Half-Life 3 rumours are a tale as old as time, but in the last few years it definitely feels like Valve has been cooking something.
Last month, Valve insider Tyler McVicker reported that a trailer for the next Half-Life game is in development, with a potential November release.
Tentatively titled ‘HLX’, it’s unknown at this point whether the next Half-Life game is going to be another FPS that continues the story from Half-Life 2: Episode 2, or another VR game in the same vein as Half-Life: Alyx.
“The current rumour that’s going around is that work on the trailer is occurring,” McVicker said in a video uploaded on 30th October.
“When Valve works on a trailer, it’s not the same as when a publicly owned AAA studio makes a trailer,” McVicker continued. “When a trailer is being made, it’s being announced sometimes over a year before launch.
“Valve is not doing that. You are going to have the announcement and the launch be very close together, very similar to how Half-Life: Alyx handled it. They’re not going to be having you wait a really long time.”
He then concluded: “Let’s tentatively get excited for November. Let’s mellow out. Let’s be very chill about a possible thing happening soon. Maybe. Who knows?”
Will Valve announced Half-Life 3 in November?
With it now being November, Half-Life fans are holding their breath for a new game announcement. One fan in particular has arrived on 18th November as a potential date for the sequel being announced.
“Valve uses the top banner on the front page of the Steam Store whenever they want to promote a Steam Sale, Steam Event, or new products like games or hardware,” user sameseksure writes. “Whatever’s on the front page of Steam gets a HUGE amount of exposure.
“They put Half-Life: Alyx on the front page banner immediately after the announcement back in 2019, as well as the Valve Index when it was announced. When there’s a Steam Sale or Event, it takes up the top banner for the whole duration of those events (Summer Sale, Next Fest, etc.).”
“Therefore, they will not announce anything at the same time as major Steam Events are happening, as they would be cannibalizing their own sales. They’d rather reschedule stuff to ensure they’re not cannibalizing themselves.”
Sameseksure then points to the fact that Valve has a gap in its upcoming scheduled events for the rest of the year.
Steam Animal Fest takes place between 10–17th November, and then there’s nothing until 8th December when the Steam Sports Fest takes place.
With such a large gap, the poster concludes that Valve could be gearing up for a potential big announcement on the 18th November, or at least that week.
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be Half-Life 3 being announced. Valve is also working on a few other projects at the moment.
The company’s next VR headset, codenamed Deckard, is also allegedly due to be revealed at some point in the near future.
There’s also Deadlock, the upcoming MOBA which has remained invite-only for the past year and a half.
I guess we’ll find out in two weeks’ time.
