sheesh
The EA distributed retail version of the game is selling for $40 from many sellers like Amazon which is $30 less than the combined price of the four parts on Steam (HL2 + DM + CS + HL:S).
One more time, you can get all that + DoD:S for $20 not $30 more.
The irrelevant part is DoD:S. Why? Because someone trying to replicate the retail package would by the bundle, not buy each piece individualy. It is after all cheaper to do it that way and you get everything mentioned + 1 more item. *So the price difference is $20 not $30*. It's because of your thick head that I have to post this multiple times spelling it out very clearly just to make a simple point.
At any rate I'll actualy lend a little support to your argument... personaly I wouldn't say DoD:S is really worth 20 bucks myself, so there's still an argument for why doesn't Valve offer a $40 package with only the retail offerings.. then again the solution to that is to go to the store.
The rest of this argument comes down to supply and demand. If Valve is charging too high a price for their items they will eventualy suffer... or change the pricing. But for now what they charge for their items is what they feel it's worth. If they're wrong they'll loose (or are loosing) money.
Oh and I bet the rest of this thread will continue on bitching about prices and content delivery (and I'm as much to blame here at this moment) with no mention of the interview I posted below that has some interesintg info on the upcoming release
This comment was edited on Feb 22, 18:38.