Valve Explains Why Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Was Never Made

[Einchy]

I'm glad valve shifted gears when they knew they had to. It would of sucked if they forced out an episode 3 and it ended up being bad.

they took the right approach imo.

Click to shrink...

Did they have to, though? This was supposed to be the final for Half-Life 2, episode 1 and 2 didn't "solve" any problems. The third one would've finished off the story and Half-Life 3 could've been the one to solve some new problem years later. Them actually making the game didn't mean they'd have to force anything, episode 1 and 2 weren't forced.

They straight up just never made the next instalment and went radio silent for 13 years, that's not what I'd call the right approach. That's not even in the same galaxy as right.

 

[Skux]

"We just didn't feel like it."

 

[galv]

Episode Two actually took two years to make – Valve started work on it at the same time as Episode One. The plan for smaller, faster releases didn't line up with the studio's ambition for the project, and the scope of Episode Two increased past its original concept. After Episode One shipped, some members of its team even joined the Episode Two team to help out. "I think at that point we realized, 'Okay, maybe this episodes thing, it was a good concept, but we're not executing terribly well as far as getting things out quickly enough,'" Casali explains, so the team started rethinking things after Episode Two.

Click to shrink...

Casali confirmed something Valve has already publicly stated elsewhere, that some of those projects were Half-Life-based and never saw the light of day. He explains that, "we were never really that happy with what we came up with."

Click to shrink...

By the end of Episode Two, Valve was already looking towards its next engine, and had already learned the hard lesson not to develop both a Half-Life game and its engine from the ground up at the same time. "We [didn't] want to make that same Half-Life 2 mistake again," Casali explains, "of working on Source 2 and the next Half-Life game at the same time, because that created a lot of pain the first time we tried to do that."

Click to shrink...

Already knowing the answer, did anyone even bother to read the article?

Pretty clear that they wanted to make a sequel instead of an Episode 3 by the time Episode 2 was in development, due to scope creep but whatever they made wasn't good, wasn't worth shipping and they focused on making a Source 2 and try and do something different instead, which resulted in Alyx. Happens all the time in software development.

 

[julia crawford]

I feel like it's always been the case that the story in these games never really mattered very much. They weren't made for the story, not really. Which goes to show how skillful Laidlaw and Wolpaw really are.

 

[onpoint]

What did Ep1 and Ep2 push forward? Episodic gaming? It was rude at best to leave everyone hanging this long. And I don't even know how or if Alyx ties in yet, so it might still be rude lol

 

[Ploid 6.0]

Good time to learn this now instead of so many years, over a decade ago. Imagine we could have always knew that a episode 3 was unlikely instead of thinking it could be right around the corner. And I'm only speaking from the prospective of playing Orange Box on PS2 (edit: PS3, it's been so long I put PS2, even now I thought if it really was PS3 for a split second), I can't imagine how annoying the wait could have been for PC Half Life 2 players. "Oh they released Orange Box on console too, Episode 3 is about to go down guys (high fives all around)".

No longer really interested in the series, and no way in the world I would get PC VR for it specifically. Time to see what happened after Eli was abducted (I forgot so much), to the spoiler thread.

Also I expected Portal, the portal gun, Chell meeting Freeman, taking Freeman's place as the main character/co op, or something to tie in to Half Life. What a shame.gif

 

[HellofaMouse]

That is what you get when you are a company like valve who's main interest is to make ground breaking entertainment that always pushed the medium forward. You can't really lower the bar for yourself just to satisfy fans and I totally understand their point of view on this, every studio wants their next game to be a slam success, but often don't have the resources to cut projects that clearly don't deliver and meet their own expectations.

Click to shrink...

"Half-Life games explicitly pushes technology forward and turns heads" isn't a (realistic) bar. it's arrogance

 

[Dragon1893]

Surely doing one more episode to give the story a decent ending wouldn't have killed them.

