Portal and Portal 2 writer Erik Wolpaw has said he wants Valve to start working on a third game in the series, with the last releasing in 2011.
Speaking on the Kiwi Talkz podcast (thanks, VGC) on April 16, Wolpaw said: “We’ve gotta start Portal 3. That’s my message to… to whoever.”
Wolpaw worked on many other popular video games as either a writer or co-writer, including Half-Life 2: Episode One and Two, the original Psychonauts, Left 4 Dead, Half-Life: Alyx, and the recently released Aperture Desk Job.
“I am not getting any younger,” he added, “we are reaching the point where it’s crazy to think [that we’re] literally going to be too old to work on Portal 3, so we should just do it.”
Unfortunately, it looks to be easier said than done. When asked whether he would like to work on a third game, Wolpaw said: “Oh yeah, I would love to. I’d work on another Portal in a second, but I can’t make it happen by myself.”
According to Wolpaw the problem is that Valve has “300 employees and I don’t know exactly the breakdown – how many of them are on the production side versus Steam business side versus legal versus whatever.
“So there’s a lot of opportunity cost to taking 75 people and trying to get a game made. As much as it seems like Valve often [is] just a bunch of people sitting around sipping gin and tonics by a pool, everybody’s working.”
Wolpaw then went on to explain that profitability is probably the core reason why Portal 3 has never been made, and may never be.
“The problem is, you would make money, but what kind of money will you make? Are you gonna make Counter-Strike: Global Offensive money? Probably not. But having said that, maybe every game doesn’t need to make CS:GO money, you know, Gabe, if you’re listening.”
In other news, there’s a Sonic The Hedgehog version of Heardle, made by a fan.