It's been 10 years since Valve announced Half-Life 2: Episode 3, but will it ever become a reality?

[lepter]

How could this project have died? I remember how crazy we were about episode 3 and yet nothing has happened and Valve has been keeping us in the dark ever since.
I'm sure it is not because of the high expectations, because even after Half-Life 1 we had high expectations and they were successful in exceeding those. Honestly, even a mediocre finishing for the story would make this game a huge success. It does not have to be revolutionary, but the fans are dying to figure out the end of the story and to have those cool characters back in a final chapter...

I have never seen any satisfying explanation for the delay, but this could be my fault.

Anyway, Valve please let us buy episode 3 and enjoy being Gordon again!!!

Valve isn't a video game developer anymore. They haven't really been one since Portal 2. Instead, Valve has been a video game publisher - or that is the best way to describe them. They provide a trustworthy platform for indie developers to release their games, and don't gouge them as much as other publishers would. Of course, calling them a publisher isn't really accurate either. They support the release, protection, and maintenance of hundreds of games from dozens of other publishers.

Right now, Valve has no motivation to complete the series. They can either sit on their butts and let Steam continue to print money for them for as long as they can, or they can pay a small army of devs, graphic designers, UX/UI designers, and writers to create Half-Life 3. Even if HL3/HL2:EP3 is received as the greatest game to ever be developed, it won't have as high of profit margins for Valve as simply doing nothing - especially once you consider they would need to make a 'source 2' engine or seriously overhaul the Source engine to bring it up with today's FPS graphical standards.

If they never release HL3, it will be the game that everyone agree would be awesome and worth the wait. If they make it and release it, some will inevitably be disappointed.

If they don't want to make it . . . let someone else then. Plenty of great developers out there.