‘Half-Life 3’ Trademark A Hoax
The Half-Life 3 trademark reportedly filed by Valve earlier this week is apparently a hoax.
According to ValveTime, the Half-Life 3 trademark filed on September 29 was removed from the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) website, leading VT to believe that the listing was a hoax intended to generate buzz about the game. The trademark was not officially checked or authenticated by the OHIM before it was removed from the website.
A trademark for Portal 3 appeared on the same site on October 2 under the trademark number 012190286. Unlike with Half-Life 3, the Portal 3 trademark was examined by the OHIM. However, there is currently no Portal 3 development team in place at Valve.
It’s been almost a decade since Valve released Half-Life 2, and fans have been eagerly awaiting a third installment. Valve followed up the sequel with Half Life: Episode One and Episode Two in 2006 and 2007, but the company has yet to officially announce a new game.
However, after Valve’s Jira database briefly became open to the public after a security breach, a screenshot obtained by The Mirror showed a listing for Half-Life 3 and Half-Life 3 Core. Many of the 46 people listed in the Half-Life 3 group worked on Half-Life 2, including Adam Foster, Kelly Bailey, David Speyrer, Jeff Lane, and Jim Hughes. The validity of the screenshot has yet to be confirmed, and Valve has yet to confirm or deny Half-Life 3.
The company has, however, revealed specs for its Steam Machine prototype. Valve will ship the prototype to 300 users this year as part of a limited hardware testing program, according to Gamespot. The company described Steam Machine as “something special” and said that it is fully upgradeable, meaning users can swap the CPU, GPU, or hard drive if they want to.
“To be clear, this design is not meant to serve the needs of all of the tens of millions of Steam users, Valve said. “It may, however, be the kind of machine that a significant percentage of Steam users would actually want to purchase–those who want plenty of performance in a high-end living room package.”