 

[McScroggz]

This feels more like a justification than a real explanation. I can buy that they didn't know how to go about making HL3 in a way that would live up to expectations or other practical reasons, but this reason just rings hollow. Not that it matters to me why they have/haven't made HL3. At the end of the day either it gets made or not. If it does I hope fans of the series get a game that makes the wait worth it. Alyx certainly sounds like it is pretty awesome. Personally it would be a shame for HL3 to not come out when Valve seems capable of still making awesome entries into the series.

 

[Outrun]

Sorry Valve. Your explanation makes zero sense.

 

[elyetis]

Even after the explanation from them, people still dont get it

They havent been sitting on their arses doing nothing all this time

They wanted to make Episode 3 the conclusion to the storyline.

It couldnt have been a game just like Episode 1 or 2, it has to be something special, that pushes the media forward

You guys will get that with Half Life 3 in VR some years from now

Click to shrink...

It could have been, they just didn't want it to be.

People do get it they just don't agree with the choice to put the series on hold at that point in time for that reason. If they had said the same thing about puting the licence on hold after completing the arc with an episode 3 / no cliffhanger, I'm sure the reception would have been different for most.

 

[Cipherr]

They have said this over the years before its not even new.

10 minutes from this post people will go back to whatever headcanon reason they feel Valve didn't do it for. Which is fine, but don't ever ask why again if you don't want to know the damn answer.

 

[finalflame]

They have said this over the years before its not even new.

10 minutes from this post people will go back to whatever headcanon reason they feel Valve didn't do it for. Which is fine, but don't ever ask why again if you don't want to know the damn answer.

Click to shrink...

People don't care about the answer. They care about having their feelings validated, and will go to any length to justify why they are right and/or why Valve is wrong. Not worth discussing, I've found.

 

[Kinthey]

They are, at a time when pushing the tech forward calls for it.

Click to shrink...

But did they really need to push the tech forward for episode 3? That's something I'd expect for Half Life 3, or now Alyx, full fledged sequels.

They gave us the first two episodes of something and then went home

 

[BossAttack]

Already knowing the answer, did anyone even bother to read the article?

Pretty clear that they wanted to make a sequel instead of an Episode 3 by the time Episode 2 was in development, due to scope creep but whatever they made wasn't good, wasn't worth shipping and they focused on making a Source 2 and try and do something different instead, which resulted in Alyx. Happens all the time in software development.

Click to shrink...

In other words, the exact opposite of what they just said was the reason. The answer you gave is the one we all know is the real reason, instead they're talking about how they couldn't do another HL unless they thought it was pushing boundaries.

 

[.exe]

You'd think it was a better idea not to release a game they weren't confident in, but some people here seem to have rather seen them continue banging their against the wall and wrap it up regardless. Weird.

 

[Ploid 6.0]

You'd think it was a better idea not to release a game they weren't confident in, but some people here seem to have rather seen them continue banging their against the wall and wrap it up regardless. Weird.

Click to shrink...

I just wish they at least put out a comic book or two (3?), or a 3 panel strip about what happened at the very least. If Episode 2 spent about 30 minutes extra to show Eli died, Alyx moved on, and Freeman became a Ice Fisherman that would have been better than that big empty cliff hanger.

 

[eonden]

In other words, the exact opposite of what they just said was the reason. The answer you gave is the one we all know is the real reason, instead they're talking about how they couldn't do another HL unless they thought it was pushing boundaries.

Click to shrink...

From the article:

His answer is, frankly, the clearest I've heard on the issue yet, but there's still no single, simple reason it never manifested. It was partly due to Valve's worry about "scope creep" in what were supposed to be smaller expansions, partly the studio's desire to begin development on the Source 2 engine, and partly the lack of a creative spark (and unsatisfactory internal experiments) worthy of carrying the Half-Life name.

Click to shrink...

 

[Deleted member 35987]

I gotta say: I genuinely think gaming would be a lot better if every studio was able to release games like Valve is.

Click to shrink...

It would be nice, but Valve has other revenue streams besides game development and therefore they are able to do things at their own pace.

 

[Delusibeta]

"Valve didn't make Episode 3, because they couldn't come up with something they wanted to ship, and want off and did something else" isn't exactly news, that's what sensible people had been saying all this time.

