'Portal 2', 'Half-Life 2' Writer Returns to Valve

Portal 2, Half-Life 2 writer Erik Wolpaw left Valve back in 2017, but it looks like he couldn't stay away because he has left his position with Double Fine to join the PC powerhouse company once again. This also makes the second major Portal writer to make a grand return following Jay Pinkerton's re-entrance back in July of 2018.

One keen-eyed Redditor noticed that Wolpaw's name appeared in Artifact's credits, the latest title from the team over at Valve. Reddit user 'Trenchman' then reached out to Gabe Newell himself who actually responded by confirming that Wolpaw is back with the company officially.

A notable Valve-centric YouTube channel called the Valve News Network also seemed to confirm that the email was not faked, which makes this pretty interesting to see what could be in the works for the team now that they've made the promise of "returning to games."

Following their departure and that of Half-Life's Marc Laidlaw and Chet Faliszek, the future of narrative-driven games at Valve looked grim. With half of that group having returned, it looks like the future may be a little brighter than we thought so brace for those Portal and Half-Life 3 rumors to kick up in full force once more.

There was a special viewing of their Dota-inspired card game Artifact earlier last year before the game officially debuted in which Newell himself talked about the process of creating this particular title and how it has inspired them to get back up on that bike of game creation, "Artifact is the first of several games that are going to be coming from us," he stated. "That's sort of good news! Hooray! Valve's going to start shipping games again!"

Said in classic Newell form (he's known to be a bit cheeky), his commentary definitely did little to dampen that fandom flame. Half-Life 3 has become somewhat of a holy grail for gamers. Not necessarily because the franchise was the best franchise to have ever existed, but because on some level we know we're never going to get it, so we want it even more. Don't even get us started on another Portal, though the graphic novel did very well in regards to satiating that fan thirst.

We know of at least one single-player game that Valve is working on. As far as their next huge leap in gaming, we'll just have to be patient to find out!

What are your thoughts on Wolpaw's return? What do you think that means for the future of these beloved titles? Join in on the conversation in the comment section below, or hit me up on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy for even more game-age!