Valve Time

Valve time is an industry term used jokingly with game/software/update releases from Valve, used to acknowledge the difference between the "promised" date for released content stated by Valve and the "actual" release date. 
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==Valve Time==
:
Valve Time 	Actual Time 	Item 	
October 1997 	September 1, 1998 	Release of Half-Life demo 	
November 1997, April 1998, Summer 1998 	November 19, 1998 	Release of 	
"Soon" (1998), way before 2005 	October 10, 2007 	Release of 	
September 30, 2003, Holidays 2003, April 2004 	November 16, 2004 	Release of 	
"First half of the summer" 2005 	October 27th, 2005 	Release of 	
September 2005, February/March 2006, April 24th 2006 	June 1st, 2006 	Release of 	
Christmas 2006, Q1 2007, Summer 2007 	October 10, 2007 	Release of 	
Christmas of 2007 	August 25th, 2017 (as script) (Archived link, Epistle 3 removed in 2022) Officially confirmed cancelled on November 16, 2024 (20th anniversary of Half-Life 2)	Release of 	
Four days 	Two months and six days 	Availability of the Earbuds in TF2 	
Every 3 months 	Every few years 	Release of each Half-Life 2 Episodes 	
In the coming weeks 	In large updates starting in five months and continuing over the next seven years 	TF2 Class Achievements 	
Coming tomorrow at 11 AM 	Coming tomorrow at 2 PM 	Update 	
Today 	Tonight at 11:49 PM, Pacific time 	Time TF2 beta went live 	
Q1 	The third week of Q2 	 	
Coming "Soon" 	Coming in over two months 	Team Fortress 2, Engineer Update. 	
Beginning in (next month)... 	Beginning in the month after the stated one 	 	
Shortly 	In six months 	SDK 	
We're finishing this feature up now 	We've just finished the concept and we'll start working on it in the coming weeks (see below) 	Steam Friends 	
"within the month" (Feb 1st)
"just after" April 15th
"the week of April 20th" 	April 29th 	TF2 Gold Rush Update 	
January or maybe even March 	May 23 	Day of Defeat Source Steamworks beta 	
Until the problem is fixed with an
SDK update 	For the engine after the engine after this (where everything but our tools have changed) 	 	
Early 2008:
 Late summer, 2008:
Early November, 2008 	November 18, 2008 	Release of 	
Monday 	Monday-ish 	Arena Mode announcement date on http://steamgames.com/tf2/heavy/ before going live late Monday night PST	
When we started working on TF2 	22 years ago (putting the date 11 years before the initial release of Team Fortress) 	 	
October 27, 1 PM, PST (8 PM, UTC)
October 27, 11 PM PST (October 28, 6 AM, UTC)
October 28, 1 PM, PST (8 PM, UTC)
October 28, 2 PM, PST (9 PM, UTC)
October 28, 3 PM, PST (10 PM, UTC)	October 28, 5:08 PM, PST (October 29, 0:08 AM, UTC) 	early access demo 	
...any minute now 	5 days later 	Nov 9, 2009 Left 4 Dead update 	
Late March 	Late April 	Release of The Passing for L4D2 	
In April 	May 12th 	Steam for Mac 	
This coming holiday season! 2010
Next coming year. February 9th, 2011 	April 18th, 2011. 	release date 	
July 12th 	July 15th 	TF2 Polycount Pack Contest winner selection 	
Later this Spring 	Fall 	Release of L4D on Mac 	
In one hour 	In two hours and 15 minutes 	The release of Alien Swarm 	
"Working with Developers" 	8 years, 6 months 25 days 	Downloadable drivers via Steam 	
By the end of August or early September 	September 30th 	Release of Polycount update 	
"about a month" after the "March" release date of The Passing 	October 5, 2010 	Release of "The Sacrifice" 	
"Next update" (January 2011) 	Too many updates to count since then. 	Team Fortress 2 Jigglebone fix 	
Next week 	1 week and 3 days 	Fix for the matchmaking menu on Team Fortress 2 not fully darkening the background 	
20 minutes 	40 minutes 	The International Dota 2 Tournament 	
Summer
Mid-September
This September 	October 4th 	Portal 2 DLC 	
Early August 	September 14th 	Rubles in Steam Store 	
Limited Time Only 	Still going strong (2010 - Present) 	Mann Co. Store promotion item 	
Early October 	November 30th 2011 	closed beta testing 	
24 hours 	28 Hours and 45 Minutes 	Dota 2 server maintenance 	
Today's update 	An update 4 years, 8 months, 18 days later 	Orange Box listdeaths removal 	
No later than June 30th. 	July 12th. 	2012 International Ticket Information (Dota 2 Championships) 	
30 Minutes 	1-2 Hours 	Playing a Mann vs Machine game 	
An update tomorrow or early next week 	22/08/2012 (3 months later) 	Fix a critical security bug in the L4D2/ASW/P2/CS:GO engines. 	
