For starters, the studio did not want to simultaneously engage in the production of both the game and the engine, since it is too heavy. A hard lesson was learned while working on Half-Life 2, and the first thoughts about the need to work on a new engine appeared already for the release of the second episode of HL2.
As a result, a new Half-life It was decided to postpone until better times, but for now to improve our own technology.
It’s ironic that the original idea of engaging in episodes was not to leave the info field for too long, however each episode became too ambitious for its format, due to which it was finally decided to abandon the serial model.
Another reason is the reluctance to “just release” Half-Life. All the achievements of the sequels never satisfied the team, so the concepts never went into full production. The studio has always seen the games of the series as important milestones, and not the next part of the series.
The final reason for abandoning the third episode was Valve’s philosophy: the games in the series should “solve interesting problems,” and not be released for quarterly reports, like many other publishers.
At the same time, in conversation with Kotaku, Valve designer Robin Walker said that during the development Half-Life: Alyx the team got its hand so much and accumulated many ideas that it is unlikely that we will have to wait long for the new part of the franchise.
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