What is news is that we now know what that "something else" was: Source 2. They decided they didn't want to build a game simultaneously with their new engine, and so elected to focus on the engine and make games afterwards. HLA taking four years strikes me as a reasonable time to develop a game these days, and engine development is really difficult so that took longer.

Not that it matters, since Valve's hatedom has manufactured a zillion reasons why they didn't ship Episode 3, and will remain irrationally angry that Valve will likely never make a console game ever again.

 

[Druffmaul]

I'm not buying that. I could swallow it as an explanation of why they never did Half Life 3, i.e. a new full blown sequel. But in the context of what should have been the third and final "Half Life 2 expansion pack" and the follow-up to resolve a major cliff hanger? Uh, no. They should have just bit the bullet and made episode 3.

 

[Mifec]

They've had numerous crappy monetization scheme projects and failed ideas

Click to shrink...

Which one other than Artifact which is getting reworked?

I'm not buying that. I could swallow it as an explanation of why they never did Half Life 3, i.e. a new full blown sequel. But in the context of what should have been the third and final "Half Life 2 expansion pack" and the follow-up to resolve a major cliff hanger? Uh, no. They should have just bit the bullet and made episode 3.

Click to shrink...

Judging by Alyx no they deffo should have not, especially not with Ladilaw's script.

Explain Artifact then...playtesting and all that

Click to shrink...

Matches take too long and game is too complicated for zoomers, no progression to keep people addicted.

 

[Taffy Lewis]

I gotta say: I genuinely think gaming would be a lot better if every studio was able to release games like Valve is.

Click to shrink...

Not sure we need that many additional card battlers or League of Legends clones, but okay.

I'm sure Artifact was a real passion project.

 

[RedMercury]

They just didn't want to haha, wow. Bad business decision given the money it would generate, seems dismissive of fans to say "we don't want to just hit our numbers", the fans don't care about that.

 

[Taffy Lewis]

Even after the explanation from them, people still dont get it

They havent been sitting on their arses doing nothing all this time

They wanted to make Episode 3 the conclusion to the storyline.

It couldnt have been a game just like Episode 1 or 2, it has to be something special, that pushes the media forward

You guys will get that with Half Life 3 in VR some years from now

Click to shrink...

Meanwhile, in the real world, most of Valve's other recent games were uninspired clones of currently hot genres. DOTA2, Artifact, Counter Strike Battle Royale. I don't buy that explanation at all.

 

[Mobu]

Meanwhile, in the real world, most of Valve's other recent games were uninspired clones of currently hot genres. DOTA2, Artifact, Counter Strike Battle Royale.

Click to shrink...

and? the thread is about half life

 

[Mobu]

Also, it cant get clearer than this. They simply wanted to get their new engine done before making a new Half Life

 

[Taffy Lewis]

and? the thread is about half life

Click to shrink...

And I'm putting it in a wider context. Weird, I know. I don't buy their current PR explanation just because they're trying to sell a new game.

 

[eonden]

Meanwhile, in the real world, most of Valve's other recent games were uninspired clones of currently hot genres. DOTA2, Artifact, Counter Strike Battle Royale. I don't buy that explanation at all.

Click to shrink...

I wouldnt call Dota 2 or Artifact uninspired lol. And CSGO BR mode is barely a "new game".

 

[Taffy Lewis]

People don't care about the answer. They care about having their feelings validated, and will go to any length to justify why they are right and/or why Valve is wrong. Not worth discussing, I've found.

Click to shrink...

It's more that we don't believe the "explanation". It's more likely Valve is simply dysfunctional on the development side, but it doesn't matter because they're making boatloads of money.

 

[Hugare]

Meanwhile, in the real world, most of Valve's other recent games were uninspired clones of currently hot genres. DOTA2, Artifact, Counter Strike Battle Royale. I don't buy that explanation at all.

Click to shrink...

I don't know, maybe it's because HL games are known for being these industry changing games on every release?

