What do we get first, a third half-life or a new one portal? Knowing Valve’s history most likely doesn’t either, but that didn’t stop a craftsman who worked for the studio from making a strong plea for gate 3.
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Screenwriter Erik Wolpaw, who worked primarily on the first two portals, advocated a third part of the cult franchise during a visit to the Kiwi Talkz podcast and asked Valve to start the project without wasting any time.
“We have to start [le travail sur] Portal 3. This is my message to… everyone,” Wolpaw said at the end of his chat with host Reece Reilly, as VGC discovered.
The screenwriter argued that it’s “not getting any younger,” arguing that the American company should simply greenlight the project before the franchise’s original team stops working on the game.
“We’re getting close to the point where – crazy to say – [nous] We will literally be too old to work on Portal 3. So we should just do it.”
Easier said than done
Certainly not, because one of the pillars of Portal is proclaiming loud and clear that it wants to breathe life into a third component and that Valve will throw both feet into the adventure. And Erik Wolpaw is aware of that.
“I’d be working on another portal in time to say, but I can’t do it myself,” he conceded.
Wolpaw, who also worked on Psychonauts, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life: Alyx, pointed out that Valve has around 300 employees and that several of them work on Steam or other projects. According to him, the company may not immediately have the resources to start developing a game like Portal 3.
“There’s definitely an opportunity cost to taking 75 people and trying to make a game. As much as it often feels like Valve is just a bunch of people drinking gin and tonics around a pool, everyone is working,” he said.
“They work all the time, but you don’t always see it [résultat]. It doesn’t always come out at the end or it comes out years later. It turned into something else. So everyone’s busy, I guess I’m trying to say that. People are all doing something,” he emphasized.
Wolpaw also pointed out that despite fan appetite for the franchise, Portal 3 probably won’t make as much money as Valve’s biggest guns, like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
“That being said, maybe not every game needs to make as much money as Counter-Strike: GO, you know, Gabe, if you’re listening,” joked the screenwriter for Valve’s founder and big boss, Gabe Newell.
Whether Portal 3 sees the light of day or not, the franchise will come to Nintendo Switch later this year with Portal: Companion Collection, which will include the first two installments in the iconic series.
And who knows, maybe the success of this port will encourage Valve to work on new adventures… In any case, it might be more likely than Half-Life 3 already!