Half-Life 3 may finally be happening
By Tyson Sykes on November 26, 2025
Half-Life 3, the very long-awaited and greatly anticipated conclusion to the Valve Corporation’s legendary shooter series.
28 years ago, Valve made their debut entry into the gaming world, with their generational smash hit first-person shooter, Half-Life. Half-Life followed a novice scientist named Gordon Freeman, fighting against the alien takeover of a research facility called Black Mesa. It received critical acclaim. Six years later, fans would be treated with the release of the much-anticipated Half-Life 2. The sequel massively expanded on its predecessor in terms of story, graphics, and gameplay, and left fans with high hopes for the franchise. Especially, given that Half-Life 2 ended on a massive cliff-hanger, leaving the fates of many characters ambiguous.
Those hopes, however, would go unanswered. For 15 years, devoid of announcements, fans were left to wonder if Valve had abandoned the game series entirely. The silence was only broken in 2019, when Valve announced Half-Life Alyx, a virtual reality spin-off set in the same universe. Despite receiving praise for ingenuity and gameplay, Alyx was far from the announcement that fans had been waiting for.
Now, 28 years after the franchise’s inception, rumours of a third game are getting more rampant by the day. A notorious data-miner named Tyler McVicker, with a reputation for uncovering details on Valve’s previous projects, came forward. On October 29th, 2025, McVicker predicted that, within two weeks, the company would announce a new line of physical game consoles, followed by a mysterious “major video game announcement”. Despite falling ahead of his projected timeline, Valve did unveil their proprietary console, the Steam Machine. Shortly after the reveal, Valve would add an invisible listing for an upcoming game to their Steam developer page, although that listing has since been removed. Many fans believe that this listing was reserved for a third title in the long-dormant Half-Life franchise.
With The Game Awards scheduled for December 11th, many fans are convinced that Valve will use the annual video game award show to finally announce Half-Life 3. Others remain pessimistic after a two-decade-long wait.