Valve Wants it Painted Orange

Valve has announced that one of its in-store packaging plans for the Half-Life 2: Episode Two has been cancelled. The nixed concept--originally titled Half Life 2: The Black Box--was to be intended for players who already owned the previous titles in the series, and would have included only Half-Life 2: Episode Two (preview), Portal (preview), and the long-awaited Team Fortress 2. Instead, players looking for the game in stores will now be limited to The Orange Box, which will feature the full versions of both Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One. "We're going to have one package, The Orange Box, available on the PC (US$49.99) as well as the 360 and PS3 (US$59.99)," said Valve's Doug Lombardi to IGN PC. "Those who purchase the PC version of The Orange Box will get three separate Steam product codes: One for the three new games, one for HL2, and one for Episode One. This way a PC Orange Box owner can give away their Half-Life 2 or Episode One unused Steam product codes if they don't need a copy of those games." It is unknown whether this development will impact the Steam pricing models for the upcoming games. Shacknews has contacted Valve for more information, but had not yet received a response at the time of this printing.