Valve Dev Accidentally Mentions 'Half-Life 3' Codename During Event

The Half-Life community finally has concrete confirmation that Valve is working on something related to the franchise. During a panel at GameSoundCon , the studio's music designer, Mike Morasky, inadvertently mentioned the codename "HLX" while comparing the audio systems of Deadlock and another unannounced project.

The slip-up occurred when Morasky was explaining how Valve handles high dynamic range audio in its games. He mentioned that Deadlock uses a specific type of HDR and that "HLX uses its own." As soon as the acronym left his mouth, the designer stopped speaking immediately. A colleague next to him simply whispered "good job."

Later in the lecture, the same colleague commented to Morasky at the end of the presentation, "Good job, you only managed to mention HLX once," to which he replied, "Did I mention it?"

The acronym HLX has appeared in Valve files for quite some time, discovered by dataminers, but had never been officially linked to any project. The connection to Half-Life has always been the most accepted theory, since the letters directly refer to the franchise and no other game from the studio fit the acronym.

The anticipation for a third main game has existed since the release of Half-Life 2: Episode Two in 2007. Hope was rekindled in 2020 with Half-Life: Alyx, which ended with a narrative cliffhanger setting up Gordon Freeman's return. Since then, Valve has never officially confirmed what HLX would be, but the slip-up at the conference practically confirms that the project is in active development.

It remains to be seen when the game will be revealed. Valve usually announces and releases its titles within a short timeframe, as happened with Alyx. Therefore, some fans are already speculating about a possible appearance at The Game Awards, although it's too early for any concrete predictions.