The short version
- Valve music designer Mike Morasky said "HLX" during a panel at GameSoundCon 2026 in Burbank, California, on October 21.
- HLX is the rumoured codename for the next Half-Life game. Until now it had only come from leakers and people digging through Valve's files.
- Valve has not announced Half-Life 3, and hasn't commented on the clip. There's no confirmed game, date, price or platform.
- The last Half-Life game was Half-Life: Alyx in March 2020, and it only works on a PC VR headset.
What Morasky actually said
Morasky's talk was about how Valve handles game audio, in particular HDR audio. That's a system that decides which sounds matter most in a busy moment and lets them cut through while quieter ones duck out of the way.
While explaining that each Valve game tunes the system differently, he listed a couple of examples. Deadlock has its own version, he said, and "HLX has its own version" too. Then he moved on.
The co-panellist next to him, sound designer David Feise, can be heard saying "nice work" under his breath, which is exactly the reaction you'd expect if someone had just said something they weren't supposed to. The clip spread from the r/HalfLife subreddit, then Valve watcher Tyler McVicker shared it, and VGC wrote it up on October 23.
Image: Zerocade
Why this is different from past rumours
HLX has been floating around for about two years. Here's how it got here:
- 2024: McVicker found the "HLX" name in Valve's files and said it pointed to a regular, non-VR game.
- May 2025: McVicker claimed the game was "playable end-to-end" and being playtested.
- Late 2025 and early 2026: other leakers, including Gabe Follower, kept adding small details, such as hints of gravity-based mechanics.
Every one of those came from outside Valve. Some of those sources have a mixed record, too. McVicker himself said in 2021 that no Half-Life 3 was in development.
Morasky's comment is the first time someone inside Valve has used the name in public. He wasn't announcing anything, and he talked about HLX the same way he talked about Deadlock, a game that's openly in development. On paper, that's the strongest sign yet that HLX is a real, active project rather than an old prototype.
Image: Valve
The long wait, in numbers
Half-Life fans are used to waiting. The gap since Alyx is now over six years, and the gap since the last flat-screen Half-Life, Episode Two in 2007, is nineteen.
Image: Zerocade
Both recent games still hold up well with players. On Steam, Half-Life: Alyx sits at 98% positive across about 62,000 English reviews, with a Metacritic score of 93. Half-Life 2 has 97% positive from over 91,000 reviews and a 96 on Metacritic. So the demand is clearly there. The question has only ever been whether Valve wants to ship one.
How much should you read into it?
A codename in a conference talk is not an announcement. Valve is famous for reshaping and cancelling projects late, and it has never put dates on anything in advance. Its silence here is normal for Valve, so it doesn't tell us much either way.
Our read: a credible hint, not a confirmed game. Things nobody knows yet:
- what HLX actually is (a full Half-Life 3, a smaller game, or something else in the series)
- whether it's VR or not (the leaks say not)
- platforms, which matters now that Valve has the Steam Deck and other hardware to think about
- any release window or price
If you see a "Half-Life 3 release date" anywhere, it's a guess. There's also no India price for something that doesn't officially exist yet.
Catching up meanwhile
If you want to get ready, Half-Life 2 costs $9.99 on Steam in the US, goes on sale often, and since its 2024 anniversary update it includes Episodes One and Two. Half-Life: Alyx is $59.99 in the US, but you'll need a PC VR headset, so check Steam's India price and your hardware before buying.
The next real news, if it comes, will come from Valve itself, most likely through Steam or its own site. Keep an eye there rather than on the next leak.
