Why is everyone making announcements about Half-Life 3?

Ha ha. Yes I know. “Half-Life 3”. It's the long-rumored, long-rumored, yet still-non-existent third entry in the Half-Life series that fans have longed for but never heard credible whispers of. It's been a running joke among the industry and fans for years, a stand-in for something that doesn't exist and never will.

However, for some reason, many people seem to think it will be announced soon. Probably within the next few weeks. Maybe even today.

You may have seen this. Suddenly someone mentioned “Half-Life 3”, some were humorous, some were serious. The proliferation of memes. Some people seem to have lost their minds:

Updated at 1:09 p.m. PT: Initially, I embedded a few Reddit posts from people desperately praying and begging for Half-Life 3 to be released. However, the r/halflife mod appears to be removing them, which appears to be due to the subreddit's rules against “low-value submissions” (aka memes), and possibly due to the sheer volume of these posts as of late. These were later replaced by more posts wishing for Half-Life 3 – which, honestly, Just check out the Reddit subredditI'm sure you'll see some good stuff that hasn't been removed yet.

The original story continues as follows:

So what's going on? Why do people seriously or not seriously think Half-Life 3 is coming? We investigated:

half hope

Rumors about Half-Life 3 have been around since Half-Life 2 was first announced, so this is nothing new. But over the past few years, we've seen a series of interesting little clues that have led many to believe that Valve is quietly working on a third game. There are some vague nods, like the Half-Life: Alyx team Says they want to make more Half-Life games and a documentary of the final moments. It was actually confirmed at one point that it was in development Between 2013 and 2014. We've also seen data miners pull out scraps of what appear to be games in development within Valve from various releases released by Valve over the past few years. Known only as “HLX”, Use source 2. Data miners have discovered that this is a full-fledged non-VR Half-Life game that has been in development since at least 2021 (possibly earlier). The game may be the same one that was accidentally leaked in 2024 by a voice actor who called it “White Sands Project”.

But there’s been a noticeable increase in little crumbs this year. Just celebrated the New Year, G-Man's voice actor posts cryptic post Teasing that there will be “unexpected surprises” in 2025 – this is his first tweet since congratulating Valve on “Half-Life: Alyx” in December 2020. Fans started tearing up the postdelved into the album cover image and the number 197, which they felt was more of a hint that something was in development.

But with the release of Valve's new hardware last week, the already-bubbling rumors got even louder: steam enginecomes with a new Steam Controller and VR headset called Steam Frame. It's worth noting that there weren't any software announcements to coincide with these hardware releases, which is a bit odd since Valve tends to release new games alongside new hardware – think back to Half-Life: Alyx and the Valve Index headset. Around the same time, a number valves and Industry insiders Started mentioning Half-Life 3 and confidently stated that the game is still planned to be released in 2025. A leaker with a proven track record of handling Valve issues correctly said back in May “Half-Life 3” is officially “end-to-end playable.” There is one huge miro panels float around It lists all the credible recent mentions of Half-Life 3, and it's worth digging into if you want to keep up to date.

Come on, G-Man, come on

There are many other weird little indicators that are fueling wild speculation. For example, Valve's “Upcoming Releases” tab There is only one game listed on its own Steam page (Deadlock), although the sidebar indicates that there is two Upcoming games. one Tweets/X Posts Today, news from The Game Awards' official account commemorating Half-Life's 27th anniversary sent everyone into a frenzy, even though it tweets about the anniversary every year. There is one Valve’s extra security measures are weird IGN's own representatives noted this during a recent Steam Hardware Preview event, and it's in stark contrast to my personal experience with Half-Life: Alyx a few years ago, where security was relatively normal and lax.

And a very silly legend Geoff Keighley posted a screenshot This indicates that he has a game on his Steam wishlist. when Ask what the game ishe responded with an eye emoji. Of course, Half-Life nerds pounced. Keighley later posted a screenshot of his wishlist, showing only the game “Dadlympics”, but it's worth noting that the game was added on November 18, the same day he posted the screenshot, suggesting he was hiding something. Is he hiding Half-Life 3? Probably not! It has no visible Steam page! That's not how Steam works! But that didn't stop Half-Life 3 fans from going crazy. To be honest, the replies from netizens are really funny.

pic.twitter.com/t5L0zHW0Il

— Alda (@lornarcoss) November 18, 2025

No matter what you believe is going on here, the reality is that this has caused the community to go completely crazy. The Half-Life subreddit is awash with Half-Life 3 summons and hopeful posts. A quick search for Half-Life on Twitter/X reveals a wealth of words, prayers, and memes. It's a little crazy, but also very, very interesting:

Well, let's put it this way, everyone is right, we will indeed be releasing Half-Life 3 soon. when? Well, some think it could be as soon as today. As announced by The Game Awards, November 19th is the anniversary of Half-Life – and what better time to make an announcement? We've already passed the anniversary of Half-Life 2, as well as the anniversary of the release of Half-Life: Alyx, but this particular anniversary is probably why you're seeing so much noise today. Another big possibility that some have floated is an announcement at The Game Awards, Will launch on December 11th. This is a bit surprising since Valve doesn't need an awards show to attract attention with an announcement like this. But Valve also has a long history of friendship with host Geoff Keighley, so maybe it's not so far-fetched.

Regardless, one thing is for sure: either Half-Life 3 will be released before December 31, 2025, or many will arrive on January 1, 2026. I personally hope it's the former, but the community has been fooled by Half-Life rumors before, many times. Keep pumping opiates, guys. Maybe G-man's return is just around the corner.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter at IGN. You can find her posts at BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Have a story tip? Send it to [email protected].