Were keeping the clown make-up on stand-by, just in case (Valve)A seemingly minor update to Dota 2 is enough to spark speculation that Half-Life 3 is nearing completion.Rumours of Valve making Half-Life 3 have persisted for years, to the point where theyre now considered more meme than rumour, but things did ratchet up in the second half of 2024 to the point where theyre sounding almost believable.The purported evidence mostly comes from datamining of other Valve titles, which contain files for a project codenamed HLX, as well as claims of a new Half-Life being playtested in recent months.Were now nearly three months into 2025 and YouTuber Tyler McVicker, whos been pushing Half Life 3s existence for a while, believes the newest datamine discoveries could point to a formal announcement this year.Its always worth remembering that Valve has cancelled far more projects than theyve ever released, including multiple iterations of Half-Life 3. McVicker is confident that this newest attempt has avoided a similar fate, but we wouldnt count on anything until its sitting on your hard drive.Nevertheless, in his latest video, McVicker references how whenever Valve breaks for the Christmas period, projects that were in development beforehand tend to get scrapped once everyone gets back from their holidays, citing Left 4 Dead 3 as an example.Valve has also often abandoned or re-evaluated projects after the kind of external playtesting HLX is believed to have gone through. According to McVicker, though, the latest update to Valves Dota 2 proves that HLX is alive and kicking and apparently nearing the end of development.McVicker does admit that all the strings of new code found in the updates arent particularly important, covering small changes to the games graphics engine. For the record, since 2015, all of Valves games, including Half-Life: Alyx, have been built with Source 2.However, these changes pertain to optimisation and polishing, which McVicker says are indicative of Valve reaching the end of a production cycle.Basically, whatever Valves new game is, its nearing completion and thus McVicker thinks it will be annouced later this year. Something fans also suspected Mike Shapiro, the voice of the series G-Man character, teased in his New Years message.If this is the case, theres no telling when or where Valve would make such an announcement. Summer Game Fest is perhaps the safest bet and were sure Geoff Keighley would be thrilled to host a Half-Life 3 reveal.More TrendingIf we were feeling particularly spicy, wed say it could be a surprise third party reveal at the April Nintendo Direct for the Nintendo Switch 2.The consoles new mouse controller functionality could be of great interest to Valve, although traditionally theyve shown little enthusiasm for supporting Nintendo platforms.The Switch has proven far more popular than Valves own Steam Deck, but Valve likely makes enough money through Steam to outweigh any risks it takes on hardware. Plus, for a game with Half-Life 3s status, Valve may want to keep it exclusive to its Steam platform, at least at first.Ultimately, this all remains speculation and HLX may very well be a different Half-Life project altogether. For example, Half-Life: Alyx is still meant to be getting a sequel, although theres been nothing to suggest HLX is a VR title. It has been nearly five years since Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy