It’s now being said that Half-Life 3 won’t be coming out anytime soon, as YouTuber Tyler McVicker revealed in a video covering what projects are reportedly being worked on at Valve. According to the Valve sources McVicker talked to “There is not a major development team working on anything outside of the few pieces of software specifically tailored for hardware.”
It’s reported this is because Valve’s Steam Deck–which launches early 2022–has become the current focus for the company. “Right now, Valve is trying to get the Steam Deck out… Valve is throwing a lot at it,” McVicker said. “Half-Life 3, any kind of traditional mouse and keyboard first-person shooter at Valve, is not taking place. If it is, it’s a very small group of people.”
McVicker also mentioned Citadel, another in-progress project at Valve. “[Citadel] is a Half-Life-based, FPS/RTS hybrid, that is cooperatively based. Think about Left 4 Dead, Alien Swarm, and an RTS, and Half-life all having a baby,” stated McVicker. “It’s being created with the Steam Deck in mind due to how the game is supposed to be controlled. Originally there was supposed to be a VR asymmetrical cooperative component, however due to Valve’s lackluster view on VR in the current day, it’s very possible that it’s set aside.”
He added that Citadel is being worked on by the company. “Citadel is very much in development,” McVicker stated.
There have been many rumors floating around about Half-Life 3 over the past years, including it being developed to it being fully scrapped. Valve boss Gabe Newell has decided to not comment on the future of the Half-Life series. When asked about what’s next for Half-Life and Portal in a 2021 interview, Newell stated, “I’ve successfully not spoken about those things for a long time and I hope to continue to not talk about them until they are moot questions. The nice thing is, by not answering those questions, I avoid the community coming up with new, equally-difficult-to-answer questions.”
