This must be the end of any Left 4 Dead 3 too... I gave up hopes for both months ago. Valve is just a fucked up company and don't care about shit. Its just a matter of time before they sell out to someone else or go under. I will never buy any Valve product again.
valvE doesn't NEED to make games anymore. They created Steam, which is the most popular game delivery system going right now(there IS minor competition from GOG and Origin.... but that's like comparing TNA/Impact and WWE). They are making money hand over fist just selling other companies products.
Half Life 3 will only ever get worked on again *IF* "Virtual Reality" becomes "a thing" other than a fad. How do I know this? Simple: valvE set the standard of "revolutionizing gaming" with both Half Life, and Half Life 2. Both of which premiered an engine that changed gaming as we (then) knew it. Hell, even VR may not be "good enough" of a platform for Half Life 3. I'm thinking full on Holodeck technology. In a way, they painted themselves into a corner. What's worse, is that Half Life 2 was never "resolved". There was a cliff hanger at the end of Episode 2, with absolutely NO explanation of how the story wraps up. With Half Life, you at least had the story "finished" when Gordon(the player) was given the choice to either accept employment from the G-Man, or not. Half Life 2 went with the assumption that Gordon(the player) accepted, and went into stasis.
Unless they go with Half Life 2:Episode 1 and 2 being nullified(not having happened...which would piss off a fuck ton of gamers), the story wasn't finished. As I understand it, HL2:Episode 3 is pretty much done, just never released for whatever reason.
In a way, it's quite a shame. valvE is sitting on one of the hottest gaming properties ever, yet their collective ego won't let them do anything WITH it. At this point, all of the writers of Half Life have left valvE. Of course, what they've already written is still in valvE's possession.... so they COULD use it, but they just won't. They have no motivation to, and in their eyes, everything to lose. Half Life 3 will never live up to expectations(revolutionizing gaming AGAIN), so it will never be anything but vaporware.