Update 3 (October 7, 2013): Kristin Krolzik, a user contact service representative for the EU's Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market, tells Ars that 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." Make of that what you will, because it's broad enough to support almost any interpretation.

Update 2 (October 4, 2013): Guys... sit down again. The trademark is gone. It's just... gone!

Go and search for it if you don't believe me. It was there for about a week and now it just... isn't.

Did Valve just withdraw the trademark, afraid that it was getting people's hopes up too soon? Valve sure isn't saying. Was it just a hoax, posted by a cruel troll pretending to be Valve just to torment us? Could I post an official-looking trademark for Ricochet 2 on the site if I said my name was "Valve Corporation"? Or is it possible that there's a Web glitch at the Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union? Has Valve found a way to keep trademark registration secret until a product launch?

And what should we make of the Portal 3 trademark application that went up on Wednesday. Can we trust it? Can we trust anything anymore?

Ars is reaching out to the EU registration office, Valve, and the lawyers listed on the original registration.

Until then, why do you let me get my hopes up like this? WHY?

Update: Omigod guys, Valve's internal bug tracker briefly went public last night and guess what project was listed there. Yup! Half-Life 3 (also Left 4 Dead 3)! It's happening! It's really happening!

Or, y'know, it's a holdover from when the game was actually in active development. Or it's some elaborate hoax/Alternate Reality Game on Valve's part. Your pick.

Original Story

Guys. GUYS! Are you sitting down? This is big, guys. Half-Life 3. It exists. Well, it exists as a trademark application. In Europe.

Still! It's really happening. The trademarking is happening, I mean. Who knows if the game is really happening at this point so many years after it was first announced. Remember when that voice actor said it wasn't happening? Well I've got something to show him. A little something called a trademark.

OK, OK, I'm calm. I'm calm! I promise.

Yeah, I know, maybe I've been driven crazy by the rumors and the hints—and most of all the deafening silence surrounding the game these past six years. But there it is in black and white pixels, right there on the webpage of the Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union (just do a search if you don't believe me!). Valve filed for it two days ago and it covers "Computer game software; Electronic game software; Downloadable computer game software via a global computer network and wireless devices; Video game software," and "Provision of on-line entertainment; provision of computer and video games and computer and video game programs from a computer database or via the Internet."

That sure sounds like Half-Life 3 to me!

I know, I know, I shouldn't get my hopes up before Valve actually announces something. And there's no US trademark on file yet, and that is a little odd. Now that you mention it, Valve never actually trademarked Half-Life 2 in Europe... though it did renew the registration for plain old Half-Life in 2005.

But guys, Valve just announced a whole bunch of OS and hardware stuff, right? Maybe the company is tired of being silent and is now hooked on, y'know, announcing stuff. And you know what I've been saying would make a great killer app for SteamOS, right? I mean, wouldn't that be great?

I don't know about you, but I know what webpage I'll be staring at longingly as I drift off to sleep tonight.