Half-Life 2: Delayed or Not?

I don't know about you guys, but I have really been anticipating Half-Life 2. A few weeks ago, Vivendi Universal, the Publisher Valve hired for distributing Half-life 2 stated that the game was delayed from the origianl release date until Holiday Season 2003. Two days later, Geabe Newell was emailed and said he never even knew of any such delay. Soon afterward, VU stated that this announcement was a "miscommunication" but has not flat-out denied the delay. In a recent Italian Interview, Gabe Newell, the President of Valve recently answered ""No Comment" when asked whether the delay existed or not to put hte fans anxiety's to rest. Furthermore, in another interview, Gabe was asked why he won't comment when the issue of the delay comes up and still he won't even answer why he won't comment. THis is CRAZY! What's going on? If the games is delayed, fine, its not the end of the world. But if it is, I would like to know at least know so this issue will be resolved once and for all.

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!