Gamers desperate for news on what Valve could be up to might want to keep an eye on Reddit
Valve cofounder and president Gabe Newell will answer questions in a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) at 3 p.m. Pacific on January 17, as PC Gamer first reported. It will take place on the The_Gaben subreddit, which is typically populated by memes deifying the public gaming figure.
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Valve is a historic game studio responsible for popular games like Half-Life, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, and Dota 2. While it still supports many of its works with patches and new content, the company hasn’t released a new game (outside of a virtual reality minigame collection, The Lab, which came out in 2016) since Dota 2 in 2013.
Fans could ask Newell if Valve still plans to make new games or if it will focus on VR, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. But many questions could focus on Half-Life 3. The fist Half-Life shot Valve into super stardom in 1998 by adding a compelling narrative experience to a shooter, while its 2004 sequel added gravity-based mechanics like a gun that could pick up nearby objects and send them flying. Fans and critics often consider both to be among the greatest games ever made. But we haven’t had a new entry in the series since Half-Life 2: Episode Two came out in 2007, which ended on a cliffhanger.
Valve claimed that it was working on an Episode Three — with the Half-Life 2 expansions originally planned as a trilogy — but that project disappeared. Although Valve never announced a Half-Life 3, many assume at this point that if any new game in the series comes out, it would no longer be a standalone expansion to Half-Life 2 with so much time having passed. But Valve may not have any interest in making a new Half-Life. Valve has shifted much of its focus on non-software related projects, including Steam Machines (gaming computers designed to plug into a TV) and the HTC Vive virtual reality headset. Last week, Game Informer published an interview with an unverified source at Valve that says after many false starts, the developer is not working on Half-Life 3.
Newell will undoubtedly get questions about Half-Life 3 during his AMA. Maybe he’s even doing it so close to this interview because he wants to deny or confirm things said in the Game Informer interview. Or maybe he’ll just ignore any questions about the Half-Life series and focus on VR and other Valve projects.