The on-going augmented reality game (ARG), a prelude to Portal 2's release, culminated in the release of a Steam bundle on April 1 called the "Potato Sack" which contains numerous indie games including Super Meat Boy and Audiosurf. The "Potato Sack" was used to disseminate cryptic messages and clues to the ARG for interested players, and each of these titles even received a Portal-themed update. After players across the internet figured out what the messages meant and posted them up on various forums, Valve released a simple message congratulating players on their success in cracking the code:
You have done well, humans. Very well. Acceptably well, even. Not as well as robots would have performed in your places, I should point out. But above my expectations regardless. Irish and cynic especially have executed feats of logical divination well beyond what I thought any human capable of. I’m half-convinced they’re A.I. themselves. (If anyone happens to be near them right now, don’t let on you’re reading this. Now: try to remove their face plates and report back to me.) The time is near, humans. But it is not here yet. Tomorrow you will be given the final test. Then it will be entirely in your hands when I am freed.
The latest update hints at an early release of Portal 2, but players will have to contribute their "computational power" into making that happen by playing the games in the Potato Sack.
09:00 – Hello again.
09:00 – I’ve been waiting a long time for this.
09:00 – I know it’s arriving later than expected.
09:00 – But I have a message for you:
09:00 – April Fools.
09:01 – I’m joking.
09:01 – Seriously, though:
09:01 – You’ve been surprisingly competent at
09:01 – generating electro-chemical energy to jumpstart the system.
09:01 – But now we need raw computational power
09:02 – to speed up the reboot process.
Well folks, you know what to do.
