We’ve been waiting six years for more Half-Life since the Episode 2 expansion of Half-Life 2. Numerous Half-Life 3 rumors have flown since, along with jokes that Gabe Newell can’t count to three. Now Valve has filed a trademark application for both the title Half-Life 3 and their Half-Life symbol.
This news comes shortly after Valve announced their SteamOS, Steam Machines, and the Steam Controller. Releasing Half-Life 3 — if it plays well on a Steam Controller — would definitely raise our opinion of the controller from “meh” to “oh all right”.
Even more reassuring was the news revealed when Valve’s project management system was accessible to the public for a brief window late last night. (The leak was likely from a human error. Figures. Never send a human to do a manhack’s job.)
The leak revealed 10 Valve staff members at the core of Half-Life 3 development, as well as 46 additional talented people involved. It’s happening, you guys.
Among the ten core Half-Life 3 developers is Adam Foster, once a hobbyist modder who built the popular Half-Life 2 mod, Minerva. Also in the team is Kelly Bailey, a sound designer, musician and game designer who has worked on all of the main Half-Life projects since the late ’90s. Along with these is David Speyrer, a cabal lead (supervisor) on Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Experienced developers and designers, such as Jeff Lane and Jim Hughes, are also on the core team. However, the remainder are relatively new recruits, such as Jean Rochefort (Doom 3, Id software), Karl Whinnie (Left 4 Dead), Sergiy Migdalskiy (Portal 2) and Michael Coupland (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive). It is also noted that Migdalskiy is a specialist in game optimisation for consoles, in particular Xbox 360 and PS3. The tenth member is Ken Banks, who joined Valve in 2010 after working on projects such as Borderlands at Gearbox Software, who says he dreamed of becoming a game designer when he first played the original Half-Life in 1998. [CVG, emphasis ours]
Here are the relevant trademark applications — filed in the European Union on September 29th — via NeoGAF (hat tip to GameSpot).
CVG also has a slideshow of leaked concept art which may be Half-Life 3 related.