Maersk Shipping offers door-to-door service around the world. You ask them to pick up your goods in a standard container, they'll send a truck by your place to pick 'em up. Because of the tight schedules their container ships run on, they'll also give you an ETA. If your goods are not delivered on that day, they shave a percentage off the price as compensation. If it's late by several days, that percentage goes as high as 100%.
Somehow I doubt that HL2 will get any cheaper because of the delays. Think about it: The more the game gets delayed, the less up-to-date will it be. Would you pay 40$ for HL1 today? No. Because it's outdated. HL2 will be a year late if it ships in the fall. It's already out-of-date by a year. Most games sell at half price or less a year after they're released. HL2, I guarantee you, won't. No matter how long we have to wait, they'll still expect us to pay full price on delivery. They made big cash off HL. If they can't complete their second game in five years, it's time to fork over some of that cash and hire more staff.