September 5th 2012 	October 3rd 2012 	Expanding Steam to non-game software 	
Hopefully Next Week 	9 Months Later 	iOS Steam Update 	
Before the end of 2012
Fairly quickly (8/17/2012) 	February 15th 2013 	Steam for Linux 	
April 23rd 2013 	May 1st 2013 	GCF to VPK conversion for Team Fortress 2 	
"Later this year" (2012)
Middle of next month (October 2012) 	May 2013 	Left 4 Dead Linux builds 	
"Shortly after release" of OS X support (2010) 	June 26th 2013 	Mac OS X support for Source SDK Code 	
"We’re going to release new SDK’s within the next week or two." (April 17th 2013) 	June 27th 2013 	Source SDK 2013 	
Later this year (2011). Then delayed to Q1 of 2012. 	July 9th 2013 	 	
August 24th 2013 	August 27th 2013 	Team Fortress's Birthday 	
October 27th 2013/Middle of September 	December 4th 	Part two of the "bi monthly" comics 	
By the end of August (2014) 	4th September, 2014 	Goblin Techies for Dota2 	
"Early next year" (September 2014) 	June 18, 2015 	Source 2 Dota 2 Beta 	
July 31 at 8 am July 31 at 12 pm 	July 31 at 12:45 	Pre-order pickup at TI5 	
"In the next few weeks" (August 13, 2015) 	exactly 18 weeks 	TF2 performance update 	
"Update Notes Coming Soon" (July 7, 2016) 	About 5 hours later. 	TF2 Meet Your Match patch notes. 	
Some weekend in June 	Week 45 (July 15, 2016) 	Dota 2 Battle cup 	
4:00 PM PDT 	2 Hours later 	Dota 2 True Sight Episode 1 	
"a little quicker" than 11 months 	1 year, 4 months, 10 days 	TF Comics #6 	
"next year" (October 12, 2016) 	First announcement November 18, 2019 	Big product announcements for Valve VR content 	
Later this month (May 2017) 	May 39th, 2017 (June 8th, 2017) 	Dota 2 Siltbreaker Campaign Act I 	
"Next week, as always" (October 11, 2016) 	October 21st 2016 	Scream Fortress 2016 	
"This fall" 	12/12/2016 	Dota 7.00 "The New Journey" 	
"to be shipped in a future update" (August 15, 2016) 	October 16th 2017 	TF2 Jungle Inferno Update 	
"Priority for 2017" 	June 19th 2018 	CSGO Panorama UI 	
"... before the end of the month" (July 2018) 	July 33rd 	CSGO Panorama UI enabled for everyone by default 	
"Later today" 	The next day. 	CSGO Free Availability 	
"...and you're all in the beta starting in October" (August 20th, 2018) 	November 19th, 2018 	Start of Closed Beta 	
"What are you doing Wednesday?" (December 5th, 2018) 	"Thursday?" (December 6th, 2018) 	Major CS:GO Update 	
"Later this year" (2019) 	"ships March 2020" 	"Flagship VR game" release () 	
"Early next week" 	Wednesday the next week 	Gameplay Update (#210) 	
"After the weekend" 	Friday of the following week 	Statement on TF2's unusual drop rate bug 	
The Game Awards, 12 December 2019 	Canceled 	information 	
Steam page and website claimed it would ship with the game on March 23rd, 2020. 	May 15th, 2020 	Half Life Alyx: Hammer Editor & Workshop 	
