One of the most iconic video game boxes of all time is The Orange Box, a bundle that included Half-Life 2, both of its episodes, and two little unreleased games you might have heard of: Portal and Team Fortress 2.
It was a staple on video game store shelves for years thanks to the sheer quality of the games inside, and it was easily recognizable thanks to its unique coloring.
As you can guess from the name, it was bright orange. But that almost wasn’t the case. In a TikTok (spotted by PC Gamer), former Valve writer Chet Faliszek recalled that The Orange Box was almost something way more boring: white.
Of course, it had to be orange because the Half-Life series uses a lot of orange, but how did white get into the conversation?
Recommended Videos Feliszek recounted a meeting where two executives pitched a “stately” and “beautiful” white box for the Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1 release (the other games were added later).