I ventured into the rabbit hole and found this:
https://twitter.com/BreenGrub/with_replies
Look at the 2014 tweets and compare it with the leaked story: "The vortigaunts are singing...", " It is a kind of hush. Silence is the oppressor. I speak to hear myself speak. I cannot bear the loneliness." , etc. The account got followed by Matt T. Wood, too...
One can sense a hint of frustration and alienation in Marc's letter when reading between the lines (towards Valve or the work environment at Valve). I don't blame him since most of the original HL developers from the 90s have already left the studio.
No one should really be surprised or sad; unless one has been living in a bubble for the past 7 years, then you should know by now that Valve has already transitioned into a digital distributor of games rather than a game developing studio.
Sure, they still maintain their cash cows (CSGO, DOTA) and throw in some concepts that they think it is going to be the next wheel invention (VR), but mainly they are all about steam platform now, the goose that lays gold eggs 24/7 (and with a below-par customer service, the icing on the cake)
Would I have wanted a new HL? Of course
Was I expecting a new HL? No, and I stopped expecting/hyping about it a long time ago (although I wouldn't mind being proven wrong here :))
Valve has been out of the game for a long time now, resting on its past laurels, and coming up with a new game with ground-breaking story/gameplay mechanics is probably a big boot to fill. Add to this that the game development scene is rapidly shifting, and we now see many small indie devs producing AAA quality games, further putting the pressure on Valve to deliver.
I don't expect a new game from Valve, let alone anything related to HL but, again, I would be happy to be proven wrong
Steam=safe bet, steady cash flow, monopoly
New HL/game=risky, uncertain return on investment, could be the next DNF
It's really a no-brainer for them
the freeman will be missed
Quote from Squad2 hours ago, Squad said: Rename this thread again, please.
:o
Quote from will2k44 minutes ago, will2k said: Steam=safe bet, steady cash flow, monopoly
This is where I see them coming undone actually. HL2 was pretty much the catalyst to Steam's success and they may come to a point where Blizzard or Bethesda are in a position to release a platform exclusive game big enough to start tempting people away from Steam. Hell, Blizzard have already bitten a chunk out of the CS:GO and TF2 community with Overwatch. With giant IPs like TES, Fallout, DOOM and Quake Bethesda are surely only a few years away from being in a good position to go it alone as well. Valve need AAA games to keep Steam's stranglehold over the PC market and the big producers aren't going to keep sending Valve a healthy chunk of their profits if they don't have to.
I'm going to be really unpopular for saying this, but here we go:
After Team Fortress 2 went free-to-play and Portal 2 came out, Valve basically became a service provider who also branched out into hardware. Everything after that was mostly outsourced, including Counterstrike: Global Offensive and DOTA 2. Valve encouraged fans to design cosmetics for their games. These are sold on the Steam Workshop for which Valve gets nice a cut. So it's not like they have to do anything game related to get paid. Even the Counterstrike: Global Offensive Operations consists out of user made maps. They're not designing anything and I bet that the card game that no one asked for is outsourced as well.
Half life 3 turning out to be a big disappointment is a massive risk for Valve and a very real possibility. They revolutionized the industry twice, fueling the hype machine. Nothing will live up to it. So letting the money roll in and not risking their reputation is the safest option for them as a business. A business which now completely revolves around Steam and hardware. If they want they could buy up another promising mod and slap their name on it, but in the end, the original talent that made them have already left and if you're a designer working there for the past 7 years, I have no idea what you've been doing.
If you really want Half-Life 3, stop playing their games, designing maps and skins for them, stop buying on Steam and maybe, if the money is drying up, we'll force them to make it. But that's never going to happen.
Oh well... tweet might have gotten deleted already but this makes the rounds right now.
who runs the account tho?
When are we starting to block this one out btw?
Quote from Pampers21 minutes ago, Pampers said: https://twitter.com/ishl3outyet
Lol 
Oh man, that sounds so fucking rad
Also, if you take a good look at Marc's intro and you examine how the story was written, it's not hard to see metaphors and frustration. This is a man who wants to bring closure to something he has worked on for a long time, only he couldn't do it the way it was intended. I think he put it online not just for the fans, but for modders to do with as they please.
Valve is at a point of breakdown now, either they listen to the community right now or they're so fucking dead. Their community is probably the most passionated, and you won't have to wait long before the shitstorm.
This is fucking bullshit.
