Believe it or not , but ATI is going to bundle Half Life 2 again and it smells like a Voucher deal this time too. Our industry sources confirmed the Half life 2 episode 2 bundle deal with all Radeon HD 2900 cards.
This will certainly save the day for R600, as every Radeon HD 2900 XT card will come with a Half Life 2 episode 2 voucher. Last time ATI did this, it sold loads of 9800 PRO and 9600XT cards. They are hoping for the same deal now.
As Episode 2 is not out by the time the cards will be available, it'll be yet another voucher, but at least you will get this game for free. The last time, ATI spent a lot of money for the Half Life 2 voucher deal. In total ATI spent $2.4 million in cash, $1.2 million in marketing and another $4.4 million so that ATI and its partners could bundle the vouchers. We are talking about total of eight million dollars and you can read more details here.
We are not sure how much ATI paid the plumbing company Valve this time, but you can be sure we are talking about millions rather than hundreds of thousands.
The $ / € 399 price with a bundled game is not that bad after all, as it will get you a cool game. With the voucher ATI's R600 has a much better fighting chance.