'Half-Life 3' release date news 2016: Valve head Gabe Newell not too optimistic for next installment

The ever elusive question of whether "Half-Life 3" will ever be released remains a big bubble that everyone wants to burst but is unable to.

Every now and then, there would be apparent leaks or some development to be released that would help put fans' hopes up, but in the end it is still a waiting game that people are surprisingly willing to join in.

In reality, the length of time between "Half-Life 2" and the proposed "Half-Life 3" is now more than 10 years, with "Half-Life 2" being released back in 2004. Most would simply be tired of waiting and would go on and move to the next game in hand.

While there are most that have done this, people simply revert back to hoping that there would eventually be the final installment of the game.

There are early talks that the game would be offered in full Virtual Reality, but that also is just mere speculation that has not been confirmed.

And the sad reality is that most of the people who originally worked on the game, like chief writer Marc Laidlaw, are no longer with the game's developer, Valve.

In an interview with The News Independent, Valve head Gabe Newell did not sound too optimistic with the game's return.

"The only reason we'd go back and do like a super classic kind of product is if a whole bunch of people just internally at Valve said they wanted to do it and had a reasonable explanation for why," Newell explained. "But you know if you want to do another 'Half-Life' game and you want to ignore everything we've learned in shipping Portal 2 and in shipping all the updates on the multiplayer side, that seems like a bad choice. So we'll keep moving forward. But that doesn't necessarily always mean what people are worried that it might mean."

While Newell's statement does not sound too optimistic, there are still signs that it may happen as there was no definitive answer of a "no." Thus, for fans of the franchise, there is always that glimmer of hope.