Half-Life 3's long-rumored codename, HLX, gets officially mentioned by a Valve employee, revamping the conversation around Valve's new title in the Half-Life universe. Here is all we know about the mysterious HLX project.

GameSoundCon HLX Slip

During a recent Q&A panel at GameSoundCon, a conference for video game audio, Mike Morasky, a music designer at Valve, was talking about the sound systems in their games. He said they had HDR audio setups that could be easily optimized and mentioned that Deadlock, for instance, had its own HDR, and so did HLX. 

And once this abbreviation flew out of his mouth, Morasky's voice instantly became weaker, and he rushed to wrap up the speech by saying, "and so on and so forth." Leak expert Tyler McVicker, who we mentioned at the beginning of our recap, immediately posted the fragment of the recording with Morasky's HLX mention on Twitter, adding that "the guy next to Mike says 'nice work' under his breath."

With these two details in mind, it seems impossible to think of it as anything other than an accidental reveal of Half-Life 3 from a Valve employee. We can't be sure, however, that it's the third installment in the series and not an entirely different project. One thing is clear, though: HLX, whatever the abbreviation means, is currently in the works. 

If you want to see how the HLX anticipation has been growing over time, here is a quick recap of what we've heard, seen, and read about the game before.

The Recap

It all started in 2024, when YouTuber Tyler McVicker mentioned some data-mined information about Valve's alleged Half-Life project titled HLX. Back then, he stated it was a new, separate, non-VR Half-Life title that, he suggested, was close to completion based on the files he got to see.

Prominent Valve data miner and game leak reporter Gabe Follower added to the raging fire of Half-Life fans' HLX craze later that year. In his video on possible HLX developments, he said that it looked like Valve's new game would feature "procedural mechanics, dynamic weather, improved gravity manipulation, revamped physics," and more. 

In 2025, everyone gasped in excitement as Concept Artist Evgeniy Evstratiy, who mainly worked on Deadlock, mentioned Half-Life 3 in the CG Voices podcast. He stated that he was in the room where Valve was working on the third installment in the series, although he didn't catch a glimpse of the actual development process and only saw computers and whiteboards.

Later that year, in November, Google searches for Half-Life 3 skyrocketed as fans were eagerly waiting for the official Half-Life 3 announcement. They believed it would happen that month because things were lining up suspiciously neatly: Valve had just announced a new hardware lineup, Half-Life 2 had just celebrated its 21st birthday, Valve listed a hidden game in its "Upcoming Releases" tab on Steam, and more.

In December, a new Half-Life experience was finally announced, except it wasn't Half-Life 3 – it was Meet Half-Life: Element 64, a fan-made mod created by the Dark Vector team. It's a reimagining of the original 1998 game that is still in the works, with no release date set by the developers.

Just as players shook their heads in disappointment, Gabe Follower came back with some new information about HLX in February 2026. This time, the details were much less vague, and Follower mentioned that the game would feature gravitational anomalies, where gravity no longer pulls objects in one direction but can be tied to a point, and mood systems for NPCs among everything else.

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