'Childish' Valve Devs Are Taunting Fans About Half-Life
By Dalton Cooper 15 February 2017
Speaking to a roundtable of reporters, Gabe Newell reveals that some of his ‘childish’ employees at Valve enjoy teasing fans about the possibility of Half-Life 3.
Fans have been waiting for Half-Life 3 for a decade. While some have given up on ever seeing Gordan Freeman’s adventure conclude, others haven’t given up hope, poring over any photos of Valve headquarters for a sign that the game is in development. Even though we haven’t seen anything official on Half-Life 3, there has been plenty of evidence of its existence over the last 10 years, but as it turns out, this supposed “evidence” is just Valve employees playing a trick on fans.
As reported by VentureBeat, Gabe Newell has admitted that some Valve employees enjoy taunting fans about Half-Life 3, leaving false clues to grow the legend of the ever-elusive game. Over the years, this has included things like leaving files in other games that seem to hint at Half-Life 3, hiding supposed Half-Life 3 icons in photos taken at Valve HQ, and more.
“Some of the more childish members of our company have worn Half-Life 3 T-shirts to GDC.”
While some fans may be upset with Valve’s employees for leading them on about Half-Life 3, others will take it in good humor. Many have accepted that Half-Life 3 may never finish development, and so they no longer get their hopes up when they see something that seems to “confirm” that the game is still in the works at Valve.
Valve employees aren’t the only ones that have perpetuated the Half-Life 3 hoax over the years. At this past year’s Gamescom event, a German company put up a poster outside the Kolnmesse convention center in Cologne that read “Half-Life: 3,” which tricked some attendees into thinking that the game was finally going to receive a formal announcement at the event.
Moving forward, it appears as if fans should assume any sign that Half-Life 3 is in development is just another joke by Valve or someone else to keep the Half-Life 3 myth alive. The real status of the game is that it has taken many forms over the years, with one report claiming that a Half-Life 3 real-time strategy game was even pitched at one point, but it has never gained much traction. Simply put, there is no concrete evidence that Half-Life 3 is in active development.
While Half-Life 3 or any continuation of Gordan Freeman’s story may never see the light of day, a new IP set in the Half-Life universe could materialize, if Gabe Newell is to be believed. In the meantime, take any Half-Life 3 news with a grain of salt, and don’t get excited until the game gets an official announcement.
Half-Life 3 is not currently known to be in development.
