Geoff Keighley posted a shiny sci-fi portal and the internet immediately yelled 'Half-Life 3'. Of course it did. For about three hours, anyway.
What set everyone off
On November 21, Keighley shared an image on X: a glowing ring-portal thing staged with The Game Awards statues. Within minutes, timelines decided Valve was finally dropping Half-Life 3 at this year’s show on December 11. Some folks said the structure looked like the Anti-Mass Spectrometer from the original Half-Life. Others pushed back, pointing out it does not resemble any piece of gear Valve has ever designed.
Then reality tapped the brakes. Roughly three hours later, Keighley replied to his own post and clarified the whole deal: that portal is inside a Fortnite Creative Island built for The Game Awards, where players can hop in and vote on nominees. No Half-Life 3. No Valve involvement. Just a pre-show promo space that got wildly over-interpreted by people desperate for Gordon Freeman news.
We have seen this rerun
Keighley knows exactly how to light up the feeds. He tosses out cryptic visuals without context, fans build theories at sprint speed, and by the time Reddit threads start diagramming pixels, the hype is doing the marketing for him. He pulls some version of this every year: vague clips, screenshots, even selfies that get dissected frame by frame. Sometimes a tease actually connects. Plenty of times it doesn’t. Either way, the engagement machine has already paid off.
And for what it is worth: this new portal looks more 'generic sci-fi ring' than 'Black Mesa hardware'. If you have even a casual relationship with Half-Life, the connection is a stretch.
Could The Game Awards 2025 actually be the Half-Life 3 moment?
In theory? Sure. That is why the rumor engine keeps spinning. Fans keep pointing to:
- Valve showing fresh hardware lately, including a revamped Steam Machine
- G-Man voice actor Mike Shapiro posting cryptic hints earlier this year
- Datamines that suggest something Half-Life-adjacent is actively in the works
Sounds like stars aligning… until you remember how Valve operates. They run on their own clock and almost never time reveals to big public ceremonies. Case in point: Half-Life: Alyx was unveiled in 2019 with a surprise post after leaks pushed them, not on a show stage.
'Nothing ever happens, it is going to be some fortnite thing'
That line made the rounds yesterday and, yeah, it landed pretty squarely.
The safe bet
Expecting Valve to hand The Game Awards a world premiere just does not track. They control their storefront, their audience, and the headlines whenever they feel like nudging them. They do not need somebody else’s stage.
Most people are in the 'believe it when we see it' phase after years of false alarms. Every few months brings new tea leaves; every few months they dissolve. That loop probably continues until Valve speaks for real. Or the sun explodes. Whichever shows up first.
Would Valve ever use The Game Awards to announce Half-Life 3, or will they keep dropping news when no one is looking? Tell me where you land in the comments.