An insider claims Valve’s long-rumoured Half-Life 3 will be released alongside the new Steam Machine next year, after a no-show at The Game Awards.
After Final Fantasy 7 remake and Shenmue 3, Half-Life 3 is one of the last gaming holy grails yet to come to fruition, but a growing number of rumours over the past year suggests it is going to happen.
Rumours of Half-Life 3 have existed for decades, but the volume of them has increased exponentially over the past year – with some last month claiming an announcement was imminent, following the reveal of Valve’s new Steam Machine.
As we approach the end of the year, and after The Game Awards, Half-Life 3 still hasn’t been announced (in case you hadn’t noticed), but insiders are still adamant that it exists. More notably, one journalist claims it’s set to launch alongside the Steam Machine next year.
Speaking on the Insider Gaming podcast, editor Mike Straw claimed different insiders and leakers were initially told different dates regarding Half-Life 3’s reveal, in order to snuff out who is leaking information, but now all those dates have passed.
Straw says he didn’t report the date he was given because their source wasn’t ‘100% confident’, but despite the rumoured dates all passing, everyone he’s spoken with is ‘still adamant’ that Half-Life 3 is a launch title for the Steam Machine.
‘Everything I have… everyone I’ve talked to, is still adamant this is a game that will be a launch title with the Steam Machine,’ Straw said. ‘There is a concern, however, that they haven’t made a decision on price, which is kind of holding back the announcement of anything else.’
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He claims Valve has delayed the announcement due to the soaring prices of memory chips, which may impact the final cost of the Steam Machine.
Valve has said it plans to launch the Steam Machine at some point in Q1 2026 (before April), but Straw speculates that it could be pushed back due to the uncertainties around price.
‘At the end of the day, the game is real,’ Straw added, in relation to Half-Life 3. ‘There’s no denying it. It’s just when and not if at this point. Like all the signs pointed to it being announced sometime in December, then everything hit the fan. And I think it was a case of, that concern. So we’ll see… [the Steam Machine was] supposed to be at the end of Q1 2026…I’m starting to wonder if that hardware’s going to get pushed out.’
If this is true, and whether the Steam Machine is delayed or not from Q1 2026, this means it’s possible Half-Life 3 and GTA 6 will land in the same year – so hold onto your britches.
Valve hasn’t announced the price of the Steam Machine, but the company has indicated it will be closer to the cost of a high-end PC than a console, so well over the £500 or so of a PlayStation 5 or Switch 2.
If Half-Life 3 is a launch game for the Steam Machine it would still be available on Steam for other PC devices, otherwise that would defeat the whole point of the service. However, it won’t be on any other PC stores and console versions are very unlikely until much later, if ever.
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