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Valve has "good reasons" for Ep3 silence

Says episodic plan helped TF2, L4D, etc.

Valve boss Gabe Newell has said that he has "very good reasons" for not discussing Half-Life 2: Episode 3, but won't be drawn on them or when the developer will be able to open up about the concluding chapter in the FPS saga.

"I get a ton of email every day saying why aren't you talking about Episode 3? And there are very good reasons why we're not talking about Episode 3, which I can't talk about yet, but I will," Newell said to G4 (thanks Voodoo Extreme).

However, despite the game's lengthy incubation and the years that have passed since Half-Life 2 shipped, Newell insists that he has few regrets about going down the episodic path, pointing out that Episodes 1 and 2 were critical to other releases.

"We've been able to take steps forward in the technology. Left 4 Dead couldn't have shipped without Episode 1 and Episode 2, right?" he noted. "[Those advances also] put us in a position to be able to do Portal and Team Fortress 2, and all of these products were enabled by moving to these shorter development cycles."

Pretty much the most we've heard about Episode 3 so far was a single picture that popped up this time last year. The game's expected on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.