More than a decade has passed since the release of "Half-Life 2," yet loyal fans refuse to give up hope on the release of "Half-Life 3." While Valve Corporation has not made any official announcements, reports suggest that the third installment in the massively popular "Half-Life" franchise might be released as a full VR game title in 2018.

Game insiders anticipate an announcement to take place during the E3 trade show in 2017. Also, given Valve's partnership with HTC and their collaboration with the HTC Vive VR headset, there is reason to believe that Valve may also want to start developing VR-compatible game titles based on their most popular franchises. Unfortunately, these reports have not been confirmed by Valve.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are also many who believe that "Half-Life 3" may never arrive. This is because too much time has passed and Valve seems to be preoccupied with other more profitable ventures like Steam. This belief was also strengthened when departures of certain team members were announced.

Earlier this year, "Half-Life" writer Marc Laidlaw confirmed that he had resigned from Valve after 18 years. Sometime later, it was also reported that "Half-Life" animator Doug Wood had retired. Without the input of these original members, Valve may not likely proceed with development for the third installment.

Back in 2014, Valve co-founder and CEO Gabe Newell also shed light on why they have not released "Half-Life 3." Newell told The Washington Post that while "Half-Life 3" may be highly anticipated, customer trends are actually veering away from those kinds of games. Rather, there is a significant shift toward social multi-player game experiences.

"When we started out we were a singl-player video game company that could have been really successful just doing Half-Life sequel after Half-Life sequel, but we collectively said let's try to make multi-player games," Newell revealed.

Despite the impressive design of "Half-Life," Valve feels more inclined to just follow where customers are leading them.

If the customers continue to voice out their desire for "Half-Life 3," could Valve then decide to release it? They could also overhaul the game to feature a more social game experience that has proven to be most successful in the past couple of years.