Valve needs to make Portal 3 soon, writer says

Portal co-writer Erik Wolpaw has called for Valve to put a third game in production soon - before the original development team becomes too old to return.

"I am not getting any younger," Wolpaw told KiwiTalkz (thanks, Kotaku). "We are reaching the point where it's crazy to think [the original development team is] literally going to be too old to work on Portal 3, so we should just do it."

Unfortunately, Wolpaw acknowledged the business considerations of Valve focusing a chunk of its workforce on a Portal 3 - especially when the company had the money-printing Steam and hugely successful Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to run instead.

"The problem is with 300 employees... and I don't know exactly the breakdown [between] the production side versus the Steam business side versus legal... there's a lot of opportunity cost to taking 75 people and trying to get a game made," Wolpaw said.

"As much as it seems like Valve often is just a bunch of people sitting around sipping gin and tonic, everyone's working."

"[Is Portal 3] going to make Counter-Strike GO money? Probably not," Wolpaw continued. "But... maybe not every game needs to make Counter-Strike: GO money. Gabe, if you're listening..."

The original Portal arrived 15 years ago, in 2007, and became an instant classic for its cerebral first-person puzzle solving. Portal's critically-acclaimed sequel, which added Stephen Merchant's Wheatley robot and campaign co-op, arrived in 2011. Despite various spin-offs, a decade has come and gone without a third entry.

Wolpaw is currently a freelance writer, though has returned to work on related Valve projects such as Half-Life Alyx and Aperture Desk Job. When it comes to Portal 3, Wolpaw said he would volunteer to work on it "in a second".

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