Valve Employee Accidentally Reveals Half-Life 3 Codename During Presentation

During a recent developer panel focused on video game audio, veteran composer Mike Morasky from Valve dropped a surprising mention of two games: Deadlock and “HLX.” The catch? HLX isn’t an officially recognized title but is widely believed by fans to be the internal codename for the long-awaited Half-Life 3. Oops!

On October 21, at GameSoundCon, Valve sound designers David Feise and Carlye Nyte joined Morasky on a panel discussing the sound and music capabilities of Source 2. When asked about the engine’s flexible sound system, Morasky casually remarked:

“And in fact, I think Deadlock has their own version of HDR. You know, HLX has its own version, so on and so forth.”

Unless you’ve been keeping up with Valve’s datamining and leaks over the past few years, you might not recognize HLX, as it hasn’t been officially announced or hinted at by the company. Fans have pieced together information about HLX through years of digging into other Valve titles, speculating that it’s the next mainline entry in the Half-Life series. So, hearing a Valve employee mention “HLX” on stage is quite a revelation.

It seems Morasky wasn’t supposed to let that slip, as right after his comment, Feise could be heard whispering sarcastically, “Nice work.” Whoops! Valve should have anticipated this, considering Morasky has previously hinted at working on multiple Half-Life projects, despite only being officially credited for Half-Life: Alyx in 2020.

At this point, it’s hard to fault Morasky for mentioning HLX. The codename has been circulating online for years, with fans compiling extensive information about the game and its mechanics. Many in the community frequently reference HLX in discussions. It’s easy to see how Morasky might have forgotten that HLX wasn’t meant to be public knowledge.

It’s likely Valve will either brush off this incident or suggest that Morasky was mistakenly referring to Half-Life: Alyx. However, it seems HLX, or Half-Life 3, is far along in development, possibly to the point where Morasky simply forgot it was still under wraps. Reports indicate that as of 2025, HLX is playable from start to finish, suggesting it’s further along than many might think.

Could we see an announcement for Half-Life 3 later this year? All eyes will be on the Game Awards in December, especially since Valve owes Geoff a trailer.