"the half life 2 collection" probably would've worked best, given that it's packaged with what are, effectively, half life 2 mods.

So you'd have gone for something like the Final Doom package?

I think I agree with your points; on the other hand, "orange box" has a geek appeal to me personally, reminding me of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Books

I think that sort of branding works fine if you make a habit of colouring re-releases or repackaged releases consistently, and calling them the so-and-so box.

At the very least, give it a few years to see whether people still refer to the orange box before passing judgment.

But I do agree, it's confusing to the consumer right now.

It is completely confusing - it started out with separate boxes, changed names (wasn't there a black box too?) and I think all the games can stand by themselves.

It's better value for those who want all the games but the are all very different (and notably; it'd not be a great half life 2 collection without Counter Strike Source, which was included with the original HL2 release).

I agree separate boxes, and perhaps a package like described would have worked better in the retail shops.

Valve has been doing this with Half-Life since the beginning; though it's possible this is the first time that the color of the box was in the title. The original game had four or five different colored boxes with different collections in them.

Okay, you are correct in a way; notably, the original Half Life 1 box was orange (in relation, no doubt, to the protagonists orange HEV suit).

Opposing Force was military green.

Blue Shift (the only one with a colour in the title) was blue, obviously.

Packages of these - I got one with Half Life, Opposing Force and Counterstrike in - was black.

Half Life 2, was kinda orange again, and black. Episode 1 was black I think.

Then this one was "The Orange Box" - a bit hard to see why. I never ever saw someone really explain it, it is rather confusing even if they used certain colours in the past.

Colour wise, TF2 is Blue or Red (of course), Portal is always shades of white and blue, and Half Life, well, is supposedly orange I guess. No other way I can figure it out!

Are you only considering the Xbox 360 version of the game in this article?

As far as I know, NPD doesn't cover/doesn't have access to Steam sales figures -- I'd like to believe the game has been a huge success among PC owners and a moderate success among Xbox owners; 6th place is nothing to turn up one's nose at, especially when in competition with Halo 3 and when introducing a brand, or series of brands, that many Xbox owners are not familiar with.

The name of the game or product is ultimately irrelevant in my opinion. Gordon Freeman is easily recognizable. . .to Half-Life fans, thus proving that Valve had a clear market in mind. TF 2 is one of the best balanced shooters on the 360, but that market is dominated already by Halo and Gears. There was already a ceiling that Valve was going to hit with the 360 version and not even Portal (reaching gross overhyped status these days) was going to ensure stellar numbers. They could have called it whatever the hell they wanted to, and they still would have sold as many copies as they have based on brand recognition and console support.

Bottom line is anyone not able to make an informed decision when buying video games these days is a woefully ignorant Luddite.

I agree with Dave. The target audience for this game has already played HL2. There are a few gamers out there just picking up a 360 for the first time who might think "what the hell is an Orange Box?" but for the most part, the incremental value here is in Portal and TF2...

Couple that with it being released in a crowded market that includes Halo 3 and COD 4, delayed PS3 release, and you get disappointing sales.

For as much spin that's being put on this, the heart of the Orange Box is still HL2, and most gamers would rather play something new (Halo, COD) than something a couple years old.

Now, had this been released in the sparse summer months, then I think it could have taken off. It seems like the sort of collection that would do well as a summer release.

Having just upgraded my computer and seeing the rave reviews that the Orange Box was receiving, I found this the perfect time to buy into the Half-Life franchise. The name "Orange Box" wasn't a turn-off for me because I knew what I was buying: all of the Half-Life 2 games and two great new games.

Had I not known that, I think I would have been confused, really. The box itself isn't that appealing. Toups is right... at least on the 360 it might have been better to call it something like "Ultimate Half-Life 2" or "Half Life 2 Plus" to show the entire value a little bit better. After all, while many pc users have already bought and played Half-Life 2 and episode 1, the whole shebang is brand new to the 360. The 360's user base is going to be less familiar with all of Valve's products and is probably a tougher sale.

If overall sales of the Orange Box are only 240,000 units, that's a darn shame. But for a multiplatform game with 3 (soon to be 4) methods of distribution, that's a respectable number.

After all, this thing is sold for pc's and 360 in a hard-case at retailers. Plus it's sold on Steam. I imagine that a lot of Valve's fans just bought the thing on Steam because they have already come to trust the service. I bought it on disc because I had never really used steam before.

Once I did that, I bought a collection of all the older Half-Life games from Steam, to start from the start. So I haven't even touched Half-Life 2 or its episodes yet. I'm back in Half-Life 1 making up for lost time.

As for why it's called the Orange Box at all... Well I guess that made sense when there was a separate "Black Box" collection in the works. Orange and Black are very highly associated with the Half-Life brand. However, only those familiar to the brand would recognize that. It seems to me that this package was put together as an appeal to existing fans rather than to introduce the properties to new customers.

I think the Half Life brand just doesnt carry over to console very well.

Its very much like Doom or something, familiar to all PC gamers and most crossover(PC+Console) players but just lacking the appeal or hype on console.

And for me personally I already owned HL2, everyone I know who bought Orange Box already owned at LEAST HL2 if not EP1 as well.. They all bought through Steam, and Im the only one who bought Team Fortress 2 by itself because I just wasnt interested in the rest of the package. TF2 and Portal to me are very much games that couldnt stand too well on their own though so maybe its really a smarter decision for Valve if OB is selling really well via Steam, which i imagine is probably doing about as well for them as the retail products.

So we're all marketing experts now.

Frankly, I could care less about Half-life (never played it, haven't really had interest), but the other two games, TF2 and Portal seem like amazing games. Thus to me, I'm glad they didn't try to play up the half-life connection in the game and focused on the awesomeness of all three.

I have no idea why they picked "The Orange Box" as a name for the box set, nor does it particularly matter. It is almost like picking "Sony" as your company name. A few people might get the meaning, but most folks just read it as a name, really defining the brand as by the quality of the products inside. Half-life fans will see half-life and rejoice; tf fans will see tf2 and rejoice; everyone sees portal and rejoices. If they come out with a series around similar naming, all the power to them, but I feel that "The Orange Box" stands alone and stands strong.

the box resembles a free coverdisk attached to a magazine.

"Half-Life: Uncut. Unleashed." Is probably the shittiest idea for a name i've ever heard.