Secondo quanto dichiara Doug Lombardi a Gamespy, Half Life 2 richiederà una connessione in internet per autenticare la copia durante l'installazione, creando cosi' un account Steam.
Q. Will the boxed versions of HL2 require any sort of Steam installations?
Doug Lombardi: During installation the user will be prompted to authenticate the copy and create a Steam account. After that is complete, the single-player and LAN games do not require an Internet connection.