14 DAY TRIAL // Valve caused a stir recently after revealing to the public its manual for new employees, but the leader of the company also provided excitement for the fan base by commenting on Ricochet 2, a game that the company never plans to actually develop.
Gabe Newell talked to the Seven Day Cooldown podcast and was apparently referring to Ricochet 2, but those who closely follow Valve understood his comments to actually be about Half-Life 3.
The company boss stated, “We end up changing our minds as we’re going through and developing stuff, so as we’re thinking through the giant story arc which is Ricochet 2, you might get to a point where you’re saying something is surprising us in a positive way and something is surprising us in a negative way, and, you know, we’d like to be super-transparent about the future of Ricochet 2.”
He added, “The problem is, we think that the twists and turns that we’re going through would probably drive people more crazy than just being silent about it, until we can be very crisp about what’s happening next.”
Ricochet was a multiplayer mode that Valve published for Half-Life and it is highly unlikely that it would get a real sequel, unless the company actually launches Half-Life 3 and then creates a modding community for it.
Fans have long been asking Valve to offer official information on Half-Life 3 and several petitions have strung up, some gathering serious support from gamers.
Developer Valve is known for its long development process for its big franchises and for keeping its big titles a secret until shortly before the actual launch.
This is a product of a very different internal culture, one which emphasizes employee freedom and encourages people to work on whatever projects they are actually interested in.
At the moment Valve is getting ready to launch Dota 2 during this year.