This could be the reason why Valve does not make third parties of its games

Valve’s bad experience with the third part of Half Life could be the reason.

Valve is an American video game developer company that has gained notoriety lately. Its first successful installments were Half-Life and Counter-Strike, but the company chose to launch the Steam Deck on the marketa portable game console that had a slight delay in its launch due to the lack of material for its production.

The arrival of your new console that promised its own system optimized to use Steam and a large library of games available for said platform, had a great impact among the gaming community around the world. Although initially there were problems for its distribution, little by little the users of the Steam Deck were revealing their impressions about the console.

In general they were good impressions, since the console proposal is quite novel. First of all, it should be mentioned, because its AMD processor, 16 GB of RAM and 64 GB eMMC storage (1 PCIe Gen 2); 256 GB NVMe SSD (4 PCIe Gen 3); or high-speed 512 GB NVMe SSD (4 PCIe Gen 3) and ABXY controls make it a kind of laptop, but with the comfort to touch and use of a small device. Secondly, because the company gives it a style similar to that of a Switch or Vita. And, thirdly, because the games, like Doom or Gof of War, run quite smoothly and with a resolution of 30 fps it is more than enough for a great gaming experience.

But Valve has not been satisfied with introducing this curious little console to the entertainment industry, but constantly tries to stay abreast of the latest trends. Except that there is a very interesting detail that should not be overlooked.

And the third parts of the games?

Although the company has clarified that its libraries consist of many more titles than other consoles, many gamers have realized that Valve has not made any third installment in its series, which has raised the suspicions of the fans. But there could be a logical explanation for this, and Erik Wolpaw, Portal’s co-writer, has a theory as to why.

So far, we know that Half-Life 2: Episode 3 was part of the shooter trilogy that was never released. The date was scheduled for 2007, however, Valve decided to cancel it and the reasons were never made clear. So the famous “episode two” of that year wreaked havoc on the developer’s reputation, which now simply gave way to memes and mockery of this apparent failure. Since then, many of the video game fans firmly believe that Gabe Newell and his team will not make any third for any game in their franchises.

The interesting thing about all this is that the arrival of the RTX version of Portal on December 8In addition to the speculation that Valve is working on new projects, they could finally open up the possibility of launching a third installment of more than one of the games they have in their catalog.

Maybe Wolpaw is right in believing that the developer has always stopped at two games for fear of repeating the history of Half-life. And as time progresses, this theory seems to make more sense. In fact, in a recent interview with the You Know Gaming YouTube channel, the writer who was involved in some of Valve’s titles comments that the team is “absorbed by other things.”

This could quite coincide with the reality of the company, however, approximately after minute 12:41 it is explained that people who have worked at Valve look back and only then can they see the mistakes that have led them there. So this panoramic vision of the games has been able to help them improve for the future of certain sequels, which always end in a second game. So, it is possible that a third title is simply not in his plans. Here you can see the interview:

Of course there are many reasons why Valve is not interested in completing the trilogies. Although, it is explained in a very lateral way that the company has prioritized its initial innovations and launches, Wolpaw’s argument may not be too far off the mark. And although it is not directly said that there will be no third installments, the most logical thing would be for Valve to continue doing things as before.