Rumor: Half-Life 3 Is In The Works, Half-Life Alyx Came First For A Reason

GabeFollower, a well-known dataminer and leaker of all things Valve and Steam related, has made a new video with a bold claim.

He says that Half-Life 3 is real. In fact, Valve has really been trying to make the game for quite a long time now. GabeFollower discusses his findings in a video you can watch here. We won’t review all his points, but there are some things worth talking about outside of what he mentions.

GabeFollower goes out of his way to start his video on the topic with evidence of Gabe Newell saying this on an online teleconference:

“We’ve had Half-Life 3 started a couple of times.”

So, what’s basically happened is that Valve came to the conclusion that their Source 2 game engine, which had its initial release in 2015, was not ready to make Half-Life 3; AKA Valve’s vision and ambitions for the game were too much for it to realize. This led to their decision to make VR title Half-Life Alyx instead.

We have an opportunity here to look at what we do know is verified history of the past few years. The first Source 2 release was a port of DOTA 2, also in 2015. They also started working with HTC on a VR headset in 2015, with the HTC Vive coming out in 2016. And so Valve considered what games they could make for VR.

At first, they decided that Portal’s mechanics were too disorienting. They settled on making a Half-Life game. However, Gabe and company were well aware that the fans would be in an uproar if they made Half-Life 3 a VR game. At the same time, they wanted to make a title worthwhile that gamers who could, would venture into VR to give it a try. This is the reason that Half-Life Alyx is clearly narratively a new part of the story after Half-Life 2 Episode 2, but it also does not quite feel like Half-Life 3.

GabeFollower painted a picture of the developers genuinely getting dejected when they couldn’t make those earlier Half-Life 3 prototypes to come together. It is a matter of public record that Marc Laidlaw, Erik Wolpaw, Jay Pinkerton and Chet Faliszek, all writers at Valve, left the company between 2016 to 2017.

GabeFollower then argues that what we have seen of Half-Life Alyx, as well as Counter-Strike 2, and the in-development title Deadlock, proves that these claims are correct. Each title shows that Valve was experimenting with Source 2’s capabilities, and slowly pushed it forward. And as it turns out, Counter-Strike 2 was one of the titles GabeFollower datamined to find evidence of Half-Life 3, codenamed HLX.

We won’t discuss the other datamined data that GabeFollower discusses here because most of it was already independently covered by Tyler McVicker, FKA Valve News Network. We’ll jump to GabeFollower’s conclusion, that:

“Valve’s desire right now is to create a more elaborate and open world setting with smart NPCs, cool vehicles, and brand new gravity mechanics.”

If GabeFollower and Tyler McVicker feel comfortable talking about Half-Life 3 now, it is not just because they are sure that this information is correct. It’s because they are sure that Valve is not going to cancel it again from failed development, and that Valve is bound to officially confirm and/or announce it in time. Possibly, sooner than we think.

If you are so inclined, you can watch GabeFollower’s video below.