Valve is twenty years old, Half-Life 3 still not confirmed

Valve celebrates its twentieth birthday on Wednesday. On August 24, 1996, the company behind game classics such as Half-Life, the Source engine, and the Steam platform was founded. Valve celebrates the anniversary completely silently and also without announcing Half-Life 3.

Valve was founded by Gabe Newell and he remains the face of the software company to this day. After dropping out of college, he spent 13 years developing Windows for Microsoft. Valve’s first achievement was Half-Life, the now legendary fps that appeared in 1998. Team Fortress Classic followed in 1999 and Counter-Strike was released in 2000. Team Fortress and Counter-Strike still live on in modern variants, but a new Half-Life game has not been released since 2007’s HL2 expansion Episode 2.

For nearly nine years, the entire game world has been eagerly awaiting the announcement of Half-Life 3. Fans of the series will take every hint or reference to a possible release to shout ‘Half-Life 3 Confirmed’ as loudly as possible. These now also legendary words have been on the internet since 2007. The fans are therefore very disappointed that Valve today also fails to announce the game during its twentieth anniversary.

Valve started out as a game developer, but is also the founder of the Steam platform, which came out in September 2003 and now serves more than 100 million gamers. The platform is also known for its recurring Steam Sales; a period when many gamers are only too happy to pull out their wallets or credit cards to shower Gabe Newell with many dollars in exchange for cheap games.

Gabe Newell, surrounded by hefty discounts during the Steam Sale

Since DOTA 2 came out in 2013, Valve has not released any new games. The company appears to be focusing on Steam and is also attempting to convert console gamers to the PC master race by releasing Steam Machines with its accompanying SteamOS and its own controller. Although Valve’s games and services have been immediately turned into great successes in the past, the company has not been able to break any pots with its Steam Machines so far.

Valve doesn’t seem to pay any attention to the anniversary itself, but website ValveTime does have something fun in store for Half-Life fans. In honor of its twentieth anniversary, a number of documents related to the development of HL1 have been published. A document by Marc Laidlaw describes an alternate end-game scenario; in it, Gordon Freeman would teleport to Earth, after defeating the Nihilanth. Next, the protagonist would meet G-Man, who opens a briefcase and with it a portal to another world. The player could step into the portal, or decline the offer, after which the G-Man would close the briefcase and disappear. If the player chose the latter option, it would be devoured by aliens.