I don’t think we’ll ever see Half-Life 2: Episode 3, and the cliffhanger conclusion makes Half-Life 3 unlikely as well. The best chance of Half-Life getting a second wind will likely come if J. J. Abrams and Bad Robot can get the Half-Life film to screen. If that comes to fruition, and it doesn’t bomb like almost every game movie before it, maybe, just maybe there’s a chance of Gordon Freeman’s story continuing. Roll your eyes at the movie mention if you want, but how else will this franchise get a pulse again?
The interview you are about to read sheds some insight into how Valve works as a developer. Yes, someone at Valve could just say, “Let’s make another Half-Life” and do it, but there are huge risks and hurdles involved in doing that. Prior to this interview, I was in the camp of, “Valve just doesn’t get it.” Now I’m in the camp of, “Valve is probably doing the right thing, but it’s disappointing.”
This interview opened my eyes to Valve’s unique way of developing games, but also provided a bit of closure for someone who wants to see Half-Life continue. In the days before publishing this story, I reached out to Valve one last time for comment, but my request went unanswered. Without further delay, here’s the interview.
This is a must-read.
Not read the article yet but even without I have to say that I very much doubt Valve is interested in continuing the Half Life story. They have got fat and lazy just like many before them and are content with raking in the profits from Steam! Why risk loads of cash on game development when you have the killer app that already brings the cash in?
Very sad as Half Life was/is one of the best games ever, but unfortunately seems to be true!
I don’t think they have the same game development expertise anymore. If the team hadn’t already moved to other projects / companies, they would have become stale after not writing any games for so many years.
They would need to rebuild the team, upgrade their engine for modern times (I would not want HL4 to become another unreal engine game), hire artists / designers / motion capture experts / orchestra, etc to build the art assets, and of course write a compelling story. All of this, at the scale of a AAA game easily racks up costs in 9 digits.
Or they can continue bringing home huge profits from Stream sales.
Unfortunately the math is not on HL3’s side.
Nine digits, in what base and in what currency? Are you talking base10 and american dollars? So that’s hundreds of millions of dough in cost? I’m flabbergasted!
Uh… when you are sitting on top of something that valuable, maybe you sell the franchise if you don’t want to take the risk?
Or maybe they still see value in the franchise as long as it stays dead?
All I know is that people will buy Half-Life 3. Doesn’t have to be great, but it can’t stink. It will be the number one seller of that year. The sales are more or less guaranteed. Ditto for a Portal 3.
IMHO, given that “lesser” game developemnt is happening at great risk, why not go for the sure thing?
The problem is, as has already been said, Valve just isn’t interested in game development anymore. They aren’t even a game development studio now, just a online service providing the Steam client and service.
It is that that has made them the company they are, not Half Life, as such they don’t seem to give a hoot if Half Life dies a death or not!
I figured Half-Life’s game model, and it’s lead character (lone hero against all odds) is simply out dated, and hard to sell in a modern world of squads and team play, especially in the less-individualist east.
Wolfenstein The New Order, Shadow Warrior, Doom4
Yeah, I also thought of Portal 2 after posting this. I wonder how well these games sell in the east
Postal, may have not of been a box office success. However, it is my favorite movie adapted from a video game.
Gun too loud? Need a sound suppressor? Here, kitty kitty.