There is a big Half-Life 3 poster being displayed at Gamescom 2016 today, but the sad news is that it’s all a big joke. It will catch the eye of attendees though.

Eurogamer took a picture outside of the Kolnmesse convention centre today at Gamescom 2016. You can see the poster says “Half-Life 3” although the fine print tells you it’s just a joke.

It really says: “Half-Life: 3 editors who played it back then”. Eurogamer says companies such as spieletipps and GIGA games paid for the poster just to troll everyone. This poster was not made by Valve.

Unlike E3 which is mainly attended by media, Gamescom 2016 is open to the public. You can be sure a lot of people going to the event will be tricked and think that Half-Life 3 will be shown there.

This is an old joke that people like to do. An old NeoGAF thread had this title: “first Half-Life, 3 screen-shots”. People don’t see the comma or colons so they get excited when the number 3 pops up next to the words of Half-Life.

Half-Life 2 came out way back in 2004 and there has been no signs of a third game ever coming out. Valve has not mentioned if a third game is in development or not.

- This article was updated on:March 8th, 2018