2021 – Present: Datamining in Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2 & Deadlock
Tyler McVickers and GabeFollower, two well-known leakers for Valve games, stumbled upon interesting strings in the studio’s engine in 2021. Through the vast amounts of data collected across various games, it was now possible to say with certainty that Valve is working on a new Half-Life title known as “HLX” (Source: reddit.com).
According to the leakers, the title has reportedly been in development since the release of Half-Life: Alyx. The game is said to be almost finished now, with the team supposedly waiting for the right time to announce it.
In line with this, Tom Henderson, a well-known insider in the gaming industry, also has details about a major game from Valve (Source: reddit.com). Such a title is expected to be released around March 2026, alongside the Steam Machine as an exclusive title. This assumption is further supported by the fact that the Steam Machine is expected to be released around the first quarter of 2026. According to insiders, however, the title will not be shown at the 2025 Game Awards.
Whether this is truly Half-Life 3 remains to be seen. All mentioned leakers and insiders are reliable sources. Thus, the idea behind this release does not seem so far-fetched.
And to wrap it all up, because this looks less like a coincidence: Half-Life: Alyx was also not shown at the TGA 2019; instead, it released a year later in March 2020 – very suspicious.
These were likely the biggest leaks and rumors surrounding Half-Life 3. Are you excited about a possible release, or are you tired of waiting? Something is planned by Valve behind the scenes, and no one knows exactly what to expect. After all, there are already details about the Steam Machine: Steam Machine: The most important questions and answers
What was clear were the statements made by Gabe Newell in March of the same year. Geoff Knightley asked Valve’s head in a podcast whether fans could ever see a Half-Life 3. His response was as follows:
The only reason we would go back and develop a super classic product would be if a whole bunch of people internally at Valve said they wanted to do that, and had a reasonable explanation of why they want to do it.
But if you want to develop another Half-Life game and ignore everything we’ve learned from the release of Portal 2 and all updates for the multiplayer mode, that seems like a bad decision. So we will move on. But that does not necessarily mean what people are afraid of.
The implementation of the file could thus have been a sign from the developers of Valve to show fans that they also want to work on a sequel.
