We’re not entirely sure what it means in terms of when Half-Life 3 will actually surface, but Valve Software has filed for a Half-Life 3 trademark so there’s at the very least SOMETHING happening behind the scenes. This is according to a forum post on NEOGAF in which poster shinobi602 pasted a screen capture of the detailed Half-Life 3 trademark information filed by Valve Software for “Computer game software; Electronic game software; Downloadable computer game software via a global computer network and wireless devices; Video game software.”
Interestingly, gaming website Polygon reports that the trademark application has been filed with the “Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market, the European Union’s trademark and designs registry”, and that “There is no equivalent trademark on record at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.”
Valve has been very quiet about the game, leading to a great many Half-Life 3-themed memes appearing on the internet, mostly along the lines of “Gabe said “the”, there are 3 letters in “the”, therefore Half-Life 3″. There have also been a handful of open letters to Valve begging for information on the game coming from groups created on Steam to convince Valve to say something, so this latest news is balm for the souls of gamers anxious for something concrete.
There is still no official word from Valve on the matter, however, despite this new development. It’s also unclear whether this is a first-time filing or whether Valve is not simply protecting the name (or renewing an existing application). We’ll just have to wait for someone from the company to make an official public statement about it; until then, the internet will just have to keep going nuts over the lack of news on the game.
Image credit: Quickmeme.
