Valve’s Third Announcement? Half-Life 3 Is the Only Possible Answer

There’s only one possible answer. It can only be one thing. If Valve doesn’t announce Half-Life 3 Friday, I will be completely shocked.

It’s entirely possible I’ve built this third announcement up in my head way too much, but the mystery and intrigue Valve have created around it leads me to believe there is no other answer. So far they’ve made two big announcements, with the first being a new gaming software in SteamOS.

SteamOS is built around the Linux architecture and designed to make PC gaming on the big screen the optimal way to game. They also announced their own line of PC gaming consoles called Steam Machines. While we (disappointingly) don’t have any specifications as to what is actually inside these boxes, what they look like, or how much they cost, we do know they are building several different models out of the gate.

Presumably we can expect a lower-end machine, an ultimate gaming machine, and something that falls somewhere in between. This variation in models will allow Steam to sell its console to gamers who want to spend as much or as little money as possible, while still providing a uniform experience to all.

What Better Way to Sell Steam Machines?

So there’s an operating system and there’s a machine. What could possibly be worthy of this mysterious third announcement other than some amazing thing to play on these new creations? And what better title to help ring in a new era of PC gaming than one of the most anticipated titles of all time?

Half-Life 2 has been ranked as one of the best first-person shooters on many lists over the years, and has even garnered a few best-game-ever awards. And the original Half-Life is my one of my favorite games of all-time, and I’m not alone in that opinion. It stands to reason that releasing the next chapter in the series, potentially as a Steam Machine timed exclusive, would be something that Valve would be pushing very hard to make happen.

Valve has other games they could announce instead, such as a new Team Fortress or Portal or Left 4 Dead, but none of those would move units like a Half-Life game would. Half-Life 3, exclusive to the Steam Machine would be as hot as Halo on the original Xbox was. Valve simply cannot miss this opportunity.

Heading for A Letdown? 

It’s entirely possible that we won’t be getting a game announcement at all, but perhaps just an unveiling of a new kind of controller, or worse yet, an announcement that they are taking on Kinect and joining the motion-gaming “movement” (see what I did there?). I certainly hope it’s not anything as dull or dumb as that, but it’s really hard to say.

I’ve never really been disappointed or let-down by a Valve unveiling before (like I was at the Xbox One reveal or the announcement of the PlayStation 3 price), but come to think of it, I’m not really sure Valve has had any announcements this big in a long time, if ever.

It’s certainly possible my expectations are ridiculously high, and we’re really just going to get an announcement that Steam is entering the mobile phone market (wait, that would actually be really cool… I’ll have to touch on that another time), but I have to believe that Valve has something big planned.

Three Little Words…

And for my money, the only way to end this week of mystery and unveiling is by dropping the words Half-Life 3. They don’t even have to give a date, just a hint at a timeframe of when it might be available, and there will be much rejoicing in PC Land.

We’ll find out Friday at 10 AM Pacific, 1 PM Eastern, so stay tuned. It could be an exciting day.