Half Life 3 probably never coming out
- Thread starter MatParker116
- Start date
Recommended Videos
That entire video is speculation and poorly researched speculation at best. First obvious lump: Anonmymous source. For all I know, they're just making shit up. Second, for all their quaint calculations, they're missing one crucial piece of information: The other half of Valve's operating numbers. Namely, the cost to make Half Life 3 and the cost of operating Steam.
And they're afraid of some Mass Effect 3-esque backlash? Really?
If you really think about it, that doesn't make any fucking sense.
First, ME3's backlash stems from its shitty ending, and the shitty ending came about because EA are slave drivers when it comes to production. Mass Effect 3 needed more time in the cooker to realize its original lofty ambition; instead, it was given the standard EA 2 year rush job.
EA loves to rush game production and has for over 17 years. This is news to absolutely nobody (or should be to any serious industry analyst). From a producer standpoint: You can't really control how people will respond to a game, but you can control quality.
If there is any one problem Valve absolutely DOES NOT HAVE, it's quality control and rushing games to market.
Second, "It won't live up to expectations."
So fucking what? NOTHING really lives up to expectations these days.
Yet that hasn't stopped every other publisher from trying to spin and hype the hell out of their games every sodding year. Despite the myriad disappointments, the market still hasn't crashed, so why would HL3 be subjected to anything different?
This shit doesn't exist in a vacuum.
Even if you rolled with ME3 tainting everyone's expectations with some sort of original sin (which it hasn't, but roll with it anyway), Valve's game development record is remarkably untainted compared to literally everyone else in their league. To the point where I'd say that of -ALL- the producers working in the gaming industry today (every single one), Valve has the LEAST to fear going forward with an ambitious project.
Less than Blizzard. Way less than Sony. Less than NINTENDO. Even less than Microsoft (who proved to be not-so-invincible to backlash during the Xbone reveal). Because Valve practically owns PC gaming right now. HL3 could be a colossal turd akin to the average Greenlight Unity game, and they still wouldn't lose much ground due to the sheer volume of Steam attach rates.
(the closest they come to original sin is L4D2; anyone with eyes can see the damage all that outrage caused Valve...none whatsoever)
I have my own speculations as to why we won't see Half Life 3 any time soon.
But unlike the dolts in this video, I know better and will just keep them to myself.
And they're afraid of some Mass Effect 3-esque backlash? Really?
If you really think about it, that doesn't make any fucking sense.
First, ME3's backlash stems from its shitty ending, and the shitty ending came about because EA are slave drivers when it comes to production. Mass Effect 3 needed more time in the cooker to realize its original lofty ambition; instead, it was given the standard EA 2 year rush job.
EA loves to rush game production and has for over 17 years. This is news to absolutely nobody (or should be to any serious industry analyst). From a producer standpoint: You can't really control how people will respond to a game, but you can control quality.
If there is any one problem Valve absolutely DOES NOT HAVE, it's quality control and rushing games to market.
Second, "It won't live up to expectations."
So fucking what? NOTHING really lives up to expectations these days.
Yet that hasn't stopped every other publisher from trying to spin and hype the hell out of their games every sodding year. Despite the myriad disappointments, the market still hasn't crashed, so why would HL3 be subjected to anything different?
This shit doesn't exist in a vacuum.
Even if you rolled with ME3 tainting everyone's expectations with some sort of original sin (which it hasn't, but roll with it anyway), Valve's game development record is remarkably untainted compared to literally everyone else in their league. To the point where I'd say that of -ALL- the producers working in the gaming industry today (every single one), Valve has the LEAST to fear going forward with an ambitious project.
Less than Blizzard. Way less than Sony. Less than NINTENDO. Even less than Microsoft (who proved to be not-so-invincible to backlash during the Xbone reveal). Because Valve practically owns PC gaming right now. HL3 could be a colossal turd akin to the average Greenlight Unity game, and they still wouldn't lose much ground due to the sheer volume of Steam attach rates.
(the closest they come to original sin is L4D2; anyone with eyes can see the damage all that outrage caused Valve...none whatsoever)
I have my own speculations as to why we won't see Half Life 3 any time soon.
But unlike the dolts in this video, I know better and will just keep them to myself.
This video reveals nothing we didn't already know. We all know that Valve is making some serious bank out of their free-to-play endeavors and Steam. We all know that the expectations of Half Life 3 are staggeringly high and that it, of course, is something Valve is very much aware of.
What kind of news exactly is this anonymous source really offering us? That there's a skeleton crew working on Half Life 3? Who here thought that they have an entire triple A studio making HL3 and that it might come out anytime? The only real news here is that the controversy surrounding Mass Effect 3 has affected Valve's decision but the source never specify to what extent or whether it actually changed any plans at Valve in regards to HL3.
