Crystal ball: The hype surrounding the possibility of Valve putting the finishing touches on Half-Life 3 reached a peak last year before dying down. However, a new set of data mining results and comments from Valve this week have reignited anticipation. While it remains unclear what exactly the company is working on, it appears to be completely different than its current stable of live service games.
Valve hasn’t revealed any major details about a new Half-Life project since the release of Half-Life: Alyx in 2020, but a brief mention of names has reignited the debate about whether Half-Life 3 is in advanced development. Code recently added to Deadlock and other Valve games also sheds more light on the game’s features, if it actually exists.
The codename HLX has appeared in the company’s code since early 2024, but Valve only mentioned it publicly in a question-and-answer session at GameSoundCon 2026 on Wednesday. Composer and sound designer Mike Morasky confirmed that Deadlock and HLX each have custom HDR implementations.
— Tyler “Hype Merchant” McVicker (@Tyler_McV) October 22, 2026
Fellow sound designer David Feise, sitting next to him, whispered “good job” and later joked that Morasky had only said HLX once, suggesting the mention wasn’t meant to be public. This isn’t the first time Morasky has referenced future Half-Life projects.
Then on Thursday, well-known Valve data miner Tyler McVicker released his latest video detailing how the recent Source 2 engine updates for Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Deadlock could affect HLX.
Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2 and Deadlock are multiplayer games, but several reports from McVicker over the last year have described parts of the code that mentioned systems typically associated with single-player shooters, such as AI-controlled enemies and concepts from previous Half-Life games.
Other features unique to HLX include procedural level change, ray tracing, and AMD FSR support. In this week’s video, McVicker also described features related to the Combine gunship and other enemies, as well as dynamic rain sound and new cutscene animation technology.
The data miner also tracked Valve’s commit rate, which skyrocketed following recent Source 2 updates. While some observers might suspect that AI coding tools are behind the uptick, previous reports lead McVicker to suggest that the company has been using AI tools since at least 2024. The nature and extent of AI usage within Valve remains unclear, but it’s possible that HLX or something else is behind the increased activity.
