2007. That’s the year when Valve started talking openly about Half-Life 2: Episode 3, back when the company was still planning on continuing Half-Life as a series of smaller, episodic games. After 20 years, a VR spin-off prequel, and many, many, many rumors, leaks, and hoaxes, it does feel like Valve might actually be working on the next installment of Half-Life, and with next year’s launch of the recently announced Steam Machine, 2026 might be the year the long wait will end. Maybe.
A brief history of Half-Life 2: Episode 3
As documented in this now ancient piece of Kotaku writing, we’ve been waiting for Valve to announce the next big Half-Life sequel for a very long time. And for a few years, Valve president and co-founder Gabe Newell and the rest of the studio seemed fine with talking openly about what was then called Half-Life 2: Episode 3. But around 2011, after Episode 3 failed to launch in December 2007 as announced, Valve became far less interested in discussing the game. It was around this time that Newell replied to a question about the game with: “If you know enough to ask the question, you know what the answer is.” In the years that followed, the number three became a meme with the company as it grew Steam into a massive platform and changed PC gaming in some big ways.
Flash forward to 2020, and suddenly Valve was once again talking about Half-Life 2: Episode 3, which at this point had been canned and reportedly replaced by a bigger sequel, which fans online often refer to as Half-Life 3. Valve was at the time getting ready to launch the VR-only prequel game Half-Life: Alyx, the first new Half-Life title since 2007, and was openly talking about why this was the game fans were getting and not that other one that ended in a 3. As it turned out, it just never came together, they said. But the folks behind Alyx were excited to be working on Half-Life again and hinted that more could come one day.
Leaks, datamining, and new Episode 3 gameplay
In 2024, we actually got to see some gameplay of Half-Life 2: Episode 3, or at least a version of it. What we saw featured a lot of snow and some wild ideas. But sadly, this version was never finished, and despite multiple attempts to make Half-Life 3, nothing happened until 2020’s Alyx, which wasn’t even a sequel and was VR-only. Not quite the game fans had been waiting for, even if the ending did tie up a loose end.
But that’s not to say Valve hasn’t been working on the next Half-Life game. On the contrary, according to dataminers, the Half-Life: Alyx team and other parts of Valve have been developing a new Half-Life project, often referred to as HLX in files and online discussions, since around 2021. Now, this isn’t official in the slightest. But there’s far too much leaked data referencing a new video game starring a person in an HEV suit using guns and other weapons to fight aliens from Xen to not think something is being developed. And for the last few years now, more and more data has been found in various updates to other Valve games running on the same tech as whatever this new Half-Life project ends up being.
There was also the big “White Sands” leak in 2024, which seemed to reveal the game’s codename and some other details. Yet another piece of evidence that perhaps Valve is working on the next Half-Life game and has been for years now.
That leads us to now. On November 12, Valve officially announced the Steam Machine, a new console-like device running on SteamOS. It announced a new controller and a new VR headset, too. (Yeah, three things, very funny Valve…) Thanks to dataminers all of this stuff had been known about for a while now, so y’know, something to keep in mind about how accurate their findings are. Anyway, this all puts Valve in an interesting position as we reach the end of the year.
Half-Life 3 would be the perfect game for the Steam Machine in 2026
We know that some part of the company has been working on a new project, likely Half-Life 3 or at least something Half-Life related, since around 2021. And Valve has new hardware it wants to sell and show off, launching in 2026. Now, what would be a great game to bundle with the Steam Machine in the same way Valve included Alyx with every Index VR headset back in 2020? A new Half-Life game.
There’s zero chance Half-Life 3 or whatever this new game is called will be ported to a console. That just ain’t what Valve does anymore. But the Steam Machine is practically a console in how easy it will be to use, like the Steam Deck, and it could offer people an easy way to play Valve’s next big Half-Life game. Oh, and if they go and buy more games later, well, isn’t that nice, too?
Look, Valve is a hard company to predict. They aren’t publicly traded. They’re funded by Steam and don’t really need to make anything to stay afloat. And their work culture is very different than that of other studios, letting people work on whatever they want and cancelling stuff all the time. So it’s possible that this HLX/HL3/whatever game currently being worked on, at least according to leaked data, never sees the light of day. But I also think it is possible, truly possible, that next year is the year when Valve launches Half-Life 3 as a pack-in game for its fancy new Steam Machine. (It would also be playable on PC, of course.) Everything just seems to be lining up.
Or maybe I’m going to look like a fool when, five years from now, people return to this article and laugh at it for being so wrong, like so many other pieces of writing about Half-Life 3 that exist on the web. But hey, I’m a dreamer. And also, I’m just tired of waiting. So here’s to 2026: The year I really, really, really hope brings Half-Life 3 to us all.