TBH I just think it boils down to Single-Player not being a great investment. As memorable and wonderful experiences as they provide, you just can't keep players there for that long. It's just that we look at Valve and say, "really guys, does every fucking decision have to be processed through monetary investment terms?"
I'm holding out the slightest hope for the 3 VR titles, but at the same time VR seems to be struggling as a platform. What the fuck is going on, honestly...
Looking at Glassdoor for information, seems like the super flat hierarchies are causing some trouble. Really seems like there was a big shift of interest around 2011-2015.
https://www.reddit.com/r/dreamsofhalflife3/ bois already working something
Quote from Pampers1 hour ago, Pampers said: https://www.reddit.com/r/dreamsofhalflife3/ bois already working something
I don't know how to feel about this. I knew that this would inevitably happen, but it's not really the way I'd want to experience EP3. Honestly, the post from Laidlaw was satisfying enough after all these years. It feels official and I'm glad I read it. Maybe I'm just being silly, but a community-made version wouldn't feel right to me. Apart from the fact that the subreddit has some very shaky management from the start, very inexperienced "leads", and even a push to use UE4; it's a humongous task that seems ripe for disappointment. I would much rather see spinoff mods/games inspired by this new information that take less time, from a perspective other than Freeman.
Oh don't worry, in the spirit of hl3, that project will never be completed
Would be cool to see the black mesa source team tackling on this when they're done with Xen.
Might be waiting for it 10 more years tho.
Quote from text_fishOn 8/25/2017 at 2:49 PM, text_fish said: This is where I see them coming undone actually. HL2 was pretty much the catalyst to Steam's success and they may come to a point where Blizzard or Bethesda are in a position to release a platform exclusive game big enough to start tempting people away from Steam. Hell, Blizzard have already bitten a chunk out of the CS:GO and TF2 community with Overwatch. With giant IPs like TES, Fallout, DOOM and Quake Bethesda are surely only a few years away from being in a good position to go it alone as well. Valve need AAA games to keep Steam's stranglehold over the PC market and the big producers aren't going to keep sending Valve a healthy chunk of their profits if they don't have to.
I've been a strong advocate of breaking steam's monopoly over the years but, in reality, the more time passes, the harder it becomes to do so.
The competing platforms should have happened before 2010 when steam was just a DRM content delivery platform; through the years, it has become a social media platform, a workshop, a gambling platform, a game startup incubator, and generally an easy way to make money. Gamers and developers alike are now deeply rooted in steam, and migrating to a new platform might prove cumbersome. People by default do not like change. It's still feasible though but the new platform has to be very lucrative for both gamers and developers to warrant all the hassle of moving.
If a new platform offers the same services/games as steam in addition to some REAL customer service, then I expect steam to lose at least quarter to half of its market share in a year, and you could see an exodus of gamers and devs. In this case, even a new IP/game from Valve won't save them.
What Valve might, and probably will do is add new features to steam to prevent further market erosion and lure gamers/devs back. I highly doubt they will think of a new game to save the platform.
There is always a tried-and-tested way to make them change their minds (and @Sprony will back me up on this one :)): vote/protest with your wallet; let them feel the heat.
Quote from FMPONEOn 8/26/2017 at 3:52 AM, FMPONE said: TBH I just think it boils down to Single-Player not being a great investment. As memorable and wonderful experiences as they provide, you just can't keep players there for that long. It's just that we look at Valve and say, "really guys, does every fucking decision have to be processed through monetary investment terms?"
I'm holding out the slightest hope for the 3 VR titles, but at the same time VR seems to be struggling as a platform. What the fuck is going on, honestly...
I would have to disagree with you on the single player experience. Some games from the 90s are still being played today; the magic "ingredient": mods.
You make a great game, make it moddable with a proper SDK, sit back and watch it live long past its expected shelf life.
Case in point, Half-Life itself:
Awesome, ground-breaking single player, coupled with a decent multiplayer component and a myriad of free mods is keeping the game alive til now.
The problem in games started when "the suits" from upstairs started to have the last word in games over the creative people.
The shitty concepts of paid DLCs, early-access, and micro-transactions started to creep in, and this has become the standard way to keep your players hooked.
As for VR, it's a nice concept but I don't see it as a crucial necessity in today's gaming. You can well game and live without it, hence the very slow adoption rate.
I honestly don't see it becoming mainstream in the next 5-10 years; after that, who knows, maybe porn VR will become the norm and force the adoption of VR 
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