And on top of that, do we know that this source is actually working at Valve when indeed he or she seems to have no information that isn't readily available and quite obvious to anyone who knows the first thing about Valve and how they operate?
EDIT: From Marc Laidlaw to The Know:
Nothing I've heard leads me to believe that your source knows anything relevant.
There you have it. Anything and everything we've heard from The Know this far can be discarded.
What kind of news exactly is this anonymous source really offering us? That there's a skeleton crew working on Half Life 3? Who here thought that they have an entire triple A studio making HL3 and that it might come out anytime? The only real news here is that the controversy surrounding Mass Effect 3 has affected Valve's decision but the source never specify to what extent or whether it actually changed any plans at Valve in regards to HL3.
And on top of that, do we know that this source is actually working at Valve when indeed he or she seems to have no information that isn't readily available and quite obvious to anyone who knows the first thing about Valve and how they operate?
EDIT: From Marc Laidlaw to The Know:
Nothing I've heard leads me to believe that your source knows anything relevant.
There you have it. Anything and everything we've heard from The Know this far can be discarded.
Seeing as they're probably just going to port them all to a newer engine, I doubt their "big 3" will die any time soon.
Considering the most recent TF2 update alone brought it back the number of players it hadn't had since 2011 (iirc, and granted a decent portion of that's gonna be alts) even the "dying" game of the big 3 isn't falling in the dirt soon.
And excuse my pessimism, but if Valve doesn't make a game using the formula of the big 3, it's going to be a tech demo. Left 4 Dead 2 has lay untouched for so long, reason being as I see it, they can't sell hats and skins for it.
"People pay $100 for a pair of earbuds because they like valve."
Less than £6, currently.
Considering the most recent TF2 update alone brought it back the number of players it hadn't had since 2011 (iirc, and granted a decent portion of that's gonna be alts) even the "dying" game of the big 3 isn't falling in the dirt soon.
And excuse my pessimism, but if Valve doesn't make a game using the formula of the big 3, it's going to be a tech demo. Left 4 Dead 2 has lay untouched for so long, reason being as I see it, they can't sell hats and skins for it.
"People pay $100 for a pair of earbuds because they like valve."
Less than £6, currently.
Ive been saying all of this for years despite many posters (in this thread no less) who told me I was wrong. There is no way half life 3 can live up to the wait at this point. We saw this more with Duke nukem forever which had a what 15 year long wait? Nothing could live up to that and nothing can live up to the expectations people have set up for half life 3 either. I think theres some legitimacy to the claim that releasing HL3 will do damage to the companies reputation, no matter how good or not good it is.
I do agree that Mass effect 3 was a different animal but it still skirts around that idea of disappointment though for different reasons. The ME series was advertised as a grand space opera where choices mattered and meant something. In the first one that was definiately true, the second one not so much IMO, the third one, which Ive not played to this day due to me boycotting their slicing off content to sell as DLC, as I hear destroyed that premise. Whether valve understands that or not is another discussion entirely though.
I do agree that Mass effect 3 was a different animal but it still skirts around that idea of disappointment though for different reasons. The ME series was advertised as a grand space opera where choices mattered and meant something. In the first one that was definiately true, the second one not so much IMO, the third one, which Ive not played to this day due to me boycotting their slicing off content to sell as DLC, as I hear destroyed that premise. Whether valve understands that or not is another discussion entirely though.
I think comparing the scenario to Mass Effect is rather ludicrous. The manner in which Mass Effect 3 ended would be controversial for any story, love it or hate it. Unless Half-Life 3 intends to devolve into, (IMHO) a heap of incoherent nonsense, I don't see cause for concern.
Quality is subjective, and I'm personally of the opinion that Mass Effect 3's ending, in it's original form, failed on almost every conceivable narrative level (There's a whole 39 minute video about everything that it does wrong that I can link, if you like). But even putting personal taste aside, one cannot deny that Bioware should have had the foresight to know how controversial the ending they chose was going to be. It is not remotely in step with sci-fi or Space Operas; it's a huge Deus Ex Machina that thoroughly departs in tone. Illogical plot contrivance is the opposite of what makes science fiction appealing.JohnZ117 said:
Mass Effect has also always lived and died by it's cast; whether or not you enjoy the series probably has a lot to do with whether or not you connected to the characters, and they form the dramatic and emotional core of the story. Leaving their fate so ambiguous should have sent up red flags for the writers from the start, it should have been obvious that people were going to be upset if the key dramatic question of the story went unanswered.
There's no reason for Valve to be concerned because there's no reason to assume they're going to take such a big risk with the direction of the story.