Valve has "good reasons" for Ep3 silence

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 June, 2009

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.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (31) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ChthonicEcho #1 3 years ago

    Translation from corporate speak to English: Episode Three is progressing extremely slowly and poorly, because we have raised so many questions and have made everything so convoluted that we can't come up with a resolution. Stay tuned.

  • Freek #2 3 years ago

    I'm thinking they've ditched the idea of episodes and are instead developing Episode 3 as a full game with a new engine a la Half Life 2 and are going to take another couple years to do it.

  • UncleLou #3 3 years ago

    I actually hope you're right. As much as I liked EP 1 and 2, it's just not quite the same thing as a new full game.

  • penhalion #4 3 years ago

    @Freek

    I'm with you on that one. I suspect that they will come out with something like the following.

    "Episode 3 will be a full priced stand alone conclusion to the Half Life 2 story. The reason we have done this is blah blah more than 10 hours of gameplay blah blah new technology into the source engine blah blah wanted to conclude the story with a bang etc. etc."

    Basically it's too big to be a simple download chapter and it's going to end up a full release, even possibly titled half life 3.

  • makeamazing #5 3 years ago

    Yes that wouldnt surprise me either, or they have EP3, and HL3 currently in production and will release within 12 months of each other.

    He mentions that they wouldnt have been able to do L4D, I thought that was done by another company? Guess it was using the source engine then?

  • Eraysor #6 3 years ago

    I also hope Freek is right. They've taken so long to make the three episodes that they would really need to beef the Source engine up for it to impress, or simply make a completely new one.

    Also, they would never be able to do an Orange Box style release with this one, as I imagine the majority of players will have at least one copy of all preceding parts. Until a while ago I had two copies of HL2 and 2 copies of Episode 1.

  • GiarcYekrub #7 3 years ago

    My computer can run the source engine(I brought it specifically for Half Life 2) so I don't want the the last episode to be on some unrunable unless you have a super powered Hi spec PC engine.

  • bodypopper #8 3 years ago

    I smell a Counterstrike 2 and Episode 3 combo in the offing but it's smart to wait til next year to release it with MW2 coming this Chrimbo.

  • StooMonster #9 3 years ago

    I smell a Portal 2, Episode 3, and L4D2 combo in the offing -- because this would work on Xbox as well as PC.

  • Dabs #10 3 years ago

    It's taking a while because they initially approached Ep Three as if it were HL3. I know this to be fact - Ep Three is going to be *vastly* better than Eps One and Two put together, or I'll film myself eating dog poo and pop the video up on the EG forum.

  • spekkeh #11 3 years ago

    I don't think VALVe is completely reworking their engine. Why would they, their engine has never been about Crysis type tech, but is incredibly versatile. It's still the number one mod engine by far, it's very userfriendly and you can basically do everything with it. So I'm guessing they'll just keep on going on the current path of incremental graphical updates.

  • RedSparrows #12 3 years ago

    Don't care, WANT NOW

  • Yossarian #13 3 years ago

    I have so much patience for this. Take your time, take as long as you need. I don't care if we haven't seen so much as a screenshot a year from now.

  • rudedudejude #14 3 years ago

    I trust Valve completly on this. God Damn Ep 3 is going to be the best thing since...ever.

    Valve alwasy support strong backwards compatability. I imagine they are adding in new graphical improvments since the days of HL2, but the game will also run on a HL2 machine.

    It's going to be well worth the wait. Don't rush it!

  • kangarootoo #15 3 years ago

    "My computer can run the source engine(I brought it specifically for Half Life 2) so I don't want the the last episode to be on some unrunable unless you have a super powered Hi spec PC engine."

    The source engine has always scalled well. The ep3 version might have extra bells and whistles that hi spec systems can take advantage of, but I wouldn't expect it to look any worse on your system than it did for ep1/2. "You haven't lost what you never had" is the way to look at it maybe :)

  • Eraser #16 3 years ago

    I've got a feeling Valve turned Half-Life 2's episodes into a mere vehicle to launch other IP's into the orbit of a money printing machine.

  • speedjack #17 3 years ago

    Translation :-

    We're moving to the Duke Nukem Forever engine!

  • FogHeart #18 3 years ago

    Since they run hardware surveys through Steam, they have a realistic picture of what machines their clients have and will tune the games to match. It means that at the highest end the users might say "It doesn't look as good as crysis with everything on best detail" and the really lowest end users won't get a good frame rate, but it's an intelligent compromise that has served them well.

  • BillMurray #19 3 years ago

    The thought of any new Half Life game gives me a lovely little twinge in the trouser snake department. Take your time chaps.

  • hiddenranbir #20 3 years ago

    If they're good reasons...no reason to not give them?

    STALLING!

  • kangarootoo #21 3 years ago

    "If they're good reasons...no reason to not give them? "

    Well not really.

    Like if you got home to find your wife in the bedroom saying she had a really good reason for not letting you look inside the wardrobe, she would probably also have a very good reason for not telling you why.

    I'm not saying Valve are having an affair on us or anything...

    they aren't are they?

