Half-Life 3 Confirmed? Game Not in Development at Valve, According to Mo-Cap Actor; Release Date Far Off

Half-Life 3 has been one of the big mysteries of gaming for quite some time. Fans of the Valve franchise have been waiting years for any sort of confirmed progress in the game's development. However, somebody close to the production of the game has dashed that hope, as John Patrick Lowrie, a voice actor for the series, has announced the game is not close to release.

Lowrie was asked about the development of the game on his blog, and he responded to questions in the comments section by stating that the game is not even in production right now (via NeoGAF):

"Sorry, I'm afraid that the opposite is true. HL3 is not being worked on at this time as far as I know."

Lowrie revealed that one of the issues holding back the game is motion capture work for the characters.

"As far as I know they are not developing HL3 now for several reasons, among them the mo-cap issue. Sorry for any confusion. What they might decide in the future depends on lots of different factors. I hope they do, personally, but it has to make sense for them," wrote Lowrie. 

Lowrie went on to explain why motion capture work is such a huge roadblock for Half-Life 3, as well as why the process is so important for games in general:

"Here is the biggest challenge with bringing out (Half-Life 3): the big thing now with FPSs is motion capture, or mo-cap. One of the great things about HL2 is that all of the characters that you meet actually look at you when they talk to you no matter where you go or stand. With mo-cap you can't do that, at least not yet. Once you film the actor doing something and capture that motion, that's what the character is going to do. This works great in movies, but when you make something interactive it gets way less interactive with mo-cap. So that's one of the things they're working on. Still nothing definitive, but I hope this helps you understand at least one of the reasons why they haven't brought out HL3 yet."

While there have been hints that Valve is perhaps getting ready to kick Half-Life 3 into a more active development cycle, it looks as though the company is working on other projects or just ignoring the game that has already spent several years in limbo.