Valve releases Half-Life and Counter-Strike retail sales numbers

It’s no secret that Valve has kept sales figures on the down-low ever since the release of Steam. Today the developer broke its silence and published the retail sales figures of its Half-Life and Counter-Strike series. In total, Valve has sold an impressive 32.8 million games since the 1998 release of the original Half-Life. It’s important to note that these numbers don’t include sales made on Valve’s Steam service (CEO Gabe Newell , and that these numbers are Valve’s estimates of worldwide lifetime-to-date retail sales.

Here are Valve’s total retail sales:

* Half-Life (Valve) / 1998 - 9.3 Million
* Half-Life: Opposing Force (PC, Gearbox) / 1999 - 1.1 Million
* Half-Life: Blue Shift (PC, Gearbox) / 2001 - 800,000

* Counter-Strike (PC, Valve) / 2000 - 4.2 Million
* Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (PC, Valve) / 2004 - 2.9 Million
* Counter Strike: Source (PC, Valve) / 2006 - 2.1 Million
* Counter-Strike (Xbox, Valve) / 2003 - 1.5 Million

* Half-Life 2 (Valve) / 2004 - 6.5 Million
* Half-Life 2: Episode One (PC, Valve) / 2006 - 1.4 Million

* The Orange Box (Valve) / 2007 - 3 Million
(Half-Life 2 HL2: Episode One, HL2: Episode Two, Portal, Team Fortress 2)

Impressive to say the least. In my opinion, Valve has been one of the most consistent developers, releasing highly polished and fantastic games. I can only imagine how high their sales numbers would be had Steam sales been included. Hats off to Valve for helping to keep the PC a relevant gaming platform.

Read: Valve Reveals Lifetime Retail Sales of Half-Life, Counter-Strike Series.

Postmortem: Why the CGS is dead

The final Championship Gaming Series press release, heralding the death of the company, is entitled “An Idea Whose Time Came Too Early.” Digest that.

This statement really does disservice to the gaming community that CGS purported to serve. Did anyone honestly think that CGS would reach an audience of 100 million people? 100,000?

CGS aimed high, but way off the mark, and in many respects, its death was inevitable. While this is regrettable because a good number of people I know are out of a job, I think it’s time we looked at the reality of the situation.

Welcome to the microculture

*giggle* We're so popular, millions of people love us!

I’ve said before and I’ll say again that we are in a microculture age. People go searching for what interests them in broad terms, and no longer rely on networks to deliver content that is deemed appropriate. The best example of this is the rising popularity of serial shows like Heroes, Lost, and other dramas, irrespective of the networks they’re on.

The shows are financed by the networks but also available on iTunes. The consumer wins, because he doesn’t have to sit through commercials. Networks win because they get a cut of the price. But this model only works due to the critical mass of fans available to watch or download the show.

At its core, the CGS was not a league. It was a reality TV show with a small audience, because the target audience won’t allow iteself to be forcefed content, and it doesn’t really like watching other people play games. Gamers would generally rather be playing, instead of watching. And males 18-35 don’t watch as much TV as they used to, even if video games are on the tube.

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