Portal 3 talk was just a joke says original writer

Portal 2 - it all ends well for Chell — Portal 2 there’s probably not going to be another one (pic: Valve)

Hopes that Valve might finally make a Portal 3 have been dashed, at least in terms of the original writer being involved.

Portal 2 in 2011 was the last traditional console game that Valve ever made. Everything since has been online-only PC games, tech demos, and VR games, despite Valve once being known as one of the best game developers in the industry.

Since the announcement of Counter Strike 2 there had been hopes they could return to making more games, with rumours of Left 4 Dead 3 and even Portal 3, but while Left 4 Dead 3 still seems a strong possibility a new Portal is now less likely.

Back in 2022, writer Erik Wolpaw said that if it was up to him a new sequel would be in development right now, but he’s admitted that was meant as a ‘joke’ and that as far as he knows there is no Portal 3.

Recent talk of a secret new ‘ambitious’ Valve game had raised hopes that it could be Portal 3, but unless it has nothing to do with Wolpaw, and Valve is purposefully not telling him about it, that’s not the case.

‘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 c**p,’ he said on the My Perfect Console podcast.

He then worried that he was causing Valve ‘internal strife’ by making the suggestion and pointed out that Valve was actually a much smaller company, in terms of staff, than many people realised.

‘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,’ said Wolpaw. ‘So things are happening. If you were inside Valve, you would think that stuff was always going on, because it is.’

Wolpaw did work on Half-Life: Alyx but only as a part-time contractor. That suggests that Vale would call upon his services if they did make a new Portal game, but at the moment nothing seems to be happening on that front.