'Half-Life 3' release date, news, rumors: Valve to make big announcement next year

A promotional image for "Half-Life 2"Facebook/Half-Life2

Steam Devs Day this year focused almost entirely on hardware. However, executives at Valve have confirmed that they will be making announcements concerning software sometime next year, and this has fans speculating that they will finally be unveiling "Half-Life 3" and that the much-awaited game might be VR compatible.

According to a report from PC GamesN, Valve's Greg Coomer stated that they still have some big announcements to make, and fans won't be disappointed. He also explained that during next year's announcement they would focus on the content they have been working on for platforms like Steam VR.

He explained: "Although we're not going to treat Dev Days this year as the place or the time to make big product announcements related to the content that we have in development at Valve for virtual reality, I do think that once it becomes time to do that next year, nobody in this room is going to be disappointed."

Valve has yet to confirm if "Half-Life 3" or "Half-Life VR" are indeed in development, although there have been leaks in the past, suggesting that the project has been brewing for some time now. It is possible that the game is one of the big content that Valve will announce for Steam VR in 2017.

If this proves true then fans can expect "Half-Life 3" to launch no earlier than 2018, given that the announcement is not coming until 2017. Steam VR is also undergoing refinement and further development, so the game will have to wait until the hardware has been completed before it can be finalized.

Although Steam VR launched with the HTC Vive last April, there have been very few AAA games to truly push it to its boundaries. "Half-Life 3" or "Left 4 Dead 3," another long-awaited Valve game, might be the titles that will help push the VR platform into commercial success.