Half-Life 3 hopium hit critical mass at the end of 2025 when several leakers claimed that Valve would finally be announcing it in November, which snowballed into The Game Awards when the month slipped by without a peep, despite countless assurances that it wouldn't make an appearance at a tentpole Geoff Keighley event. It's not exactly clear what happened—if plans were delayed or leakers just got their wires crossed—but over six months later, it's hard to blame people for losing faith in 'HLX.'
One of the leading theories was that Valve planned for Half-Life 3 to be a Steam Machine launch title (spurred on by Insider Gaming senior editor Mike Straw), but as the global memory shortage drove a Borealis through its plans, the team shelved the HLX reveal until it could iron out the price and release date. Again, several leakers refuted this, pointing out that Alyx was delayed separately to the Index VR headset. With the Steam Machine pre-orders now live after Valve unveiled the eye-watering $1,049 price earlier this week, that theory was finally put to rest.
So, where is Half-Life 3? We still don't know. But there is a sliver of hope;...
