Newell, first off, did not offer up any confirmation that Half-Life 3 was in the works, according to a report by VG247. He played it off with the joking response of “the number 3 must not be said.”
However, he did respond saying that Valve did have some “fully fledged single player games in development.” He did not elaborate on what games were in development or how long they had been working on them. Newell did say that Valve is hoping to get everyone working on games onto the Source engine, which it is currently using “as the foundation of some unannounced products.”
He did have some promising news for fans of the Left 4 Dead series, following the supposed evidence of a third installment that was leaked last year. When asked about where the franchise would go, Newell wrote, “Left 4 Dead is a good place for creating shared narratives.”
Newell also stated that Valve chooses which products to focus on based on “technology that we think has traction, a group of people who want to work on that, and one of the game properties that feels like a natural playground for that set of technology and design challenges”. For example, Team Fortress 2 is the result of Valve’s decision to focus on “markets, free to play, and user generated content”.
Newell also confirmed that Valve has multiple VR projects in development, alongside the “knuckles” controller which is designed to be used in conjunction with a headset. “The big thing right now is broadening the range of options we have in creating experiences,” he wrote. “We think investing in hardware will give us those options.”
Some of the Valve staff are researching machine learning and artificial intelligence, while Newell himself has taken a personal interest in brain-computer interfaces, when asked about technology for the future.
Overall, Newell’s AMA focused on big-picture thinking rather than revealing details about specific projects. But this definitely gets us thinking about what’s in store for us next from Valve.
