Gabe Newell, the co-founder of game developing studio Valve, was recently interviewed during a podcast called "GameSlice," and at around the 38-minute mark, he stated that at the moment, Valve has no plans of revisiting the "Half-Life" franchise. This means there's no "Half Life 2: Episode 3" or "Half Life 3."
"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," he explained when asked if fans should expect a third game soon.
With Valve now focusing its resources as a systems platform instead of developing video games, it appears that "Half Life 3" is on indefinite hold. Valve's recent efforts have been the recently unveiled Source 2 engine and the Virtual Reality headset the company is producing with mobile company HTC.
At least he didn't outright quash the hopes for a series finale, saying, "So we'll keep moving forward. But that doesn't necessarily always mean what people are worried that it might mean."
This would contradict what he initially stated during the release of "Half Life: Episode One" in 2006. Newell explained in 2006 that it would be better for the fans to get "episodes" every now and then instead of having to wait for years for a proper sequel.
However, it has been seven years and counting since the release of "Half Life: Episode Two." The last episode ended with a cliffhanger and fans have been clamoring for a proper closure to the series since "Episode Three" has been abandoned.
The most recent "Half-Life" activity is Valve's official release of an improvement mod developed by Filip Victor, an avid fan of the game series. The new update, which has been officially launched via Steam, updates the game's graphics and fixes several glitches and bugs.
