We’ve heard a lot about Half-Life 3 over the years despite Valve insisting it’s not in development. Rumours of prototypes, possible VR releases and whatnot have been around but according to an anonymous source that spoke to Game Informer, there’s no such thing as Half-Life 3 at Valve.
This anonymous source is tied to Valve and is one of the few that responded to requests to be interviewed. Though it’s meant to be taken with a grain of salt, Game Informer does stand by the validity of the information. Take that for what you will.
Right off the bat, the source says that, “There is no such thing as Half-Life 3. Valve has never announced a Half-Life 3. The closest they’ve come is after Half-Life 2, they said there would be three episodes. We only got two of those. That is arguably an unfulfilled promise. Anything else that we might think about as a full game or sequel has never been promised.”
With the way Valve works, it’s possible for any employee to work on a game that becomes a new Half-Life project. And while this has happened many times, lack of support from senior management means they fizzle out.
“When they were making episodes for Half-Life 2 that was probably the best and strongest effort that ever happened toward another Half-Life project. You have people that were working on Half-Life, people that finished Half-Life: Episode 2, that already imagined where they wanted to go next – they were cooking, and wanted to keep the wheel spinning.
“Undoubtedly what happened is a lot of things were changing for Valve. Orange Box launched and did its thing. People who care about Team Fortress were doing their thing. You had people trying to get something going with Counter-Strike again. You got people that are playing other games, and that led to Dota 2.
“You have the Steam platform itself. Left for Dead. Portal 2. The hardware teams. You have a whole bunch of pet and big projects going on. All of that is getting more gravity than this third episode of Half-Life. There’s something with that third episode that isn’t sitting right with Gabe and other people at Valve. Ultimately it just starves to death. The people that tried to give it life find themselves better off working on other projects. What you have left is nothing going on with Half-Life.”
As for why Valve simply won’t talk about it anymore, the reason is simple. “Every time they talk about it, the hunger comes back. That’s why they ignore it. The pain subsides with time.”
Again, grain of salt and whatnot. What are your thoughts on all of this? Let us know in the comments.
