Half-Life fans, take a deep breath. Marc Laidlaw, the man credited as the sole writer for Half-Life and Half-Life 2, has retired from Valve. Laidlaw was also the lead writer for the Half-Life episodes.
“There are many reasons [for my retirement], most of them personal,” Laidlaw wrote in an email that was uploaded to Imgur, “An outwardly obvious reason is that I’m old, or anyway oldish. My nickname when I first started at Valve in 1997 was ‘old man Laidlaw’. The little baby level designer who gave me that that nickname is now older than I was then. […] I had a good run but lately I have been feeling a need for a break from the collaborative chaos of game production, and a return to more self-directed writing projects.”
Fans have been clamoring for Half-Life 3, the fabled continuation of the Half-Life series, for years now. Of course Half-Life is still the property of Valve, not Laidlaw. However, if a third installment ever appears, it will be the creation of a new writer or team of writers.
“Valve has been my second home, and home to a great many of my dreams and ambitions, for over 18 years,” Laidlaw wrote, “I hope that for at least a few years, if I come to the door, people will recognize me and let me in without calling security.”
