Erik Johnson, a project manager at Valve, has stated on forums at Shacknews.com that the preload of Half-Life 2 assets would be delayed until today. This asset load was originally scheduled for last week, but according to Mr. Johnson the delay was caused by the release of Counter Strike: Source Beta on the 17th via Steam.

As Half-Life 2 trundles down the road to release, this setback is probably a minor hiccup. However, with each delay the release timeframe will be pushed further out. Gabe Newell, head of Valve, has stated that the game has purportedly entered into the final debugging round, a precursor to publisher submission, how this delay affects that step is unclear at this time.