Valve Mysteriously Hid A Message For Half-Life 3 Leakers In Dota 2's Code

If there’s a game that can give Grand Theft Auto VI a run for its money in the hype department it’s Half-Life 3, which has a mythic hold on the gaming community as fans have been waiting over 20 years since the release of Half-Life 2. The anticipation has sent dataminers digging through the codebases of Valve’s other titles to try to find any clues about its potential release, as there have been references to “HLX,” which is thought to be a potential code name for HL3, found in the past.

Well known leaker @gabefollower shared one of their recent findings on the social media platform X, saying that “Valve developers just added a new variable in Dota 2: 'm_bHackWhyAreYouGuysReadingOurVariableNames.' It cheekily shows that the developers know that any bit of code they release is being heavily scrutinized by this community of internet sleuths.


It won’t be getting easier for the developers any time soon, either. With the release of the highly anticipated Steam Machine likely drawing closer, many are expecting Valve to make a surprise announcement of HL3 to coincide with the new hardware to drive sales. So any update, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, to code in its current games is going to be looked over by dataminers for proof that it’s happening.

It’s a shame that datamining has become the norm as a way of leaking upcoming content, especially for games such as Fortnite that are always bringing in new characters through crossover events. It takes away the ability for developers to reveal this information on their own terms, and it robs fans of any excitement that comes along with an official announcement.