r/HalfLife3

Valve/ Steam has done a lot over the last 6-7 months (don't you fucking dare). They have announced 3 pieces of hardware, 2 of which have released. These are quite expensive and possibly risky ventures, especially of which hasn't released yet. Not to mention the costly and ongoing lawsuits. Right now, Valve/ Steam would probably not want to take on any more risk. And what would be the riskiest thing for Valve to do right now? That would be fucking up Half Life 3's release, the title that loyalists and the gaming world has been waiting for longer than I have been alive (sorry guys it's 21 years old, you might be old). Fucking up something this MONUMENTAL in the gaming world, would destroy Valve's reputation. People are obviously still going to buy it, they'll never NOT make a profit from it. Day one sales would most likely break multiple records and new lifetime sales record for Valve. But long term trust would be abolished. Valve also strokes me as the studio that does things almost perfect the first time, but takes absurdly long.

Deadlock has also seen an alarmingly good amount of progress in it's early beta for it being a Valve game. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if Deadlock released this year, it's in THAT good of a spot. Deadlock would have a pretty reasonable amount of manpower behind it, lessening the amount of time/ developers working on Half Life 3.

For me, our only hopes for the game releasing in 2026 is:
- Another VR Half life, to be released with the Steam Frame
- Game Awards 2026 (Really the only big event that Valve would likely grandiose enough to announce it)
- Sheer godamn luck that they announce it themselves.

On that last point, Valve is an enigma of a company in this industry. It's so damn good, so damn different that them just straight up announcing wouldn't be too shocking. Don't get me wrong, we'd all lose our shit, there'd be riots. Definitely gonna be a few deaths. But Valve being a little silly and just saying "ay yo we ready now guys, here's the release date" would be right on track with our big monopoly daddy.

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If one day the game comes out, will it be a computer exclusive or will it be released on console too?

Just a funny shower thought I had, I personally don't think valve still have interest in consoles tbh

I have no doubt that this game is gonna be way bigger than HL2, maybe even the length of HL2 and its episodes put together, because if this is truly the final game in Gordon's story, there's A LOT to talk about and A LOT to do!

Not only do we have where Episode Two left off with the Borealis and whats-her-name in trouble, but now we got Alyx missing, whoever this unnamed scientist is, and learning about what G-Man's mission is.

We got SO MANY surviving characters still from Magnusson to Eli, from Russell to Barney, and who's to say we'll get more new characters?

The Half-Life enemy roster is so big that I wonder which enemies are coming back and which ones will be left out - from the different variants of Headcrabs and Zombies, to different Xenian animals from HL1, as well as Antlions. And there is SO MANY different Combine units, robots, synths, and vehicles that have the potential have returning. This is just the RETURNING enemies, imagine the NEW ones!

The weapon roster is on the same boat. Will we have the same amount of weapons as HL1 or HL2, or somewhere in the middle which I believe might be the case? Will we get upgrades again like in Alyx? How will the weapons be different from HL2's?

The only reason they'd make another Half-Life game is to make new revolutionary technology for their engines, or revolutionary gameplay. This is the largest factor for the conclusion's delay.

Despite this game taking a long time, we gotta consider all these factors. Some factors I might be missing. This is gonna be one huge game with an amazing story! It's gonna be both quality AND quantity in all angles!

All of the mystique and mysticism around it, the hype surrounding it, the far-reaching jokes and memes about it (that are well into other communities, not just early PC Valve gamers)? Since everyone is aware of the jokes around its non-existence, if it were released there would no doubt be a huge audience that’d be receptive to looking into it.

More importantly, there could become a huge natural campaign about how well it lived up to the hype. For example, Slay the Spire 2 recently had a huge conversation around how great it was, particularly as a sequel. A lot of people who never played the original Slay the Spire, or never took interest in its eventual sequel, wanted to take part in the “moment” of the new release, particularly in it being an unexpectedly great sequel. Critics and fans (except steam reviewers) ubiquitously rated it highly, and the original Slay the Spire is almost uniquely well loved in the Roguelike genre.

The foremost prestige Slay the Spire has in its genre reminds me of the unique reach of Half Life 3 jokes; but the real comparison remains to be GTA VI. “We got X before GTA 6” jokes are everywhere, and if Rockstar never released it, that would be an even bigger joke. Well, I feel the same way about Half-Life 3 never being released: it’s just a colossal missed opportunity financially. So, I refuse to believe it isn’t coming at some point, because money talks. Valve is not publicly traded but obviously that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to follow the money… re: cs2/csgo cases

TL;DR:
All the time, people bandwagon the hype around a band releasing their sophomore or otherwise long awaited album that totally bangs/fucks. Since the whole internet has heard the joke about HL3 not having a release, when it comes out and is a genuinely good installment?-
The whole internet will already have a basis for understanding that it is long-awaited, and how much it means for it to then be a good game, which is a special marketing position for Valve.

One final comparison: how much interest could George R R Martin drum up by actually releasing The Winds of Winter, and it being great after all?

Everyone was expecting half life 3 to be included with the release of the steam machine, (which it wasn’t to our knowledge) and that bummed a lot of people out. But there was also an announcement for the new steam frame which is a virtual reality system. Half life’s latest installment (half life alyx) was a vr game so there’s a chance they do it again even if it’s not half life 3 but rather another spinoff. We still haven’t gotten the release of the steam frame so it’s possible that half life 3 will be a featured game on release.