Breathe, people. Relax. Valve isn’t holding a press conference today. And despite all the speculation you might have seen on social media or other gaming websites, they don’t have some big GDC announcement planned for 3 o’clock this afternoon — 3pm on 3/3 — so please, don’t get your hopes up.
The speculation started in earnest yesterday with this BBC article, which incorrectly claimed: “Valve is expected to provide more details about the [VR headset] launch at its own presentation at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco on Tuesday.”
From there, the rumours came hot and heavy, mostly thanks to Reddit and gaming people on Twitter:
I like Valve, I like HTC, and I like VR. Today is a good day. And Valve’s announcement at 3pm on 3/3 is probably nothing to get hyped about.
— Markus Persson (@notch) March 1, 2015
Valve is announcing something at 3PM on the 3rd day of the third month? Saint Gaben is the lord of trolls.
— Richard Stanton (@RichStanton) March 1, 2015
Valve holding a press conference at 3pm on 3/3 can only mean one thing! They’re 100% in on the joke and are just trolling everyone now.
— Ozzie Mejia (@Ozz_Mejia) March 2, 2015
Speaking of Half Life 3. Anyone notice Valve’s press conference at GDC is on March 3, at 3 PM. 3/3 at 3
— Ryan Benno (@BryanRenno) March 1, 2015
Valve’s announcement is at 3PM on March 3rd? 3/3 at 3?! YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?!?! 33% off Half Life 2!!! *laughs and cries in corner*
— Philip DeFranco (@PhillyD) March 3, 2015
The running theory: Valve has something big to announce at their press conference today.
The problem with that theory: Valve isn’t actually holding a press conference today.
The actual truth: Sergiy Migdalskiy, an engineer at Valve, is holding a GDC presentation on physics optimisation strategies for game programmers today at 3pm. There is no press conference, nor are we expecting any surprise Half-Life 3 announcements there. To quote the presentation: “Topics include numerical integration, contact manifolds, destruction, solvers, networking, and optimisation.”
But you don’t have to take my word for it. I asked Valve marketing boss Doug Lombardi this morning if there was some secret presser that Kotaku wasn’t invited to. “Big mix up,” he told me.
The takeaway, as always? Half-Life 3 is never coming out.
Comments
18 responses to “No, Valve Isn’t Holding A Press Conference Today”
Don’t worry people.
I’m not expecting HL3 until 3/3/3333.
Until then, I’m not keeping my hopes up.
No press conference for 3/3 @ 3:00?
HL3 Presser for 3/3 @ 3:33 confirmed.
Quick question, why hasn’t there been a HL3?
I’ve given up on it ever coming out, and didn’t enjoy HL2 anyway (Loved HL1), but is there any reason that they didn’t make a HL3?
I reckon the fans built up so much hype around it that they can’t make something that would live up to it all. That and also the (lack of) management and direction at Valve means there’s probably not enough people willing to throw themselves into it.
That said, Source 2 is supposedly near to release (rumours and supposition) and I would imagine there’d be no announcement until that is out
Definitely. Anything they release now would never live up to the hype.
It would end up like Duke Nukem Forever, which I thought was a decent game, but most people act like it was forged by Satan himself to torture gamers.
So to catch you up, there were episodic follow-ons following the end of HL2 (ep. 1 & 2), and there was meant to be a third episode that tied up that little story arc.
Episode 2 involved Aperture Science (from Portal), so it promised to be good.So the theory is that, in working on episode 3, the scope got so huge that Valve decided to just turn it into a full blown game (HL3). The notorious Valve Radio Silence means we don’t know if this is true or not. One of the more popular theories I’ve heard is that HL3 will be released following the release of Source 2… the logic being that a big fancy new game engine needs a big fancy new flagship game to go with it. Source 2 is meant to be released imminently, so here’s hoping we get a HL3 (or even just an Ep. 3) announcement not long afterwards.
Also, I’m curious, what didn’t you like about HL2? I thought it was one of the best FPS games of all time (might have had something to do with a massive crush on Alyx Vance), so I’m interested to hear another perspective.
I found HL2 incredibly boring and generic really. The story was almost non-existent, and the action was ‘Hi, I’m this cool new person who is going to come on your adventures, oh I have to disappear now while you rush through checkpoints on a vehicle. Oh Hi, you made it, oh I have to go now while you rush through some more checkpoints’. The enemy was all gas-masked, literally faceless… There was little of the heart pounding hiding around a corner or in a stairwell or in a ventilation duct, just listening to the banter of soldiers and trying to pick up clues/muster the courage to dash out, only to be flanked unexpectedly, that I loved from HL2.
It just felt like you had to sprint through the game, no tension, no wondering WTF is happening, no feeling of being hunted and outwitting people and being part of something SO much bigger than you are. It just felt flat to me.
Having said that, I am happy to try it again, (when I finish binging on Syndicate) has it had a graphics revamp or anything? Is there a recommended version?
There are mods for HL2 that improve the graphics. This one by FakeFactory is pretty good.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/fakefactory-cinematic-mod
Hmm… I agree, it was a different experience to the original game, but I didn’t find it inferior. I guess the best analogy would be Alien vs. Aliens – one was a masterclass in tension and confined spaces, while the successor was alot more action-driven and open.
That being said, I prefer Alien over Aliens, but like HL2 better than HL1… go figure!
Half-Life 2 was released on Source Engine and it was used as a poster-child for the engine’s capabilities. My guess is that Valve have been developing Source 2 for a while now, and HL3 is being held back until the engine is ready.
Also, Source 2 was just announced by Valve just now, so take from that what you will.
Long given up on Half Life news. Keen for the Steam controller to see if it’ll be any good, but these days my time is now spent counting the days until Bethesda’s E3 presentation. 102 days and counting
I’m not overly fussed about there being no Half Life 3 (as much as I loved the first two) but why oh why can’t we get Half Life 2, Episode 3???
HTC confirms half life VR 😀
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31692995
The fact that Half Life 3 (or EP 3) has become such a joke should really make Valve worry. Things like L4D2 didn’t need a sequel, but leaving your biggest series on a cliff hanger for however long its been now does so much disservice to the brand.
Also, I just wanna know what happens with The Thing.
Has HL3 overtaken Team Fortress 2 as Valve’s Greatest Delay yet?
I’d read somewhere that there has been a larger release date gap between HL2:ep2 and now, than there has been between HL1 and HL2
Errr… awkward!
https://steamdb.info/blog/source2-announcement/
Valve DID have a big announcement! Source 2, baby!