What on earth happened to Half-Life 2 and why it was discontinued??...

[The Noble Lord]

I just came across an article that mentions it, and I remember back in 2006-2008 it was hailed and glorified so much
as " the best game ever", "the gamers paradise game", "best game of ALL TIME" etc. I was regular buyer of PC gaming magazines
such a PC PowerPlay, PC Gamer, PC Zone and they were all constantly talking and praising this futuristic game like there
is no tomorrow...

And then... complete and total silence and nobody ever mentions it for years. Really puzzling and mysterious!

Why would developer stop making this game that was hailed to be mother of all games and such, why would they discontinue it??

Thank you.

[Krieglord]

Our fallen angel, former lord and saviour Gabe Newell made 4+ Billion dollars with Steam/microtransactions and figured that was a better direction, there were supposedly several attempts at starting up a HL3 project that failed and at this point its almost becoming a memory especially to the generation of gamers born after 2000.

Right now it probably just wouldn't be profitable enough vs other titles, apparently Mass Effect 3 really scared them because for many people the ending of that game nearly ruined the trilogy so if they got HL3 wrong they saw what could happen even to a beloved franchise.

I haven't followed it in a while but there is a paid mod/remaster of HL1 being worked on called Black Mesa, hopefully it renews some interest, would love to see an official Valve remaster of The Orange Box including HL1 this time, that's probably how most mainly console gamers were introduced to The Half Life Universe which Portal is part of (The references to Black Mesa in Portal 2 made a lot of people hopeful but that was released a while ago now with no fresh news)

[Basileos Leandros I]

Steam / Valve made so much money with the platform that ruining the HL2 / HL is something that they want to keenly avoid.

[Thanatos]

The decision to move away from the episodic content of previous HL releases as well as HL3 in and of itself as the next sequel stemmed from several factors:

1) Valve as a company has always had (or so they claimed) a culture where developers can program or explore work product as they wished if it struck their fancy. It is unclear whether people just decided to move towards other IPs (i.e., DOTA), or Valve employees hired were all of the opinion that these other IPs were better from the start, but Valve claims that it is because of this paradigm shift that the HL IP is no longer being worked on.

2) Valve has admitted that Half Life 3, if it was ever released, could never live up to the crazy hype that has been building for over a decade. Any product made is doomed to fail in the eyes of the media hype, so why bother?

3) It's easier to just manage the Steam store platform and make easy money than to make a new game, even if HL3 was guaranteed to be a smashing success.

[Surgeon]

Part of me wonders if they've just decided to commit to the meme "Valve can't count to 3". So far they have no games that go beyond 2. Even those HL2 DLC episodes they promised 3 of, only got as far as 2.

Would be pretty funny if the next big Half Life title was named Half Life 4.

[deltaminds]

lol I never though about this though, skipping HL 3 because of so many memes.

[The Noble Lord]

Our fallen angel, former lord and saviour Gabe Newell made 4+ Billion dollars with Steam/microtransactions and figured that was a better direction, there were supposedly several attempts at starting up a HL3 project that failed and at this point its almost becoming a memory especially to the generation of gamers born after 2000.

Right now it probably just wouldn't be profitable enough vs other titles, apparently Mass Effect 3 really scared them because for many people the ending of that game nearly ruined the trilogy so if they got HL3 wrong they saw what could happen even to a beloved franchise.

I haven't followed it in a while but there is a paid mod/remaster of HL1 being worked on called Black Mesa, hopefully it renews some interest, would love to see an official Valve remaster of The Orange Box including HL1 this time, that's probably how most mainly console gamers were introduced to The Half Life Universe which Portal is part of (The references to Black Mesa in Portal 2 made a lot of people hopeful but that was released a while ago now with no fresh news)

Okay, so Gabe Newell made all the money with STEAM and they don't want to be bothered with making another Half-Life 2 installment. Understood.

Thanks everyone

Valve has admitted that Half Life 3, if it was ever released, could never live up to the crazy hype that has been building for over a decade. Any product made is doomed to fail in the eyes of the media hype, so why bother?

That too, people would've been expecting something unreal which is impossible to create. And hype was certainly there, I remember Garry's Mod
and how it was popular. Some countries even offered him a citizenship because he was the creator of the mod...supposedly!