Valve's Gabe Newell spoke out re🔜cently on topics dear to fans of the company. The Steam impresario appeared on the premiere episode of new podcast (via , ) to give his thoughts about EA's would-be Steam-killer ♊Origin (he thinks it's not very good yet) and the next Half-Life game (he says it's not very done yet).

Saying EA's Origin isn't “doing anything super-well yet,” Newell charitably acknowledged his service's ri💮val has seen issues since launching some ten months ago. EA “have a bunch of smart peoplꦫe working on it,” Newell allows, “but I think they're still playing catch up to a lot of people who have been working in the space for a while.”

If the company's goal is to provide a Steam alternative, says Gabe﷽, it's worth asking whether this will serve customers: “We think their customers would be happy if their games were on Steam🌃. We tell them that on a regular basis.”

Then again, Newell's own customers would be happier too, if Valve's games were on Steam – specifically, the ones with “Half-Life&♐rdquo; and “3” in the title. “The problem is,” suggests Gabe, “we think that the twists and turns that [HL3's development is] going through would probably drive people more crazy than just being silent about it, until we can be very crisp abou🦄t what's happening next.”

Newell's caginess on this matter was such that he wouldn't eveᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚn call th﷽e game by name – referring to it as “Ricochet 2” – but should leave fans satisfied that the game's afoot, if frustrated at the lack of making-of videos thus far. It's almost as if Half-Life 3 is a bit of a special case or something.