"The Know"  cites an anonymous source from within Valve that claims the company "will never release Half-Life 3." According to their report, Valve does have a team developing the game but it is staffed by less than ten people and is currently on the bottom of their priority list. 

According to their source, Valve has two main reasons why they are allegedly not interested in launching "Half-Life 3." The first reason is due to the profits they are making from "safer" properties such as their Steam digital distribution services and the microtransactions from just three IPs: "DOTA 2," "Counter Strike: Global Offense," and "Team Fortress 2." 

Developing a new game on the scale of "Half-Life 3" would cost millions of dollars with no guarantee that it would profit. Valve is reportedly making close to a billion dollars per year on the above-mentioned three games and on Steam alone, which means there is no financial incentive for them to put more money on developing "Half-Life 3." 

The second reason why Valve is reportedly not intently working on "Half-Life 3" is because of the negative backlash gamers had against "Mass Effect 3," particularly on the game's ending. The ending — and the reaction from gamers — was so controversial due to resulting death threats and other negative comments, forcing Bioware to release a DLC that altered the game. 

"Gamers act so hateful when they're disappointed that there's no point in really trying to release the game," states The Know's source.

Valve is no stranger to negative backlash either. The company attempted to introduce paid mods for "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" via Steam but after gamers reacted negatively, even to the point of threatening Valve employees, the company immediately pulled this service out. 

According to a report from Movie Pilot, this could spell the death of "Half-Life 3." The game is supposedly still in development and while the story reportedly already complete, Valve has no intention of publishing. There will always be negative backlash and people will continue to pay microtransactions and buy games on Steam.