Valve may have just started a playtest for Half-Life 3

Jared Wynne Published 28/12/2024

Half-Life 3 is one of the most anticipated video games in the industry’s long history, and new signs are pointing to Valve initiating a potential playtest for a game that might just be HL3.

Rumors have swirled around Half-Life 3 for the better part of two decades. As developer Valve has transitioned to being more focused on its Steam marketplace, and later on such hardware as its Index VR product and the portable Steam Deck gaming system. The Half-Life drought went so long that many series fans had given up hope of every seeing another game in the series.

The surprise announcement and subsequent release of Half-Life: Alyx changed all of that. Valve’s new VR title was the first Half-Life game released in many years, and reignited discussion about the possibility of Half-Life 3. Signs have continued to appear since that suggest the proposed game really could be in the works.

Is HL3 being playtested?

The latest headline about the possibility of HL3 is that it could be playtested imminently. The idea originates from well-reputed Valve reporter and leaker Gabe Follower, whose latest video covers this very subject.

The main thrust is that Half-Life 3 could be moving into a playtest phase that would involve “friends and family.” This means that a small and very exclusive group of people could be invited to test out a build of the game. How complete that build is is unknown, and how thoroughly represented the new story would be is also unknown.

If true, this would be huge news for Half-Life franchise fans. These “friends and family” playtests have preceded each recent Valve game, including the previous Half-Life game that brought the franchise back to life, Half-Life: Alyx. It’s also how most people first learned about Valve’s new third-person MOBA, Deadlock.

If a Half-Life 3 playtest is indeed getting underway, it’s very possible that it could result in new leaks about the game, possibly even video and images taken from it. This would surely be against agreements made with Valve prior to play, so it’d be quite the risk for someone to take. But given the extreme anticipation around HL3, the temptation to leak or share information about the game would certainly be significant.

There are other signs that a new Half-Life game could be on its way. Valve appears to be staffing up with a number of developers whose career portfolios are centered around the creation of large single-player games, and it would be difficult to explain that if the company wasn’t looking to build up for a notable new release. That release could technically be anything, but the narrative reset provided by Half-Life: Alyx certainly opens the opportunity for HL3.

That narrative reset rewrote the ending what had been the most most recent Half-Life game, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, changing how some of the franchise’s most notable characters interacted with each other and even the fate of one of its most prominent characters. This set Valve up to go in any number of new directions with its next game in the series.

Jared Wynne

About Jared Wynne

Jared Wynne is the Editor-in-Chief at WIN.gg, overseeing its content. He has been working in digital media for over two decades, most often in and around the gaming industry. His all-time favorite games include Baldur’s Gate, Doom, and Counter-Strike, but he’ll play just about anything that seems interesting. His previous credits include The Daily Dot, The Esports Observer, GameLand, and more.

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