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In the early 2000s, Valve released Portal, a puzzle-platformer that became critically acclaimed for its unique gameplay and comedic dialogue. Portal shared some similarities to Valve's Half-Life titles, but lacked any actual hostiles to shoot. Instead of using weaponry to take out enemies, players are encouraged to think critically and study their environments to find a workable solution.
In April 2011, Portal 2 became a highly anticipated follow-up to the original game, featuring a co-op mode which brought about its own challenges. Some fans of the original Portal thought the game was too brief, so to satiate this, Valve included a more fleshed-out storyline with Portal 2 that was met with overwhelming praise. Since 2011, however, there has been no official word on whether a Portal 3 is in development.
Fans Deserve Portal 3
It is clear that Valve has not forgotten about its popular FPS puzzle franchise. After all, it was just last year that Valve announced both Portal and Portal 2 would be making their way to Nintendo Switch consoles, while director J.J. Abrams has also been confirmed to be developing his very own Portal film.
In just the US, FPS games are still among the top gaming genres for PC and console gaming, and it doesn't appear to be decreasing in popularity. Based on this and the ongoing popularity of puzzle games, now would be the perfect time to begin a new Portal with higher-quality graphics that come with a well-funded project in the 2020s.
Portal 3 May Be Out of the Question
It's been argued that the studio has no need to make a Portal 3 because of how many people still play the first two titles. The meme that Valve can't count to three may also do fans dirty here, as the company is notorious for being unwilling to push out a third entry to any of its franchises. As such, the closest fans may get could be the 2021 Portal Reloaded, a community-made mod for Portal 2 that introduces an extra green time-based portal. It can't truly be called a sequel, but certainly adds enough variation and new content to the base game to make it interesting for fans of the original.
In a way that helps keep the Portal spirit alive, this February Valve announced a new game titled Aperture Desk Job, which is set in the same world as Portal. Yet the Steam page warns fans of the Portal franchise to "lower [their] expectations" because it is "not a sequel to Portal," and should be treated as a separate venture.
Apparently, Portal 2 was only created because just seven or eight Valve employees worked on the first project, which left out dozens of others who were itching to help. Perhaps this same idea can be used to jumpstart development on a Portal 3, as one of the co-writers of Portal is hoping a third game will be greenlit. Erik Wolpaw appears to believe there is more to the story that has yet to be told, and is worried that soon he and his coworkers will become too old to work on it.
Still, a Portal 3 should not be ruled out for certain since Valve has released games from earlier franchises over a decade later, as seen with Half-Life: Alyx launching 13 years after Half-Life: Episode 2. It may very well be that the company is simply being tight-lipped on the matter, and when the game is closer to being finished, Valve could share its future Portal plans with the community.