Valve Tried to Reinvent Episodic Games 20 Years Ago; Instead, Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Collapsed From Within

I remember when Gabe Newell at Valve announced plans for three smaller episodes to follow Half-Life 2 back in 2006! It was all about avoiding another huge wait like the six years we had between the first Half-Life and its sequel. That wait was killer, and Valve really didn’t want to put fans through that again. The idea was to release these smaller installments every six to eight months, which would make development smoother and still keep the quality of the Half-Life series high. They wanted to keep things moving and keep us happy!