Portal series co-writer Erik Wolpaw seems to have a history with joking about making Portal 3. Alongside Half-Life 3, a third Portal game has become something of a meme in the gaming community and Wolpaw has embraced that joke in several public interviews. However, the writer has now admitted to joking about Portal 3 being made at Valve, shooting down any previous rumours about its development.
Speaking on the latest episode of Simon Parkin’s My Perfect Console podcast, Wolpaw admitted to joking about making Portal 3. The writer added that he doesn’t want to cause any strife at Valve with his remarks or mislead fans into thinking there might actually be something in the works. “It is a joke,” said Wolpaw. “But the real reason is that in a flat structure like Valve, there is an opportunity cost to doing anything. And whatever is going on at Valve right now requires the dedication and participation of the people working on it, and it’s voluntary.”
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Wolpaw continued by stating that he jokes about making Portal 3 because hopefully it would give Valve some incentive to actually develop the long-requested sequel, though he also teased that nothing seems to be in the works at Valve regarding a new Portal title right now:
“So to some extent, I would like to make a Portal 3 but I understand that – other than the fact that I’m largely joking when I say it, just to give Valve and the people I work with some crap – it is to really go out and advocate for something like that, could it be destructive, just in the sense that you don’t want to cause internal strife? Which I guess I am doing, but I think the people who could be disturbed by it internally understand that it’s just me joking around.”
Wolpaw addressed the general belief that Valve is a massive company but that’s not the case. In fact, Valve is still relatively small compared to bigger gaming companies and most of the team’s efforts are already in maintaining projects like Dota, CS: GO and Steam:
“The thing is, Valve is not a giant company. I think people sometimes think it is because of the outsize influence of Steam, but it’s not really that many people. It takes manpower to keep Dota going, it takes manpower to keep CS:GO going, and the freeform nature of Valve means that there are a lot of experiments that simply fail. So things are happening. If you were inside Valve, you would think that stuff was always going on, because it is.”
Wolpaw concluded by stating that he would rather choose to work on Steam than anything internal at Valve. That doesn’t rule out the possibility of a Portal 3 happening anytime soon, though given the company’s limited resources, it sounds like it may have its hands full with other projects.
In related news, fans discovered that some Valve employees were working on an unannounced puzzle game which led many to believe that it’s Portal 3, though in light of Wolpaw’s comments, anything is possible at the moment.
Source: My Perfect Console Podcast
