Report: Half-Life 3 Is Not in Development, Valve Focusing on Steam Deck Instead

[Tsing]

Image: Valve



In a bit of unsurprising but very disappointing news, Valve News Network’s Tyler McVicker has shared new information from his sources that suggest there is no Half-Life 3 or other sort of follow up to 2007’s Half-Life 2: Episode Two being developed at Valve. According to McVicker, who’s made a name for himself by leaking various Valve projects over the years, Valve is more interested in focusing all of its efforts in the Steam Deck, its highly anticipated handheld gaming PC. McVicker suggests that even if there was a Half-life 3 project being discussed by a small group of developers at Valve, it would likely get shot down by executives.









“To get the big question out of the way, is there a true follow-up to Half-Life 2: Episode Two in development in any capacity at Valve Software?” McVicker asks in his new video, “What is Next for Gordon Freeman...

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[Shotglass01]

Don't know, feel like the world has moved on. Not sure why people would want HL3 now? Gordon would necessarily need to be a non-binary, Karen at this point. HL3, see DNF.

 

[Zarathustra]

Don't know, feel like the world has moved on. Not sure why people would want HL3 now? Gordon would necessarily need to be a non-binary, Karen at this point. HL3, see DNF.

My reasons are different, but I agree that HL3's time has passed.

It would have been great if they hadn't ended on a cliffhanger and actually finished the story. It would have made sense in 2008 to 2010 some time, but at this point, everyone has moved on.

I mean, I can't even remember the details of the story. I'd have to go back and replay all of HL2 + episodes to refresh my memory.

The truth is, HL3 would inevitably face the Cyberpunk 2077 problem. Expectations would be too great. No matter what they do, the game would never be good enough, and it would launch to poor reviews.

While I would love the story getting wrapped up, at this point, 14 years after the last episode was released, it is probably better to just let it be.

 

[Burticus]

More likely to get a VR Alyx sequel than ever see HL3. Or maybe Gordon will be the next VR game...

 

[DrezKill]

It would have been great if they hadn't ended on a cliffhanger and actually finished the story.

Yeah, I'm still kinda pissed about that.

While I would love the story getting wrapped up, at this point, 14 years after the last episode was released, it is probably better to just let it be.

I agree only cuz most of the main team and writers who worked on the past games are gone, and if Valve tried to make a new HL game now, they would probably f*ck it up. Otherwise I wouldn't care how long it's been, I would've still wanted the series to be finished.

 

[Grimlakin]

You know they could do a full redo on an updated source engine if they ever wanted to make a new game engine again. Just putting that out there. Then they could release a 1, 2, AND THEN 3. Reinvigorate the series AND get that 3rd release out there to wrap the story.

 

[Denpepe]

I see HL3 as some kind of get out of jail card they hold. Like if they ever need money, they can crank it out and grab a ton of money but with how steam is doing that's highly unlikely to ever happen.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

I was reading a little more on this, this morning, and it seems there's still a 50/50 chance it could happen but it's tied to Valve's VR teams, which have been told to take a back seat while the Steam Deck gets full resource dedication from Valve. I'd suspect that once that thing has rolled out and it performs as promised Valve will work on its own exclusive titles to help promote it. The catch though is that the Steamdeck doesn't presently support VR which explains why it has been put on the back burner for now since the last breath of life for this franchise was Alyx. Granted this is all hearsay-word-of-mouth-type rumors but these strategies seem plausible.

Valve is reportedly ditching VR to focus on the Steam Deck - KitGuru

While Valve is known primarily as a software company, the Steam founder has created a plethora of di

www.kitguru.net

 

[MadMummy76]

I see HL3 as some kind of get out of jail card they hold. Like if they ever need money, they can crank it out and grab a ton of money but with how steam is doing that's highly unlikely to ever happen.

We need money quick! Let's develop a 200 million dollar game, that takes 5 years.
Sorry, but that makes very little sense.

 

[Brian_B]

We need money quick! Let's develop a 200 million dollar game, that takes 5 years.
Sorry, but that makes very little sense.

Couple of points here:

First, while the company undoubtedly has priority projects, Valve also has a long history of letting their developers work on pretty much whatever they want. So it wouldn't surprise me if there were a few unadvertised side projects going on, of which maintaining Source would have a high probability of being at least a part of that.

Second, Alyx used Source and that was fairly recent. They just recently updated a bunch of games for the Steam Deck. Although Source is hardly prominent, I don't think it's dead. I don't think it will reach the level of, say, Unity or Unreal, but I don't think it's been put out to pasture yet. I think it is likely we could see more development as Deck and VR pick up, to continue to support those platforms, and possible it picks up some new toys like RT, and very likely the new upscalers (FSR in particular) and VRS -- things that will help boost performance on low end hardware like the Deck, or maintain framerate in VR.

So it wouldn't be nearly the same thing as throwing $200M at developing an engine from scratch. And remasters of HL and others would probably sell well.

 

[Zarathustra]

We need money quick! Let's develop a 200 million dollar game, that takes 5 years.
Sorry, but that makes very little sense.

They could license it to a third party developer publisher for a quick cash infusion, but honestly, then there would be no reason to sit on it. Time value of money and all that. It's always better to have money sooner than later.

 

[Zarathustra]

Couple of points here:

First, while the company undoubtedly has priority projects, Valve also has a long history of letting their developers work on pretty much whatever they want. So it wouldn't surprise me if there were a few unadvertised side projects going on, of which maintaining Source would have a high probability of being at least a part of that.

Second, Alyx used Source and that was fairly recent. They just recently updated a bunch of games for the Steam Deck. Although Source is hardly prominent, I don't think it's dead. I don't think it will reach the level of, say, Unity or Unreal, but I don't think it's been put out to pasture yet. I think it is likely we could see more development as Deck and VR pick up, to continue to support those platforms, and possible it picks up some new toys like RT, and very likely the new upscalers (FSR in particular) and VRS -- things that will help boost performance on low end hardware like the Deck, or maintain framerate in VR.

So it wouldn't be nearly the same thing as throwing $200M at developing an engine from scratch.

I liked source much more than I do Unity or Unreal as an engine. I think it is sad they haven't kept up with it.

It is modular, so it is fully capable of being modernized should they want to...

 

[Brian_B]

They could license it to a third party developer publisher for a quick cash infusion, but honestly, then there would be no reason to sit on it. Time value of money and all that. It's always better to ja money sooner than later.

Source has always (or at least for a long time) been available for 3rd party development. It's just fallen behind the curve compared to the others.

 

[Shotglass01]

I see HL3 as some kind of get out of jail card they hold. Like if they ever need money, they can crank it out and grab a ton of money but with how steam is doing that's highly unlikely to ever happen.

That it would. But they could also do another Portal, and that would still likely sell very, very well too. Not HL3 numbers but wouldn't be too shabby.

 

[Brian_B]

That it would. But they could also do another Portal, and that would still likely sell very, very well too. Not HL3 numbers but wouldn't be too shabby.

Or Team Fortress. Or Counterstrike.

 

[Uvilla]

I don't remember HL anymore. Like at all.

 

[Zarathustra]

I don't remember HL anymore. Like at all.

I recently played the Black Mesa remake, so that is relatively fresh in my mind, but I have honestly forgotten most if not all of Half Life 2, and the episodes.