gabenewellreddit
Valve boss Gabe Newell takes a selfie for his last Reddit AMA in January.

Gamers with interest in a potential new Half Life game are advised to have Internet access at 2 p.m. PT today.

Valve CEO Gabe Newell just confirmed with us via email that he’ll be making some type of announcement at that time. Whether or not it has to do with a highly-anticipated Half Life sequel is up in the air.

Newell had actually planned to participate in a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) thread on Monday after promising to do so once a charity he’s involved with raised $500,000.

But after a series of odd events, the AMA never happened. According to Reddit, Newell posted a note about his AMA too early on Monday, which broke AMA community rules. Reddit moderators then locked his thread to disallow comments so that only his comment and proof photo — which was actually taken for his last AMA in January — were visible.

But then, mysteriously, Newell never showed up for his 1 p.m. scheduled AMA. Many wondered if it was really Newell himself in the first place and a few disappointed Redditors reached out to Newell about his absence.

Newell actually responded to a few of those emails with: “Tomorrow, the 4th, 2:00 PST.”

The Valve CEO this morning confirmed the legitimacy of those emails and chances are he’ll conduct the AMA at 2 p.m. today. It’s possible he could also use another means to announce something, but regardless, we’ll hear from him this afternoon.

Thousands of Half Life fans are certainly hoping for news of a Half Life sequel, especially since many thought Newell planned to say something about the potential Half Life 3 game on Monday (the date was 3/3).

Valve announced plans for a Half-Life 2: Episode 3 title back in 2006, but has been mum ever since. Many believe the Bellevue-based game maker has been working on a full Half Life 3 sequel, however, details have been scarce.

More recently, Valve is pushing ahead with its plan to upend the gaming industry with a Linux-based Steam Machine, optimized for the company’s dominant Steam computer gaming platform.

Update, 1:55 p.m. PT: Newell wasn’t lying. He’s logged into the AMA and is joined by four Valve colleagues. Here’s the link, and here’s the new picture Newell posted to prove it’s actually him:

gabe

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