Half-Life 2 – will number three be VR-only?

Update:

HTC now claims that Cher Wang ‘misspoke’, and that she didn’t know anything about a new Half-Life game after all. Whether this is just meant to cover-up a secret she wasn’t meant to tell is unclear, but certainly Valve has made no mention of a new Half-Life at GDC this week – despite unveiling the new Source 2 engine.

‘Regarding my BBC interview with Dave Lee yesterday, I would like to apologise for any confusion caused when I referred to individual games titles,’ she told the BBC.

‘In response to a question on specific games, I misspoke when I referred to our working together with Valve on a particular game, when instead I meant our collaboration with Valve on developing next-generation virtual reality experiences for gaming.




‘I am very excited about the work we are doing with Valve, and look forward to bringing our HTC Vive to market later this year.’

Original story:

Valve is planning to bring Half-Life to the Vive VR headset, but partner HTC has been vague as to whether it’s Half-Life 3 or not.

The news that Valve is planning its own VR headset with Taiwanese smartphone company HTC is all very interesting, especially as the ‘Vive’ is likely to hit stores before the Oculus Rift, but pouring over yet more pictures of people wearing funny-looking visors isn’t terribly exciting.

But the news that Valve may finally be working on a new Half-Life is…

At the recent Mobile World Congress trade fair in Barcelona the BBC asked HTC chairwoman Cher Wang whether Valve were making a new Half-Life for the VR headset.

After commenting that she preferred Dota 2 and Portal, Wang answered: ‘We are co-operating with Half-Life, and I think… I hope, you know, it will be on it.’

Vive – yep, that’s a headset all right

That’s all she said though, and it could easily be that she’s just talking about adding VR support to the existing Half-Life games – which has already happened with rival VR headset Oculus Rift.

You’ll certainly note that at no point does she use the word ‘new’ or mention the number three.

All Valve has said on the matter is that they’re not planning to make an announcement, with employees reportedly ‘surprised’ by Wang’s comment.

Valve aren’t exactly ones for press releases and E3 reveals though, so how exactly they would announce the game nowadays is anyone’s guess. But if they start up any weird new ARG in the next few months that may be the first sign…

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