HL3
Release Date: TBA
The third installment in a bestselling series of first-person shooters, its current status still unclear. There's been lots of unofficial leaks surrounding Half-Life 3, rarely commented on (and usually shot down) by Valve.
Half-Life 3 is the third installment in a bestselling FPS series originating from 1998. Its status remains unclear, as it was never officially confirmed by Valve.
The first unofficial rumors that Valve had abandoned Half-Life 2: Episode Three in favor of full-fledged Half-Life 3 surfaced in 2011. Soon later, further rumors suggested the game was in an advanced enough state for all the voice actors to have finished recording their dialogue already. Valve quickly denied these revelations.
Gabe Newell himself, one of the founders of Valve, spoke up on the matter, stating that his team was hesitatnt to report on the new Half-Life's progress, as the game was constantly evolving and chasing, therefore trying to keep up with all that was happening behind the scenes could drive players mad.
In September 2012, more unconfirmed rumors surfaced, claiming Half-Life 3 would feature an open world and would release "after 2013". August 2013 brought further revelations, claiming the game's future was put into question due to problematic motion capture technology.
Finally, in January 2014, the news broke that Valve had decided to focus on developing multiplayer games and Steam as a platform. Although Gabe Newell didn't say it directly, it became clear to many players that Half-Life 3 fell victim to this policy. Further reports regarding the game's alleged development surfaced in May. That's when we learned that alongside the third major game starring Gordon Freeman, Valve was also allegedly creating the third installment of the Left 4 Dead series.
In January 2016, Marc Laidlaw - a writer and level designer in the Half-Life series - left Valve to focus on new, independent projects. Just a few days later the internet was flooded with unconfirmed information about Half-Life 3, coming allegedly from one of Valve's employees. This leak said that Half-Life 2: Episode Three was transformed into Half-Life 3 and was to run on the Source 2 engine. The game was said to be visually impressive, have advanced AI, destructible environments and feature random events. The self-proclaimed informant also claimed the production process has gone far enough the game could possibly debut in 2016.
January 2017 brought even more information contradicting the previous leak, as another anonymous informant claimed the new Half-Life was extremely experimental, and could even turn out to be an RTS or an FMV adventure game.
Finally, in March 2020, shortly before the release of a series spin-off, Half-Life: Alyx, Robin Walker of Valve assured that the game is a return to the series, not its conclusion. Shortly later, Dario Casali spoke about what had happened to the series, blaming problems with choosing a new direction for it. The team didn't want to repeat their mistakes while creating the Source 2 engine; Half-Life 2 was developed at the same time as its own engine, making development much more complicated. Gabe Newell also had a very specific view of the franchise, believing its meaning is to present new technologies, therefore each game in the series should be groundbreaking in some way. A year later, Walker confirmed that Half-Life: Alyx was meant to lead the series out of its "narrative limbo" and its ending would matter in the context of the entire series.
Platforms:
PC Windows
Developer: Valve Corporation
Publisher: Valve Corporation
Age restrictions: 18+
Similar Games:
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A hugely popular series of first-person shooters (FPS) set in a science fiction universe. The series was created by Valve Software studio with support from Gearbox Software and Taito Corporation, among others.
Fans of the Half-Life series have gone crazy over the third installment, which, according to speculation, is just around the corner. Industry insiders and journalists are adding fuel to the fire.
video games
Martin Bukowski
November 19, 2025
Some reports suggest that Half-Life 3 may be announced soon. More and more players are beginning to believe that something is up.
video games
Martin Bukowski
November 17, 2025
Players have again found further mentions of an alleged Half-Life 3 in patch files for other Valve games.
video games
Adrian Werner
August 1, 2025
Half-Life 3 may cease to be the gaming industry's biggest meme later this year. A well-known insider also claims that the game will feature a much more advanced version of Director AI from Left 4 Dead.
video games
Jacob Blazewicz
May 5, 2025
A new rumor about Half-Life 3 has begun to circulate. But this time, fans will not believe it until they can quite literally install the game on their PCs.
video games
Matt Buckley
May 2, 2025
The latest Deadlock game update includes information on the HLX project, which is considered the third installment of the Half-Life series. The clues found there lead us to believe that the game is in the final stages of development.
video games
Kamil Kleszyk
February 27, 2025
Half-Life 3 has received another alleged teaser - it's far more intriguing than any Grand Theft Auto fan's theory.
video games
Jacob Blazewicz
January 2, 2025
Valve employees will soon answer questions from fans of Counter-Strike, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2 and the company's other games.
video games
Jacob Blazewicz
October 11, 2023
Half-Life 3 was scrapped years ago, and since then Valve has not thought of resuming work on the project, claims journalist Tyler McVicker, based on the knowledge he has collected over the years about the creators of the iconic FPS series.
video games
Jakub Tarchala
February 6, 2023
Valve continues to create video games, and many of them are currently in development. One of them may be a new Half-Life.
video games
Sebastian Grys
September 2, 2022