The age-old tradition of gamers speculating about the release of the third entry to Valve’s poster child, Half Life, is back–especially since the last couple of weeks. There was a specific rumor about the possible release of the game on November 18th, but unfortunately that day has come to pass, and there’s still no announcement about Half Life 3. That hasn’t stopped the speculation train however, and today on the anniversary of Half Life’s release, there’s still hope from the community. What makes this instance different from previous episodes of speculative mania, however, is the culmination of several pieces of evidence that suggests that a Half Life sequel is around the corner, even if it doesn’t release this week.

There has been an almost religious level of dedication fans of the series have put into scrounging up any information they can find on Valve’s current development cycle, and they definitely haven’t come up empty handed. A plethora of leaks over the years from data-miners have suggested that Valve is at least setting up infrastructure in their Source 2 engine for something not related to anything they’ve publicly announced. One set of examples that heavily implies the existence of further Half Life development was a data-mine of Dota 2 (Valve’s biggest MOBA) in 2021 that contains mentions of “HLX”–the supposed project name for the next game in the series–along with other tidbits of seemingly Half Life related code. Another more recent example that stirred up fans was a cryptic X post made in late 2024 from Mike Shapiro, the voice actor of Half Life’s G-man; where he says in character “See you in the new year.” The last work he did with Valve was a reprisal of his role in 2020’s Half Life: Alyx, although he hasn’t disclosed if he’s done anything else with them related to the franchise. But this is old news, so what has the internet in such a frenzy right now?

Well, there’s a few things fans think currently point to an imminent release of official information regarding the possible next Half Life game. First off, there was the initial rumor mentioned above about the apparent break in Steam store events during the game’s anniversary week that a viral Reddit post claimed was indicative of an announcement on the 18th. Then, there is of course the anticipation for and recent announcement of Valve’s new hardware that is releasing next year, which users think would be an opportunity the company would seize to push out a new entry to the franchise. And on top of that, a few prominent gaming industry voices have hinted at an additional upcoming announcement from Valve, like Jeff Grubb, Nick Baker, and Mike Straw, the latter of which made a X post claiming:

BTW, Valve isn’t done with the big announcements. Soon enough there’s going to be something else

— Mike Straw (@MikeStrawMedia) November 13, 2025

If this “big announcement” actually happens, or if it is even related to Half Life, it will make this year a truly historic one in gaming, as the anticipation for the third entry has been as much as a ubiquitously joked about topic as the wait for GTA 6. Importantly, however, although there are some tantalizing rumors about, at the end of the day they amount to speculation. But there’s no harm in hoping for the best.