Soon 	Canceled after 10 years 	Portal 2 Trading 	
December 2021 	February 25th 2022 	Steam Deck Release Date 	
"Late Spring" 	October 6th, 2022 	Steam Deck Dock Release Date 	
November 2022 	December 8th, 2022 	Release Date 	
"Summer 2017" "Summer 2023" "What are you doing next Wednesday?" (September 27th, 2023)	September 27th, 2023, 23:40 	Release Date 	
Looking Ahead to 2020 	September 25, 2023 	Release of SteamVR 2.0 (beta) 	
Late June 2024, later delayed to "June 39th" 	July 9, 2024 (dated "June 39, 2024") 	Release of Crownfall Act III 	
"Full SDK update will come later" (November 17, 2023) 	August 20, 2024 	SDK update for Half-Life's 25th Anniversary 	
January 1, 2024 	November 5, 2024 	End of support for Steam on to , as well as . 	
"Coming Soon" (February 23, 2017) 	December 17, 2024 	Wwise plugin for Steam Audio 	
"Coming Soon" (January 10, 2017) 	December 20, 2024 	7th Issue of Team Fortress Comics: The Days Have Worn Away 	
==Reverse Valve Time==
Note that these outliers may be the results of an undiscovered "Greenlight Savings Time".
:
Valve Time 	Actual Time 	Item
At 4PM pdt 	At 1:30 pdt 	(L4D2 50% off sale)
This week 	The next day 	May 19, 2010 Team Fortress 2 update
In a few days 	Within 24 hours 	December 11, 2008 TF2 update
We're wrapping things up... 	2 Weeks 	Pyro update
"before the end of the summer" 	August 20th 	New Left 4 Dead DLC Announcement
"in time to celebrate Halloween" 	October 27 	Left 4 Dead on OSX
On 11/8/2010 	11/7/2010 11PM (GMT -8) 	(TF2 Halloween Event ends)
April 20th, 2011. 7AM PDT 	If and when enough Potato Sack games are played.	Portal 2 release date
"July 22nd at the latest" 	July 21st 	Dead Air Beta in Left 4 Dead 2
"Wednesday" (October 5) 	October 4 	Portal 2 DLC release
"When the community says it's ready" 	August 21, 2012 	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Release
50 days after September 11th (October 31st) 	October 26 	TF2 Halloween
The three days around Full Moon in December 2013 (December 16th-18th)	December 13th-15th 	Team Fortress 2 monthly Full Moon event
April 2, 2015 	October 2, 2014 	4th issue of Team Fortress Comics: Blood in the Water
In the coming weeks 	5 days later 	Linux and OS X clients for Dota 2 Reborn Beta
Monday, August 31, 2015(link to Tweets) 	Monday, August 31, 2015 	TF Comics #5
A day or two 	9 hours 	Dota 6.87
November 1, 2017 	October 31, 2017 	Dota 2 Dueling Fates Update
We will work on getting it fixed 	26 hours and 26 minutes 	CSGO sound bug fix
November 19, 2018 	November 18, 2018 	Artifact Key-holder Beta goes live
May 1st, 2019 	April 30th, 2019 	Full announcement of Valve Index headset
March 23, 2020 @ 10am PT 	March 23, 2020 @ 9:56am PT 	Half-Life: Alyx Release
== See also ==
*Valve Time Tracker
*Wikipedia:Hofstadter's law
*Team Fortress 2 119th Update
Category:Valve