The Orange Box

Activation

In October 2007, Valve disabled access for the Windows version through the required authentication system Steam when customers imported the from Russian or Thai from outside of those countries, as the price was up to 4 times as low there. Those users are greeted with the message incorrect territory when starting the game.

The Black Box

Valve originally planned to release The Black Box alongside The Orange Box. The Black Box would have contained only the new games which premiered in The Orange Box (Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2), and would have been priced US$10 lower than The Orange Box. This package was never released in retail, and was only available through Steam for owners of select ATi graphics cards through a voucher for the free copy of The Black Box they received with the cards. To compensate for the retail cancellation of The Black Box, Valve gave free gift keys of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One to players who had already owned the two titles on Steam.

Online servers

The game's online servers for the PlayStation 3 were shut down on 28 March 2023.

Ratings

The ESRB rating for the game uses the symbol "T-M" (products range from Teen to Mature).

Awards

• GameSpy
  • 2007 – #2 Game of the Year
  • 2007 – #4 Console Game of the Year
  • 2007 – #2 PC Game of the Year
  • 2007 – PC Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
  • 2007 – #3 Xbox 360 Game of the Year
  • 2007 – PC Action Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
  • 2007 – PC Multiplayer Game of the Year