Half-Life 3 Hype Cools Down as Nothing Happens on November 18-19

For context, after over a year of intense rumors about Valve working on a mysterious HLX project – assumed by most to be a codename for Half-Life 3 – the speculation reached its peak earlier this week, when many began believing the game might actually be announced on November 18 or 19, citing “evidence” such as Half-Life 1 and 2 celebrating their anniversaries, Valve announcing a new hardware lineup, Geoff Keighley posting an eyes emoji on Twitter, and the crowbar image on Half-Life 2’s 20th Anniversary page being labeled “crowbar3” in Inspect Element.

As the aforementioned dates passed, the mood on social media shifted from fun and celebration to a more serious tone – though I use that word loosely, about half of the conversation is still just memes – with fans speculating about the actual date when the game might be announced.

Mike Straw, Senior Editor at Insider Gaming, weighed in, reaffirming that the only concrete release window he had been told was 2025 and noting that while one of his sources did give him a specific date, he couldn’t verify it with anyone else, and therefore preferred not to disclose it.