Valve: Half-Life: Alyx is “not the end” of the franchise ~ USA Latest Games

Still happy to have any excuse to post this video.

Ah, it seems like just yesterday that we were celebrating the ten-year anniversary of Half-Life 2: Episode 3's original announcement. But now, as we approach 14 years since the promise of a Half-Life that has the number "3" in the title, the impending release of the VR-exclusive prequel Half-Life: Alyx has proven Valve hasn't totally forgotten about the franchise.

What does all the work on Alyx mean for the long-delayed vision of an honest-to-goodness Half-Life 3? Game Informer put that very question to Valve's Robin Walker in a recent interview, and the answer, though vague, is the clearest indication in years that Valve hasn't given up on the idea of an honest "threequel."

Half-Life means a lot to us, and it's been incredibly rewarding to refamiliarize ourselves with its characters, setting, and mechanics. There are Half-Life: Alyx team members who have been at Valve since Half-Life 2, and quite a few who go back to the original Half-Life. There are also people on the team for whom Half-Life: Alyx is their first time working on this series at all—and many of them certainly hope it's not the last. We absolutely see Half-Life: Alyx as our return to this world, not the end of it.

Walker's discussion of the current makeup of the Half-Life: Alyx team is important to note here. Long-time Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw left the company in 2016 (before sharing a potential Half-Life 3 plot summary on his blog), followed the next year by the departure of series scribes Erik Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek. Animator Doug Wood, designer/writer Marc Laidlaw, and Senior Engineer Ken Birdwell also left the company in 2016, rounding out a handful of other notable departures since the last time Valve worked on a Half-Life game.