Half-Life 3 Confirmed(?)

On September 29, Valve, a major gaming corporation, filed a trademark and logo for Half-Life 3.

Why is this so interesting, you may ask? The last Half-Life game released was 6 years ago, and for these 6 years Valve has denied any implication of Half-Life 3.

If you look into the history of Valve and their games, they apparently can’t count to 3.

Valve has never made a third game sequel for anything. For example, Portal 1 & 2, Team Fortress 1 & 2, Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, and of course, Half-Life 1 & 2.

Unfortunately, Half-Life 2, Episode 2 ended with a cliffhanger, infuriating fans everywhere. Since then, various “memes” or jokes have been made about the seemingly impossible Half-Life 3.

Half-Life 2 Episode 3 was actually expected to be out by 2008, but now the date is said to be “coincident with the rapture” (end of the world).

Gamers in the iSchool have their opinions about Half-Life 3, and it’s possible outcome.

“I think Half Life 3 will come out because Half-Life 2 didn't really have a complete ending in my opinion. It left out some things I wanted to be answered”, said Oris Alberto, a student at the iSchool and a fan of the Half-Life series.

When Valve themselves registered a trademark and logo (basically bought the rights) for Half-Life 3 in Europe, the internet exploded. Of course, this was Valve finally starting to create the game, right? Well, the very next day, the trademark was removed. People starting developing theories...was it all a hoax, or is Valve just trying to cover it up?

There is no word from Valve yet on the situation, but Kristin Krolzik, a user contact service representative for the EU's Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market, stated the Half-Life 3 trademark application "has been deleted from the database as it is in status 'deemed not filed' due to lack of applicant, mark representation, list of goods and services or payment."

Over the 6 years since Half-Life 2 Episode 2 came out, jokes have been circulating the internet about the impossible Half-Life 3 or Episode 3, even jokes made by Valve themselves.

In 2012, on April Fools day, Valve added Half-Life 2 Episode 3 in the Steam store. Of course, it was deleted the next day, as it was all a joke. Fans of course didn’t take this lightly. Another popular joke is “PS4 - Xbox One = Half-Life 3 confirmed”.

Ashley Thomas, another gamer at the iSchool, thinks “people will stop buying their games since they want Half-Life 3, and they will start riots,” while Oris stated, “I think Half Life 3 should come out so people can finally play a game that completes the series and answer some unanswered questions.”

So, even after 6 years, is there any hope for a Half-Life 3? Or will Valve decide to just keep gamers in anticipation for something that will never happen? People want Half-Life 3, obviously. But the question is, does Valve even want to make it? Maybe they don’t want to be like other companies, for example Activision. Activision comes out with a new Call of Duty game every year.

Maybe Valve wants to do something different. Maybe they see all the complaints about how bad the Call of Duty games are, and then they’re upset that we are mad about them not making Half-Life 3. Maybe Valve doesn’t want Half-Life 3 to be something that will end in another cliff-hanger, and then another, and just come out with a new Half-Life every year, only being able to play when you are online, having to log in facebook to play, being origin-only, even adding microtransactions!

Maybe Valve will get fed up, and say “You want Half-Life 3? You got it. You will be living your worst nightmare. You will be speechless. You will be living Half Life.”

Maybe gamers should take it easy on Valve.