When a great franchise ends abruptly and without any warning, it is a sad day.
Half Life 3, a title which has only been murmured about, in some of the top gaming circles, seems to have met its demise. Why else would there be no news of an upcoming episode for more than 6 years? Half Life 2, which was very well received and went on to be a great success, was released in 2007. Since then, the franchise has been dead, save a few rumors about it every now and then.
What Happened to the Franchise?
Half-Life 2 was divided into several episodes and its Episode Three, which was the final installment of the second part of the game, was expected soon after the release of the second episode. Valve, the creators of the game, had already promised a new episode every six to eight months. However, the third installment never came up and fans waited endlessly for it. Since the third installment was to be released at the heels of its previous episode, the storyline was broken in the middle. This is perhaps one of the biggest disappointments for fans, who have been wondering about the story and where could it have possibly gone. Since the release of the second episode, all Valve has shown are some concept art pieces of the next installment. Meanwhile, they have released 8 other games, with no sign of a Half Life episode in between.
Speculations Begin
Since Half Life was such a popular franchise, and even after a lull of almost 7 years, it is still anticipated, fans believe that Valve may have completely scrapped the episodic installments. It is speculated that the studio may be working on a full sequel, titled Half Life 3. However, Valve officials have remained extremely tight lipped about any further developments on that front and have refused to make any official comments. Though Valve has made several other games, none of them have come close to the success of Half Life 3, and that is why fans continue to hope that the studio will eventually revive it.
Why is Valve Not Moving Ahead on Half Life 3?
Earlier in January this year, a top official at Valve, Gabe Newell, explained that when they began developing Half Life, Valve was a company that only focused on single player video games. The original idea was to continue doling out Half Life sequels. However, since then priorities have changed and cranking out new Half Life sequels just does not make fiscal sense. The world has moved on too, and in the last seven years, multiplayer games have become all the rage. Even though Half Life still continues to be a popular franchise, and one that people would be willing to pay for and play, Valve wants to keep making multiplayer games. This is despite the fact that Valve is yet to make a commercially successful multiplayer game. It is only fair, then, for players to wonder why Valve does not want to continue banking on
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