Some Valve employees are purposely dropping Half-Life 3 references to mess with people.

During a recent interview session at Valve’s HQ, questions about Half-Life 3 were naturally brought up. According to the developer, though, not every Valve screenshot you see with the “3” logo is a reference to Half-Life 3.

Venture Beat brought up the most recent picture that sparked the discussion once again.

In the photo, as you can see, there’s an Half-Life icon with the number 3 attached to it. The app is called “W3”, but that’s about it. This obviously means Half-Life 3 is in development, at least that’s what people like to think.

“It’s news to us that the picture is out, but it’s also news that this icon is on the screen,” Valve’s Greg Coomer said, before shutting the whole thing down.

“Honestly, those icons have floated around this office for quite a while. None of us are going to be able to tell you what that is or why that’s there.”

But what about that one GDC where Valve employees wore Half-Life 3 t-shirts? According to Gabe Newell, this was also a hoax.

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“Some of the more childish members of our company have worn Half-Life 3 t-shirts to GDC,” said Newell.

Well, there you have it, Half-Life 3 is both alive and dead.