At the end of October, Valve reporter Tyler McVicker claimed that a Half-Life 3 trailer was rumoured to be released in November. Shortly after, others came forward and seemingly corroborated these rumours, claiming that a major announcement was imminent.
Most of these, however, were not hinting at Half-Life 3, but instead the Steam Machine, Frame, and Controller, a trifecta of new Valve hardware. Still, within the hubbub of the cuboid PC console, many insiders said that they had also heard murmurs of a Half-Life 3 announcement on the horizon for 2025, sparking what has been the most fervent week in the community since 2019.
Fans latched onto these reports and cooked up all sorts of theories, speculating that ‘HLX’ would be announced on November 18, the anniversary of Alyx’s reveal, and the start of an unusually arid period on the Steam store. That day came and went, so new theories cropped up that it would be announced on the anniversary of the first Half-Life; again, that date came and went.
22 days into November, flying past every single theory, and the community’s faith in these rumours is beginning to wane. However, we still have five weeks of the year left, and according to Insider Gaming senior editor Mike Straw, a trailer is still coming.
“I Have A Date I’ve Been Told”
“I have a date that I’ve been told, but I haven’t been able to verify it with multiple sources, and there is a history of Valve doing these things called ‘canary traps’. They give different people different dates to try and guess who’s talking,” Straw said on the Insider Gaming podcast. “I’ve seen it happen before. They did this with Half-Life: Alyx. A bunch of people reported different dates because [Valve] was feeding the dates differently. I won’t report the date until I get physical confirmation that that’s the actual date and not a canary trap.”
Everything I’ve been told has been this year. The date I was told is this year.
One of the leading theories as we barrel through November is that Valve will unveil Half-Life 3 in a showstopping reveal at The Game Awards next month, following what appear to be cryptic teases from Geoff Keighley. However, as Straw noted, this is what Keighley does: “There’s a trend in games and he posts some random teaser about whatever’s trending to build up the hype for his own thing”.
Several leakers, insiders, and reporters have stressed that Half-Life 3 at The Game Awards is incredibly unlikely. Valve, like Rockstar, likes to do its own thing. “It’d be very surprising unless [Keighley’s] got reach to deal with Valve – in the past week – to have Half-Life 3 revealed at The Game Awards,” Straw explained. “If it’s going to be at The Game Awards, what I could see it doing is Valve announcing it before and then saying, ‘Hey, we’ll show more at The Game Awards.’ I don’t see it being announced at The Game Awards.”
Straw likewise says he’s heard “nothing” about a shadowdrop.
Various leakers from a wide variety of beats, covering PlayStation, the broader games industry, and specialising in Valve, are steadfast that Half-Life 3’s announcement is still on track for 2025. It certainly looks like we’re in the home stretch. So, don’t give up hope just yet – with just over a month left, we’ll find out soon enough.
- Released
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November 19, 1998
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language
- Publisher(s)
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Sierra Studios
- Engine
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goldsrc, source
- Multiplayer
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Local Multiplayer
