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Comment by michelb | Hacker News Reader

I'd say not capitalising on one of their greatest games is another huge failure as well..(HL3)

Not to defend them at all, but the longer it took to plan HL3, the longer it became a sounder business decision to just not do it for risk of not living up to the hype.

You could say that about anything though.

Depends on how much you have to lose. Valve has a lot, and what they could win is a drop in the ocean next to "the steam tax". The icing on the cake is that there is value for them in competing less with those who publish on steam.

I don't buy that they can't figure out how to make a game that's at least as compelling as its predecessor.

Duke Nukem Forever is one example of this.

But Black Mesa is a counterexample; they still haven't released Xen last time I checked, but everything they have released far exceeds expectations. Maybe Valve should pay that group to finish the HL series.

The first three maps of Black Mesa: Xen were just released a few weeks ago, actually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzR3vllw6O0

HL3 would have brought attention for sure but you are selling dota a bit short here. Personally I bought in day 1 to artifact based solely on how much I love dota. I have spent hundreds on dota cosmetics, battle passes, etc. Artifact failed because the game just was not fun to play at all. If the pricing scheme was the issue people still would pay money for a game they can't get enough of.

Might be because valve didn't invent dota, it was a warcraft 3 custom game that they basically ported. Game design might not be in their blood.

The longer they spent since last HL2 episode the more DNF the case became, and after few years it was certainly better to not make HL3 because it would fail horribly.

Them getting crushed by this is poetic justice of sorts.

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