Valve’s allergy to the quantity three continues. Whereas the need for a 3rd Portal recreation may not be fairly as highly effective because the starvation for Half-Life 3 (and even simply Episode 3), the mind-bending puzzle sequence continues to have loads of followers desirous to see it proceed, together with Portal author Erik Wolpaw. Sadly, the probability of one other sequel stays exhausting to gauge.
Wolpaw has advocated for Portal 3 earlier than (opens in new tab), hoping to encourage motion within the firm to which he returned as a part-time contractor again in 2019 after a stint at Double Superb. In December he even revealed that he had a “place to begin” for Portal 3 (opens in new tab), however that this did not imply Valve had dedicated to growing it. 4 months on, evidently not a lot has modified.
In an interview with Simon Parkin on the My Excellent Console podcast (opens in new tab), Wolpaw defined the difficulties in getting the sequel off the bottom. “In a flat construction like Valve, there is a chance price to doing something. No matter is occurring at Valve proper now requires the dedication and participation of the individuals engaged on it—and it is voluntary.”
So there must be sufficient individuals at Valve prepared to work on Portal 3. However within the meantime, Wolpaw goes to maintain pushing for it and—jokingly—giving Valve a tough time. “The individuals who could possibly be disturbed by it internally perceive that it is simply me joking round,” he added.
A supply of frustration for followers is that there have been lengthy durations of time the place Valve hasn’t seemingly been growing the rest, so why not Portal 3? Or Half-Life 3? However Wolpaw defends his employer.
“Valve will not be a large firm. I believe individuals generally suppose it’s due to the outsized affect of Steam, however it’s not likely that many individuals. It takes manpower to maintain Dota going, it takes manpower to maintain CSGO going. And the freeform nature of Valve signifies that there are plenty of experiments that merely fail. So issues are occurring—if you happen to have been inside Valve, you’d suppose that stuff was at all times happening, as a result of it’s.”
And Valve has clearly been busy recently, what with the launch of the Steam Deck and improvement of Counter-Strike 2 (opens in new tab). And there is Steam itself, which stays crucial piece of software program Valve has ever designed or maintained.
“As a lot I benefit from the issues I labored on at Valve and my time at Valve, and it is necessary to me, if I had to decide on between Valve’s video games and Steam—which I really feel is essentially the most democratising know-how that ever got here out, to permit individuals to create video games, recreation creators to really make video games and get them in entrance of individuals—I assume I might select Steam,” stated Wolpaw.
So there’ll at all times be issues competing for consideration at Valve. “It is a manpower drawback,” stated Wolpaw. “It’s a must to choose what you are going to work on and time is restricted.”
