The fate of the dearly loved "Half-Life" series is still up in the air but Valve co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell spilled his thoughts about it during a one-off GameSlice podcast interview with video game journalist Geoff Keighley at the Game Developers Conference. 

"The only reason we'd go back and do like a super classic kind of product is if a whole bunch of people just internally at Valve said they wanted to do it and had a reasonable explanation for why [they did]," Newell said in answer to the question of having a future "Half-Life 3" release. 

Valve looks like it is gradually transitioning into a service platform and away from game development, which may suggest that, considering how far along they are with their new venture, going back to the usual is an unlikely move. 

"But you know if you want to do another Half-Life game and you want to ignore everything we've learned in shipping Portal 2 and in shipping all the updates on the multiplayer side, that seems like a bad choice," Newell shared. "So we'll keep moving forward. But that doesn't necessarily always mean what people are worried that it might mean." 

At the end of the day, Newell did not shut the possibility of a new "Half-Life" iteration but, at the same time, did not broaden it enough for fans to actually expect Valve to go back to the drawing board for "Half-Life 3." 

The games within the "Half-Life" series share one science fiction alternate history. The first installment of the first-person shooter video game was released way back in 1998 and the latest was brought out about eight years ago. Gamers have been waiting ever since for Valve to refresh the franchise. However, even after almost a decade, it seems that no one is sure of the future of the title.