Kind of shows just how much of a sham their promotion is - "Buy and play these games and get Portal 2 released EARLY!... By about 2 or 3 hours!" Really they ought to have started this 2 or 3 weeks before the release date if the bars are going to go up that slowly, to make it worth it.
Ah well, at least they're supporting indie developers, but I'm not sure capitalising on people's impatience and stupidity is the right way of doing it. It's certainly working for them though - Which makes it amusing to watch.
However, I'm not sure why people simply can't wait patiently a few days for the release instead of bitching about how they can't play it this weekend because Valve won't release it early - It's not like it's going anywhere after it's released or that they'll never experience a weekend ever again after this one. People are funny.