    /bottom lip trembles

  • Domovoi #22 3 years ago

    I'm guessing those "good reasons" are "We are making too much money off a zombie shooter to bother about another Half Life game."

    Left 4 Dead couldn't have shipped without Episode 1 and Episode 2, right?"
    Yeah, and Episode 3 can't ship because of L4D and L4D2.

    Yes that wouldnt surprise me either, or they have EP3, and HL3 currently in production and will release within 12 months of each other.

    They can't even release two episodes within two years from each other, why would they suddenly be able to release an episode and a full game withing 12 months?
    Edited by 1 at 12/06/09 @ 14:26

  • Feanor #23 3 years ago

    "I smell a Portal 2, Episode 3, and L4D2 combo in the offing -- because this would work on Xbox as well as PC."

    I smell bullshit. L4D2 will sell by the truckload at US $60 on the 360 this year. Valve are not going to chuck in extra games on top for free, especially games which likely aren't even close to being finished yet.

  • UncleLou #24 3 years ago

    "Left 4 Dead couldn't have shipped without Episode 1 and Episode 2, right?"
    Yeah, and Episode 3 can't ship because of L4D and L4D2. "

    Why not? L4D is done by the (former) Turtle Rock Studios, which then got bought by Valve. It's mostly not keeping the same people busy who are doing the next HL episode or game.

  • JensonJet #25 3 years ago

    What's the betting Valve create another new franchise, or two, before HL: Episode Three appears? Clearly Left4Dead has proved to be a far more profitable way for Valve to spend their time than creating anything new for Half Life. If Left4Dead2 is anything to go by It seems to me that they want to replicate a business plan for first person shooters based on what EA (and others) have done with sports games. Half Life doesn't lend itself to this way of working. It's too story driven and no doubt time-intensive, compared to the profit it'll make. I think the presumption that Episode Three will be a full game makes much more sense. Perhaps with Half Life sequels moving the game engine forward, and in between sequel after sequel of games quick and easy to produce.

    It's amazing how one popular FPS can create such a successful gaming factory, as demonstrated by Valve, Epic and id, amongst others. Personally I'd like to see Infinity Ward become more powerful and create more franchises like those three. Their game engine is more than comparable to Valve, Epic and id's. Their story-telling, presentation and overall quality is equal to, if not better than those three, and who wouldn't want to see the makers of Modern Warfare take on the zombie theme (or any other genre for that matter)!

  • sneetch #26 3 years ago

    @Eraysor
    I also hope Freek is right. They've taken so long to make the three episodes that they would really need to beef the Source engine up for it to impress, or simply make a completely new one.

    Also, they would never be able to do an Orange Box style release with this one, as I imagine the majority of players will have at least one copy of all preceding parts. Until a while ago I had two copies of HL2 and 2 copies of Episode 1.

    If they give us (for example) Portal 2 and L4D2 in a new Yellowy-Orangish Box that would be awesome. Yet another copy of HL2 Ep1 and Ep2 would not be needed or really appreciated.

    "Hey, I got you a present, it's Star Wars: A New Hope."
    "I bought a copy when it first came out on DVD and you gave me another last Christmas."
    "Well, now you have 3 copies, awesome huh?"
    "No."

  • autogunner #27 3 years ago

    for crying out loud why does everyone want portal 2? portal was an amazing self contained diamond of a game, it needs no sequel, just a successor. look what happened to the godfather...

  • sneetch #28 3 years ago

    @autogunner
    for crying out loud why does everyone want portal 2? portal was an amazing self contained diamond of a game, it needs no sequel, just a successor. look what happened to the godfather...

    Because it was an amazing game, if they can pull off something of the same quality again I'd be delighted.

    I don't understand the issue you're having here. Conceptually there's very little difference between the idea of a sequel or a successor and a title arbitrarily named Portal 2 by a bunch of people on a random forum could refer to either.

  • loopy #29 3 years ago

    "It's taking a while because they initially approached Ep Three as if it were HL3. I know this to be fact - Ep Three is going to be *vastly* better than Eps One and Two put together, or I'll film myself eating dog poo and pop the video up on the EG forum."

    Yup, I'm pretty sure you'll be proved correct on this one..... and I say this with some personal confidence having followed certain stories of trips to the Valve headquarters by a (long absent) poster on another forum to talk about such things before (not me though). ;)
    Edited by 1 at 12/06/09 @ 21:10

  • Megapocalypse #30 3 years ago

    Seems nice move tbh. Getting characters from 1-60 is just a chore now, and anything to speed up the process is welcome. Alternatively, Blizard need to add / redesign content for those levels but thats not likely to happen. Next step I hope is to be able to create any new characters straight to Outlands level.

  • drxym #31 3 years ago

    HL2 was a great game (aside from the vomit inducing boat levels) and episode 1 & 2 continued and improved on it. But I think the franchise is getting very tired. The game engine in particular is very antiquated with slow level loads, hemmed scenery (non destructible), too much scripting and other last gen limitations.

    I hope the reasons ep 3 is delayed is to allow for a complete new implementation of the game engine to address some of these faults.
    Edited by 1 at 13/06/09 @ 09:34