They treat HL games differently because they should be treated differently.

DOTA, Artifact, were at the end of the day, as you said, "uninspired clones of currently hot genres" but maybe that was really their whole point

On the background, Valve has always been experimenting with HL.

I mean, havent you guys seen ANY interviews with Gabe and etc. for the past 13 years?

That 93 MC score for Alyx says it all. They release a new HL game only when they have a gem.

 

[Asbsand]

Also, it cant get clearer than this. They simply wanted to get their new engine done before making a new Half Life

Click to shrink...

For 10+ years...

 

[eonden]

It's more that we don't believe the "explanation". It's more likely Valve is simply dysfunctional on the development side, but it doesn't matter because they're making boatloads of money.

Click to shrink...

You talking with an ex Valve dev bud.

 

[finalflame]

It's more that we don't believe the "explanation". It's more likely Valve is simply dysfunctional on the development side, but it doesn't matter because they're making boatloads of money.

Click to shrink...

That wasn't my experience, no. But believe whatever you want.

 

[AbsoluteZero0K]

People don't care about the answer. They care about having their feelings validated, and will go to any length to justify why they are right and/or why Valve is wrong. Not worth discussing, I've found.

Click to shrink...

The explanation makes sense to me. I always thought that they were waiting on revolutionary tech, and VR seems to be it, and they even developed their own hardware for it.

The question is, now that this new tech is in place, will there be an appetite for some unfinished business, if you know what I mean?

 

[Lafazar]

That's a really unsatisfying explanation (even though it has been implied before). And it still does not excuse the atrocious communication. There was zero need for the complete radio silence for all these years.

 

[marcbret87]

That's a really unsatisfying explanation (even though it has been implied before). And it still does not excuse the atrocious communication. There was zero need for the complete radio silence for all these years.

Click to shrink...

Pretty much. Episodes 1 and 2 seemed mostly iterative to me. Very well done, but not revolutionary The episodic concept was new, and some people mentioned some additions to it, but they were clearly built on the shoulders of HL2. That said, I can understand that at some point they didn't feel that this direction made sense any more, but given that a trilogy was promised they could have indeed been more open about it.

 

[finalflame]

The explanation makes sense to me. I always thought that they were waiting on revolutionary tech, and VR seems to be it, and they even developed their own hardware for it.

The question is, now that this new tech is in place, will there be an appetite for some unfinished business, if you know what I mean?

Click to shrink...

I think Valve has been pretty clear that not only do they, in fact, have an appetite to return to the Half-Life universe, but that HL: Alyx marks the beginning of that return.

I think Valve realizes the barriers to entry are still high, and higher than they'd like. Even though I've kind of lost sight of where efforts to lower those barriers are at now..I trust they are ongoing. If I had to take a shot in the dark, I'd say Valve is all in on VR and we might still see them revolutionize this space with more than just cool new games.

 

[Lurcharound]

All well and good. But what they stayed at the time was "trust us episodes will allow us to deliver Half Life 3 quicker than would otherwise be possible".

they asked their customers to trust them and make purchases based on the promise they would produce 3 episodes. They reneged after 2 episodes and left their consumers abandoned.

I get their view but it's not satisfactory from a consumer perspective. You publicly commit to and advertise to something, you take people's money, you complete the promise. Whether they were keen or not they had the money and could have expanded their size if needed: they should have delivered EP3 and that's all there is to it from a consumer perspective

They're explaining why they let their customers down; great, but they still let them down; ultimately this is just the excuse for why.

 

[Gitaroo]

only next potential big tech after havok phyics 2 is probably fully destructible environment. Battlefield and Red Faction already got that covered. Valve is probably waiting for another big revolutionary tech like that but I think a lot of companies caught up.

 

[Gush]

there's really no good reason other than "we didn't want to work on it"

Click to shrink...

Which is as good a reason as any.

Meanwhile, in the real world, most of Valve's other recent games were uninspired clones of currently hot genres. DOTA2, Artifact, Counter Strike Battle Royale. I don't buy that explanation at all.

Click to shrink...

