Steamed up

You've probably seen the Half Life 2 sales figures that were released. The game has shipped 1.7 million copies worldwide. Impressive obviously, especially for a PC game, but you have to wonder how many more they would have sold without the Steam debacle. It shows how high the anticipation and demand was for the game that so many people have bought it, despite the hassles. You can't imagine punters putting up with 3 hour long "activation" delays for, say, Playboy: The Mansion. Interestingly the 1.7 million figure doesn't include the download-only Steam sales. Sadly Valve are keeping those figures close to their chests at the moment. I wonder why?