
Lastly, regarding development time for Episode Three, Newell said that they’ve certainly learned a thing or two about episodic development.
"Episode Two was really helped by Episode One, believe it or not. I think that we’ll continue to get the hang of it. It’s a pretty big deal to throw a bunch of wrenches into your development process and say, ‘We’re going to try to do this differently now.’ We’ve learned a lot."
The Orange Box will be shipped to retailers on October 9th and is available on Steam on October 10th. Europeans will get the package on October 12th.
