Fans Think Valve Is Preparing The Half-Life 3 Announcement For November 18

Half-Life 3 announcement talk has reignited after a detailed theory from the Half-Life community suggested Valve may finally unveil the long-awaited sequel on November 18. The speculation stems from the Steam event calendar, which shows an unusually large gap between scheduled events, mirroring how Valve previously handled major reveals like Half-Life: Alyx.

The discussion gained traction after Valve reporter Tyler McVicker claimed a Half-Life 3 trailer was in production and possibly set to release in November. With the month now underway, fans have been parsing every piece of Valve’s schedule for clues. Reddit user u/sameseksure proposed that the absence of Steam events between November 18 and December 8 could signal Valve’s intention to make the announcement then.

“Valve uses the top banner on the front page of the Steam Store whenever they want to promote a Steam Sale, Steam Event, or new products like games or hardware,” the user explained. “Therefore, they will not announce anything at the same time as major Steam Events are happening.” — u/sameseksure

That observation drew parallels to November 2019, when Valve announced Half-Life: Alyx on the exact same date, November 18, using the front-page banner to push the reveal. The similarity in timing has convinced many fans that the pattern could repeat, especially given the conspicuous silence around Steam’s calendar this season.

Steam Event Schedule:

• Animal Fest — November 10–17
• Sports Fest — December 8–15
• Winter Sale — December 18–January 5

The three-week gap between Animal Fest and Sports Fest is central to the fan theory. It’s the only period free from Steam’s promotional clutter, giving Valve a clean stage for a major announcement. SteamDB listings support this timeline, showing no other events occupying the storefront window in that slot.

Compounding the theory is the fact that Valve quietly moved its Autumn Sale from its traditional November slot to September, breaking a long-standing pattern. Many interpret the move as Valve clearing the schedule to make space for something bigger. While Valve’s official explanation was that the sale was moved to avoid overlapping with Black Friday, the timing continues to fuel speculation.

There’s additional context in recent leaks pointing to an internal project codenamed HLX, described as a full-scale Half-Life title now “playable end-to-end.” This aligns with reports suggesting that the game has entered its polishing phase, making a reveal plausible before the end of 2025. Voice actor Mike Shapiro, who plays G-Man, has also teased “unexpected surprises” for next year — a comment that many now associate with a potential reveal.

The theory’s credibility lies in how it connects these small, verifiable shifts in Valve’s schedule with past precedent. The company’s marketing cadence has always been deliberate: Half-Life: Alyx was revealed on a quiet November day, away from competing events, with a front-page Steam banner that doubled as a marketing launchpad for the Valve Index. A similar playbook would make sense if the company were preparing to showcase Half-Life 3 or its rumored codename variant, Deckard.

Valve’s communications remain opaque. The studio has not addressed the speculation, nor has it hinted at any upcoming reveals. Its last major public-facing event was the Steam Deck OLED announcement, and before that, updates to Counter-Strike 2. That silence has historically been the norm before major moves — and also the reason the Half-Life community has spent years oscillating between cautious optimism and resignation.

If the speculation proves correct, the November 18 date would carry symbolic weight beyond simple scheduling. It would mark exactly six years since Half-Life: Alyx’s reveal and almost two decades since Half-Life 2’s release in November 2004 — a symmetry that would not be lost on fans or on Valve’s marketing team.

Still, every major Half-Life rumor has ended in anticlimax, and the community knows it. The difference this time is how grounded the evidence appears: datamined event windows, historical scheduling logic, and credible insider claims that the project exists in a complete, testable state. Whether that will translate into an imminent reveal remains unknown.

Even so, the signs point toward movement. For a series that defined an era of PC gaming, even a trailer would mark the most significant moment in Valve’s history since Alyx. The countdown is on, and all eyes are on November 18 — a date that could finally break two decades of waiting or simply add one more layer to the myth of “Half-Life 3 confirmed.”

Read also, Half-Life modder and YouTuber Goonya’s Animations recently recreated a Half-Life 2 map inside the older GoldSrc engine, making it run smoothly on a 2002 laptop while keeping nearly identical visuals. The project, shown in the video This is GoldSrc, demonstrates how much fidelity the decades-old engine can still achieve when handled with precision and restraint.