Over two decades have passed since Half-Life 2 was released, but its developer, Valve, has never gotten around to making Half-Life 3. Instead, Valve has been busy turning Steam into the top marketplace for PC game sales (and making a VR spin-off that won our GOTY award). But every once in a while, rumors about Half-Life 3 flare up, and it’s happening again right now.
As noted by Kotaku, Valve’s Steam storefront says that it has two upcoming games, but only Deadlock is listed, and that title is still in early access. The Game Awards are also coming soon, and there almost always seems to be speculation that Half-Life 3 will debut there. Some fans have also read a little too much into The Game Awards’ post celebrating today’s 27th anniversary of the original Half-Life.
For the record, The Game Awards makes that same post on this date every year. But that’s never stopped the speculation before. Dataminers have also been snooping around in Valve projects, and claim to have found evidence of an unannounced shooter codenamed HLX. More recently, Valve unveiled Steam Machine and Steam Frame, and fans have noted that Half-Life 3 would probably help the company sell a lot of hardware.
Near the beginning of 2025, Mike Shapiro–who voices G-Man in the Half-Life games–shared a cryptic New Year’s message that was also taken as a sign that Half-Life 3 was near. But nothing came of that either.
The most excitement Half-Life 2 fans had this year was the demo for the RTX mod that significantly upgraded the game’s graphics. Maybe one day, Valve will finally resolve that last Half-Life 2 Episode 2 cliffhanger. For now, the most recent game in the franchise was the VR game Half-Life: Alyx in 2020.
