Half-Life 3: Is the Leaked Creative Team Legit?

Valve has been cranking on the Half-Life 3 valve this week. Is it just a lot of steam, or is there really something behind it all?  

Last week Valve announced the Steam Machine and Steam OS. Yesterday we learned that Valve officially registered Half-Life 3 in the EU. Now, another shoe – or headcrab – has dropped. Rock, Paper, Shotgun and PC Gamer both reported that a list found on Jira (something Valve uses internally for project management) “accidentally went public” and contains the names of the creative team for Half-Life 3!  

Before you dust off your crowbar… access to the list has been shut down. And this isn’t the first time this has happened. Back in June PC Gamer reported that ValveTime found HL3 info on Jira. As usual, it’s impossible to verify any of this, but it’s still compelling circumstantial evidence. Some of the names on the list of ten core developers are:

• Lead writer Marc Laidlaw
• Series composer Kelly Bailey (who left Valve in 2011)
• Series designer Steve Bond
• Adam Foster, the creator of Minerva 
• Portal writer Erik Wolpaw
• Counter-Strike’s Jesse Cliffe

There are 46 other names listed in the “Half-Life 3″ group, which raises the total number of devs apparently working on the oft-rumored game to 56.

This is… what exactly? Legit info? More rumor spreading by Valve? “Accidentally” releasing such a highly classified list like this seems fishy, but it wouldn’t be the first time a company accidentally let something slip through the firewalls or got hacked. We do know Valve registered HL3 in the EU. We know they’re releasing a box and OS. They must be working on HL3… right?

As always, keep your expectations in check and take this nugget of knowledge with a big ole grain of salt. Still, tuck it away with the rest of the stuff we’ve heard in the last few weeks, because where there’s smoke there’s usually fire. Stay tuned…