The Half Life franchise continues to be a sore subject with fans, an elusive IP that is the constant target of rumors and leaks. Worse yet, it appears that Valve is well aware how much fans want a new game in the franchise and even goes as far as teasing fans about it. While it's still very unclear as what's next for the franchise, a new rumor has begun to makw rthe rounds, once again giving hope to fans still holding out for something from this iconic IP.
This newest Half-Life rumor comes from a user only known as Midoriyan, a person also tied to leaking Valve's Dota Underlords earlier this year as well. The user has also been confirmed by Tyler McVicker of the Valve News Network, so there's that as well. According to snippets Midoriyan obtained, gaming personality Geoff Keighley is interviewing members of Valve like Robin Walker and another unnamed person that is assumed to be Gabe Newell. The biggest piece of this interview is the reveal of a brand new game called Half-Life: Alyx.
As excited, or tired, as fans may be to hear about a potential new Half-Life game, like anything else, there's a catch to this announcement. Half-Life: Alyx is planned to be a VR only experience as the project originally began as an exploration of VR. However, the transcript makes it clear that with a new engine powering the game, Valve is curious to see the reception before it makes further plans about what to do next.
The transcript doesn't make it clear as to when the announcement will be made, though it does reference The Game Awards on December 12 with a full release sometime in March 2020. Regardless, it's worth remembering that this is still just a rumor and should be taken with a grain of salt, as most rumors referencing this franchise should be these days.
For fans who may want something a little more immediate, Valve has also recently updated the original Half-Life 20 years after it first released on PC back in 1999. What's a bit strange about this besides the timing is that the patch addresses what many would consider very minor issues. Things like monitor refresh rates, texture rescaling, missing localizations in spectator UI, and more. Either way, fans still returning to the original title will no doubt enjoy seeing some of the smaller, annoying issues finally fixed.
Half-Life: Alyx is rumored to be launching in March 2020 for VR.