It’s been so long since the launch of Half-Life 2 that the release of Half-Life 3 has felt as unlikely as stumbling across Bigfoot in your backyard. But after years of waiting for a game that seemed like vaporware, we finally have some reason to believe that Half-Life 3 may still be coming after all. Developer Valve has yet to even confirm the game’s existence, but there’s more reason than ever to think what may be the most anticipated game ever is actually in development.
When could Half-Life 3 be released?
The Half-Life 3 release date is the biggest mystery about the hypothetical game. Half-Life 2 passed its 20th anniversary in 2024, which would have been a particularly appropriate time to release or at least announce it. Since that milestone has already passed, there’s really no telling when Half-Life 3 could surface. Valve could go the route of releasing the game without building hype through a marketing campaign as it did with the Deadlock Early Access (Half-Life 3 certainly doesn’t need help getting attention), but unless that’s the case, it will likely be a while before it launches if it does exist.
Valve hasn’t publicly commented on Half-Life 3, but rumors have been heating up in the past year.
Has Valve ever acknowledged Half-Life 3?
So far, Valve hasn’t said a peep about the possibility of Half-Life 3. The closest the company has come to discussing the game publicly comes in a documentary made for Half-Life 2’s 20th anniversary. In the documentary, Valve president Gabe Newell notes that the developer elected not to release Half-Life 2: Episode 3 because it could never figure out a way to make the sequel as groundbreaking as its predecessors.
“I couldn't figure out why doing Episode 3 was pushing anything forward,” Newell said.
Episode 3 is unlikely to ever be released at this point, and if Half-Life 3 does show up, it seems it will only be because Valve found a way to meet its own high expectations.
What’s the evidence that Half-Life 3 is in development?
Rumors of Half-Life 3 have been swirling about as long as Half-Life 2 has been out, but in the past year, there’s been a lot more reason to think it could finally be on the horizon.
YouTuber Tyler McVicker claims that a Valve project called HLX is a new, non-VR Half-Life game.
In August 2024, voice actor Natasha Chandel’s resume came to the attention of Half-Life fans due to a line mentioning her role in a Valve game called Project White Sands. The working title doesn’t correspond to any known Valve project, and fans were quick to note that White Sands is the name of a park in New Mexico, the same state as Half-Life’s setting of Black Mesa.
Not long after, YouTuber Tyler McVicker, who’s dug up information on Valve projects before, combed through the files for Valve’s Source 2 engine after finding a project codenamed HLX. McVicker contends that HLX is a new Half-Life that’s not made for VR, and that it contains some pretty advanced systems for fire and destructible environments, which could represent the kind of technological leap Valve may be aiming for in Half-Life 3.
On New Year’s Eve 2024, voice actor Mike Shapiro added fuel to the Half-Life 3 rumor fire. Shapiro posted a cryptic video on social media hinting at “unexpected surprises” coming soon, delivered in the voice of G-Man, the character he plays in the Half-Life series. The video ends with Shapiro saying “See you in the new year.” The post also carries hashtags for Half-Life and 2025. The post is similar to the last thing Shapiro shared on his account in 2020 before the release of Half-Life: Alyx.
