Valve is working on a new Half-Life game for the Steam Deck, but that’s not Half-Life 3

Rumor mill: In what is a classic good / bad news situation, it has been reported that a new Half-Life game is in development, but the bad news is that it is not Half-Life 3; is a cooperative RTS / FPS title designed with Steam Deck in mind.

There have been rumors that, almost fifteen years since Half-Life 2: Episode 2 arrived, Valve is now working on Half-Life 3, a project that has been speculated for so long that it has become a meme.

Sadly for those hoping to see Gordon Freeman’s return, as hinted at at the end of Half-Life: Alyx, Valve News Network creator Tyler McVicker (via PCGamesN) reports that Valve is working on other projects set in the Half-Life universe. One of them goes by the code name Citadel, a hybrid FPS / RTS co-op that combines elements from Left 4 Dead, Alien Swarm, and real-time strategy games. McVicker describes it as a “festival of nostalgia.”

The Citadel is said to have been created with the Steam Deck in mind due to how it is controlled. The presenter said it will “show better what the Steam Deck is capable of.”

With Valve delaying the Steam Deck almost two months and many of the company’s employees are being reassigned to its highly anticipated handheld, with Citadel not expected to arrive for another 18 to 24 months. “No kind of traditional mouse and keyboard FPS at Valve is not taking place,” added McVicker.

McVicker also spoke about what is expected to be the virtual reality-based follow-up to Half-Life: Alyx, which is in the “mechanical testing phases.” However, he says Valve is feeling “growing internal disappointment with the virtual reality platform on the PC” and “fewer and fewer people continue to work on that hardware base” at the company.

The YouTuber says that most of the information comes from regularly updated Valve software data mines, and even he cautions that the report should be taken with a grain of salt, although almost everyone knows that Valve is not working in Half. -Life 3.

Half-Life was recently nominated as one of the greatest video games of all time, but lost to Dark Souls. The same awards ceremony also had a category for the best piece of hardware, with no surprises in terms of who won that award.