Half-Life 2 marks two decades with record-breaking Steam activity

Half-Life 2 marked its two-decade anniversary in style by beating its Steam player count record over the weekend. The game developed by Valve peaked at 64,085 players. The game’s developers also marked the occasion with an anniversary documentary discussing the canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

Half-Life 2 is a shooter game released in November 2004 by Valve Corporation. The game became a commercial success following the steps of its predecessor, Half-Life 1. In celebration of the game’s 20th anniversary, the game’s developers gave gamers an updated version of the game. 

Half-Life 2 marks 20 years with a new record

Valve’s Half-Life 2 celebrated its 20th year on the market with a peak player count of 64,085 over the weekend. The shooter game beat its previous player count record, which was 16,101 players, set in August 2021. The game’s current player count dropped to 29,176, with gamers relieving their nostalgia before the occasion passes.

The game celebrated its anniversary on November 16, with the developers giving gamers an updated release with content to mark the milestone.

Valve announced that the game would be getting a revamp for its 20th anniversary, with its price being free for the weekend on Steam. Valve also added that it had fixed in-game bugs and updated its graphics and console controls ahead of its second release on Steam. The developers added that they had fixed the game’s maps, which were affected by long-standing bugs.

The revamped version released for the anniversary celebration featured Episode One and Episode Two within the base game. 

Gamers were thrilled with the revamped Half-Life 2 game, which also featured a free documentary. Nostalgic gamers thanked the developers for making the game available for free, stating that the game was ahead of its time when it was first released. The inclusion of the workshop was singled out as a revolutionary feature in the new version of the game. Gamers also requested that the studio work on Half-Life 3 and release Half-Life 2 Episode 3.

Developers reminisce on the development of Half-Life 

Valve’s documentary to mark the occasion mainly focused on the studio’s development of the Half-Life games. The developers discussed the ambitious nature of their projects and the practical limitations, such as being hacked in the free documentary.

The devs laid out challenges that limited their commitment to City 17, a dystopian Eastern European-inspired environment. The developers also discussed their inspirations for character design and animation, as well as groundbreaking aspects such as game physics that pushed the bar of game development to where it is.

“There were moments where we looked at the work we’d done and thought, ‘This could’ve been Episode 3.’ But every time we’d shift focus back, something more urgent would come up.”

Ken Birdwell-  founding member of Valve Corporation

Valve’s developers also discussed the cancelation of Half-Life 2: Episode 3. The cancelation was the subject of much discussion among gamers. David Speyre, a dev at Valve, revealed that Episode 3 was canceled due to the studio’s focus on making Left 4 Dead. Speyre stated that Left 4 Dead required an “all-hands-on-deck” approach, resulting in the studio missing out on the opportunity to develop the episode. Spyre added that most of Valve’s developers regret not completing Episode 3, which currently stands as one of the studio’s biggest missed opportunities.