Given the enormous success of the originalPortalgame and its 2011 follow-up, many fans have been anticipating a third game in Valve’s comedic puzzle series, but one of the franchise’s main writers explains why a new installment may not happen. DespitePortalbeing a rather short sci-fi game, with most players being able to finish it in a couple of hours, it left quite the impact on the industry, with its mind-bending mechanics and humorous writing.
Although there’s been nothing new from the series, apart from some fan projects and mods,Portaldid receive an RTX upgradetowards the latter parts of 2022. This update gave the celebrated puzzle game a visual boost, supporting Nvidia’s proprietary ray tracing technology. While this new edition of the 16-year-old Valve release did ask for players to have some rather beefy PC hardware to go with it, even asking for an Nvidia RTX 4080 graphics card, it did at least putPortalback into the limelight for a brief period. However, that seems to be about as much as the developer is willing to give.
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According to the latest episode of the My Perfect Console podcast, a new entry in thePortalseries is likely to be a challenge. Around the 4:30 mark of the episode, host Simon Parkin asks Erik Wolpaw, one of the head writers who worked on bothPortalgames, why Valve can’t just start making a third game. Wolpaw responds by saying it’s to do with the company’s “flat structure,” in which projects at the studio are voluntary, which means there needs to be enough people interested in a game to warrant development on it. The writer goes on to say that he would like to make aPortal 3, but says that his discussing it is just him joking around with the people who work at Valve, and he doesn’t wish to cause internal conflict by pressuring the company to make a third entry.
It’s not justPortalthat struggles to get a new game off the ground. Wolpaw has spoken in the past aboutwhy Valve doesn’t do threequels, saying that once a project is finished, some will want to look back at it to see what things can be fixed for a sequel. However, once a second game comes out, many will feel that there’s not much else that can be done to improve on a particular IP, so game number three doesn’t see the light of day.
It is a bit of a blow to many fans who are always hoping for a newHalf-Life,Left 4 DeadorPortalinstallment. Despite its reputation for some celebrated titles,Valve rarely makes video gamesthese days, save for the VR releaseHalf-Life: Alyxand 2022’sAperture Desk Job, which was more of a tech demo for the Steam Deck than a full game.
