Since Episode Two of Half-Life 2 was released to critical and commercial acclaim way back in 2007, gamers have been patiently waiting for a follow-up to the beloved game series. Eight years later and the long wait is still ongoing, as Valve has repeatedly declined from officially confirming anything related to a potential sequel. With in-game screenshots or gameplay video not to be found, the game is a mere rumor at this point in time.

Regardless, fans of the series are still holding out hope for a sequel, a testament to the quality and appeal of the Half-Life games. That high standard of quality may just be what is preventing a potential Half-Life 3, as the developers don't appear too keen in putting out a substandard product just for the sake of releasing one.

Speaking in a Game Slide podcast, as reported in this article at the Express, Gabe Newell of Valve shared a similar sentiment with regards to a Half-Life sequel. "The only reason we'd go back and do like a super classic kind of product is if a whole bunch of people just internally at Valve said they wanted to do it and had a reasonable explanation for why [they did]. But you know if you want to do another Half-Life game and you want to ignore everything we've learned in shipping Portal 2 and in shipping all the updates on the multiplayer side, that seems like a bad choice," he said.

Newell added that Valve intends to continue pushing forward and cautioned fans not to worry too much about his comments as they might not construe it the way he intends it to be construed.

On the whole, Newell's comments don't indicate either way whether a Half-Life 3 will or won't happen. Whatever the case, Newell's commitment to quality should still be commended even at the expense of Half-Life 3 never happening at all.