Is It Just Me?

[_John_Lennon_]

Haha.

Why not just steal it when it comes out? Yeesh.

But Im pretty sure the rebate is only going to be continued to be offered on the 9800XT, dontk now about the 9600XT.

[adamp2p]

Half Life 2 voucher costs card-makers $10 a shot
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=13971
Too steep for some, it seems

By Fuad Abazovic: Wednesday 04 February 2004, 09:06

AS WE ALWAYS LIKE TO DO, here at the INQ, I gave myself the little challenge of finding out how much ATI partners have to part with to secure themselves a nice little Half Life 2 voucher. This inquiry was inspired by recent announcements that Power Color and Gigabyte don’t want to give you a Half Life 2 voucher with their 9600XT boards.
Well, our nameless, whispering friends let slip the magic figure of 10 Dollars, a figure ATI refused to confirm, deny or even acknowledge. Still, every ten bucks represents serious wedge in this business, where ATI and Nvidia partners are - let’s face it - struggling to earn every single dollar. Margins for 9600XTs are particularly tight and only Sapphire could possibly be making decent dollars, we reckon as it manufactures its cards for itself.

We also hear that ATI is soon to cancel the voucher program for the 9600XT, so grab one while it’s hot – assuming that is, you believe the game itself will be ready one day.

For comparison, older games like Serious Sam and similar titles cost companies nearer the region of a buck or less per copy. Tomb Raider AOD was selling between at 3 and 4 dollars per bundle we learned. So you can imagine how heavy a 10-buck burden is.

We asked five ATI press managers in three different countries to confirm the figure, only to meet with stony silence. Guess you’ll have to file this one in the rumour bin, then. Still, our sources are as good as a source can ever be. We all have our axes to grind. µ