Gabe Newell: Valve is working on singleplayer games, open to revisiting Half-Life universe

MentalIlness

Platinum Member
Nov 22, 2009
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http://www.pcgamer.com/gabe-newell-valve-is-using-source-2-for-unannounced-products/

During his Reddit AMA today, Valve president Gabe Newell stated that Valve is—drum roll—developing new videogames. When it came to the inevitable question about Half-Life 3, Newell joked that "the number 3 must not be said," but also confirmed that Valve has at least one singleplayer game in the works, saying "yes" when asked if the company is developing "any fully-fledged single player games."

When asked in a different thread if Valve would ever consider revisiting the Half-Life and Portal universe in a new game, Newell answered in the affirmative. It's not Half-Life 3: Confirmed, but it is Possible Half-Life Related Game: Not Out of the Question.

Outside of that comment, Newell was as vague as usual about Half-Life. Regarding the anonymous source who said Half-Life 3 doesn't exist, he joked: "I personally believe all unidentified anonymous sources on the Internet."

As for what games are being developed by Valve, Newell said little more except that they are, as would be expected, being developed with the Source 2 engine and that VR games are in the works.

"We are continuing to use Source 2 as our primary game development environment," wrote Newell. "Aside from moving Dota 2 to the engine recently, we are are using it as the foundation of some unannounced products. We would like to have everyone working on games here at Valve to eventually be using the same engine. We also intend to continue to make the Source 2 engine work available to the broad developer community as we go, and to make it available free of charge."

In another answer, Newell said that Valve is designing VR games along with a "knuckles controller," which I assume is this prototype from last October. It also sounds like some of Valve's other games, namely Team Fortress 2 and CS:GO, may be moved to Source 2, as Newell said Valve wants everyone working on games at the company to be using it.

When asked about a future Left 4 Dead game, Newell explained that new products at Valve usually come from the combination of new technology, people interested in that technology, and a game property that feels like "a natural playground for that set of technology and design challenges." He called Left 4 Dead "a good place for creating shared narratives." He confirmed nothing, but various leaks have pointed to Left 4 Dead 3 being in development in the past.

Also in the AMA, Newell explained what's been done recently to improve Steam's customer service, and expressed a desire to improve it further. You can read over the whole thing here.
 

PlanetJosh

Golden Member
May 6, 2013
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^ Maybe because he's going into politics? But anyway I'd definitely look forward to a HL3.
 

EXCellR8

Diamond Member
Sep 1, 2010
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Didn't a Valve rep just denounce all Half-Life related projects? Stating the game never existed... etc.

That's a pretty low blow considering that's the franchise that contributed the most to where they are now. I agree that it would be tough for them to follow up on HL2:E2 with something amazing, but it's doable. Hell, I still fire up the Source SDK once in a blue moon and screw around with level design and lighting. To me that's kind of a cop out to just abandon a game (an amazing game, maybe the best ever) because of your apprehension toward the game not living up to expectations (anyone get that reference?)

Portal and L4D are great mind you, but HL is the gold standard of linear action imho (another loose reference)
 

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,856
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Didn't a Valve rep just denounce all Half-Life related projects? Stating the game never existed... etc.

That's a pretty low blow considering that's the franchise that contributed the most to where they are now. I agree that it would be tough for them to follow up on HL2:E2 with something amazing, but it's doable. Hell, I still fire up the Source SDK once in a blue moon and screw around with level design and lighting. To me that's kind of a cop out to just abandon a game (an amazing game, maybe the best ever) because of your apprehension toward the game not living up to expectations (anyone get that reference?)

Portal and L4D are great mind you, but HL is the gold standard of linear action imho (another loose reference)

The thing is, I don't think it even NEEDS to be "AMAZING" It just needs to.... "be".
 

quikah

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2003
4,072
651
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Just finish the story. At this point they could just make a few hour conclusion to the story and I would be satisfied (I barely remember what the story is, just remember the old guy died at the end).
 

EXCellR8

Diamond Member
Sep 1, 2010
3,982
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Portal had some very obscure references to the HL universe, but that's basically all we got.

At this point, they could just outsource the final game and I'm sure there would be a TON of support. Heck, those Black Mesa modders did a fantastic job improving the original on the newer engine so I'm pretty confident that they could find a decent writer. Given all of the mediocre or worse story content that is being passed off for 60 bucks these days it wouldn't even need to be mind-blowing, just satisfactory.

Personally, I think it would be an easy project that would be insanely profitable but with how successful Steam is I don't think Valve really cares that much to wrap it up. It's a massive shame if nothing comes to fruition, and I think they should hire some fresh developers craving some portfolio credit, but it's probably not going to happen.
 

biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
18,237
4,755
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hahahaha, internet got trolled by that guy.

Yup, every now and then, the test the strength of their brand, and if it is dipping, they just release vague statements of possible upcoming games, and then everybody starts talking hl3 and valve again...
 

PrincessFrosty

Platinum Member
Feb 13, 2008
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www.frostyhacks.blogspot.com
My predictions.

Source 2 won't add anything significant to the table like the engine overhaul for HL2 did. They seem technically outdone by much more focused businesses like Epics Unreal engine and Cryteks CryEngine. Anything they do will just be playing a huge amount of catch up on these more advanced engines.

We won't see anymore Half life, they have basically abandoned that IP despite most of their fans asking them to bring it back, so don't get your hopes up. There was has been a massive demand for sequels over the years and we've not seen any indication of valve as a business even really caring that much about it.

It will most likely be an extension of an existing IP. Valve haven't generated anything new or unique themselves since Half life. Portal and L4D were teams they bought out and improved on, TF2 was a mod that became a game, so was CS. They seem to hold preferences for rehashing new versions with only very minor changes.

My guess, we'll see something like Portal 3 with HL crossover elements. We know that it's set in the HL universe and that has been teased over and over, so probably revolve around the portal mechanics but maybe in a black mesa setting with combat. Makes the best logical sense to me. I think there has already been quite a lot of indications it will just be L4D3 as well given what has been said in the past.

While I really love Valve, I love the team and how they work, the fact they're private, the interesting and fascinating stuff Gabe talks about at interviews, and all the rest of it. But they've not really produced anything of serious value in a long time, Steam is great but nothing has changed in ages and a lot of the incremental updates to products like TF2 just seem like features they should have launched with. A lot of it just feels like catching up rather than driving forward.

If they wow us with an insane tech leap like HL2 was, and a really new and unique singleplayer experience, something completely out of the blue. Then I'd very much love that, but let's be realistic here.
 

Skel

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2001
6,214
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The thing is, I don't think it even NEEDS to be "AMAZING" It just needs to.... "be".

At this point it would need to be "AMAZING". No other game that's taken this long has been received well... at least none that I can think of. That's the biggest downfall to putting things on hold for whatever reason. The world just starts expecting you to leapfrog what's currently out there. I'm not even sure what could be done that would be new and original like the HL2 was.

I don't remember, did they ever say why they dropped the episode stuff? I wasn't a fan of it, but I vaguely remember them just dropping the story in the middle of it.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
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If they aren't already working on it, you would be looking at another 5 years at least before it would even be ready unless they just half-assed it.
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
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"This is how episodic gaming can work: 1, ............................................................................................................................................................2, .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. [...]"