Counter Strike 2 to be bundled with X800PRO/XT

ATI IS QUIET about what is happening on the bundling front but we heard that there will be more than one way to play in this game. As we said earlier, here, ATI will bundle Counter Strike 2 with its X800PRO/XT cards. Its retail partners have to pay and make the decision whether they want it, and will pay for it.

Counter Strike 2 will cost ATI partners $10, the normal practice is not to pay more than a few bucks. So you can expect to see some variety in ATI card partner marketing strategies.

The Half Life 2 deal will remain but it will cost you $10, just as much as it used to cost when it was bundled with the Radeon 9800XT and 9600XT.

If you had Radeon 9800 or 9600 series of ATI and now you want X800PRO or XT you have to choose the right AIB (Add In Board) partner who will offer this piece of paper.

For their side, ATI partners are not comfortable to go for one more bundle as there is still no game available. Summer could well mean the end of summer rather than the beginning and it will still take some time to finish Counter Strike 2. This might easily put ATI in a position where it has another card, the R480, before the piece of paper can be exchanged for the real thing.

This time all AIB partners will decided which game they want to bundle as I guess only few if any will give away $20 in this tight margin market for two pieces of papers for cool games in the future.

This might result in a big difference in bundling among partners as it seems that they all know that they have to do something different from their competitors. Are newly designed coolers the next thing to change, we wonder? µ