The internet exploded earlier this week as a European trademark was seemingly filed for the most-likely-still-non-existent Half-Life 3. Now it seems that the trademark filing with the Trade Marks and Designs Office of the European Union was nothing but a hoax, as Valvetime.net reports the listing has been removed.
Of course, companies file trademarks all the time to keep possession of registered names even if they have no real intention of actively using them – a strictly European trademark filing was arguably fishy enough on its own.
That didn’t stop fans from losing their collective gourds over the mere possibility that Half-Life 3 was indeed on the verge of being announced, nearly a decade after Half-Life 2 was first released.
It’s possible that Valve is still up to something, considering the recent conveniently-timed leak of their internal Jira database, which the developers internally use to keep tabs on development progress and problems, that briefly gave eagle-eyed Neogaf conspiracy theorists a look into the inner working of Valve – one development group listed was for “Half-Life 3”.
Whether or not this has anything to do with Valve recent Steam Machines announcement is anyone’s guess. Stranger things have happened than the possibility of pending news regarding a sequel.
That said, barring an official announcement, perhaps after nearly ten years it might finally be time to just let Gordon rest in peace.
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Via Game Informer