 

[City 17]

I have a suspicion that Valve's internal 'flat' structure is proving deadly to game development. Every major game they have put out recently has been because they acquired an existing team, and that team can put out one, maybe two games before Valve's company structure rips the team apart.
Portal is one example, Alyx is also an external studio.

Click to shrink...

Portal doesn't even remotely look like Narbacular Drop, in no shape or form. Narbacular Drop is what you see every year at indiecades and such, it didn't even have a story. What sets Portal and its sequel apart is Valve's mastery of the medium.

Alyx is also an external studio.

Click to shrink...

You can't be serious with that, Era with the hottest of takes.

Campo Santo were acquired in 2018, while Alyx was started in 2016. And they were just a few new team members with good ideas/new perspectives late in development, not the major creative force behind it.

 

[Tunesmith]

To think that there even was an Episode 4 in early development during 2006-2007 by Arkane Studios as well.

 

[EVIL]

To think that there even was an Episode 4 in early development during 2006-2007 by Arkane Studios as well.

Click to shrink...

they scratched all of it after ep2. I honestly think they had big plans with the episodic model, but as soon as they discovered that it doesnt work well for the game industry, they canned the idea and scrapped all projects.

 

[AbsoluteZero0K]

I think Valve has been pretty clear that not only do they, in fact, have an appetite to return to the Half-Life universe, but that HL: Alyx marks the beginning of that return.

I think Valve realizes the barriers to entry are still high, and higher than they'd like. Even though I've kind of lost sight of where efforts to lower those barriers are at now..I trust they are ongoing. If I had to take a shot in the dark, I'd say Valve is all in on VR and we might still see them revolutionize this space with more than just cool new games.

Click to shrink...

I own a few VR interactive movies. Even if they were to conclude, or re-launch the HL franchise through that avenue, I'm cool with it.

To think that there even was an Episode 4 in early development during 2006-2007 by Arkane Studios as well.

Click to shrink...

OMG Half Life: Prey/System Shock edition????

Stop trying to give me an orgasm.

 

[TheUnseenTheUnheard]

But did they really need to push the tech forward for episode 3? That's something I'd expect for Half Life 3, or now Alyx, full fledged sequels.

They gave us the first two episodes of something and then went home

Click to shrink...

With the other 2 episodes they did release new tech. I guess they ran out for episode 3 ;)

 

[Akronis]

To think that there even was an Episode 4 in early development during 2006-2007 by Arkane Studios as well.

Click to shrink...

Was it episode 4? I thought it was specifically the Ravenholm spin-off

 

[Wrighteous86]

It could have been, they just didn't want it to be.

People do get it they just don't agree with the choice to put the series on hold at that point in time for that reason. If they had said the same thing about puting the licence on hold after completing the arc with an episode 3 / no cliffhanger, I'm sure the reception would have been different for most.

Click to shrink...

Yep. When Laidlaw gave us his concept for Episode 3 it gave me closure. It allowed me to shut the book on Half-Life and stop hoping. So much so that Alyx doesn't do much for me. I just needed that closure and I had to wait a decade to get it. People got resentful for that.

 

[RestEerie]

if that's the case, then why plotted it episodic?

 

[Love Machine]

What I don't understand is that the supposed long-time fans of the Half-Life series are those that literally grew up with it; people who were in their early teens when HL came out, and at least young adults by HL2. And yet there's a distinct lack of maturity on display here.

Supposing you're now an adult, hearing this "news" for the first time; surely you can accept it as a reasonable excuse for why such a company didn't want to simply churn out another episode for the sake of it. There is likely a lot more nuance to their decision than they've made public, though you can boil it down to "They just didn't want to" and it's still an acceptable answer.

Now, unless you work in game development (or at Valve itself) and have intimate knowledge of how an entire team feels trying and failing to develop an elusive "final installment" that meets/succeeds all expectations, then you don't really have the right to get upset at the explanation given. Not to mention the fact that - perhaps as a direct result of that decision - we have HL: Alyx now, which appears to be nothing short of ground breaking.