Can someone elaborate this Number 3 Joke between ValvE type games?

[EM1]

I don’t get it

[Brimzel]

No Portal 3. No Half Life 3. No Team Fortress 3. See the trend?

[Cathulhu]

Well, there is the Portal 2 Soundtrack Volume 3.
http://www.thinkwithportals.com/music.php

[wuddih]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEGMccdFWDw

[Sazzouu]

Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2
...

Portal
Portal 2
...

And here comes the worst of all...

Half-Life
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Half-Life: Decay (Spin-Off by a different developer)
Codename: Gordon (Spin-Off for some background)
Half-Life: Source
Half-Life 2 (finally...)
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
Half-Life 2: Episode 1
Half-Life 2: Episode 2
Black Mesa (Fan Re-Make for Half-Life 1)
Half-Life: Alyx (Pre-Sequel somewhere between Half-Life 1 and 2)
...
So yeah the same series... having a dozen of games in it with more than just one opportunity to increase 2 to 3 yet still never happened on Valves Studio. This plus the fact that these are some of the few series of videogames of ALL TIME where the gamers all around the world desperatly seek for a thrid part

[Edifier]

Originally posted by BeatZ:

Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Half-Life: Decay (Spin-Off by a different developer)
Codename: Gordon (Spin-Off for some background)
Half-Life: Source
Half-Life 2 (finally...)
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
Half-Life 2: Episode 1
Half-Life 2: Episode 2
Black Mesa (Fan Re-Make for Half-Life 1)
Half-Life: Alyx (Pre-Sequel somewhere between Half-Life 1 and 2)
...
So yeah the same series... having a dozen of games in it with more than just one opportunity to increase 2 to 3 yet still never happened on Valves Studio. This plus the fact that these are some of the few series of videogames of ALL TIME where the gamers all around the world desperatly seek for a thrid part

Opposing force wasn't made by Valve but by Gearbox.
Blue Shift was also done by a third party company. Sierra and Gearbox.

Half-Life Source was just porting the whole game to Source engine as a tech demo basically. Lost Coast was also a tech demo demonstrating some new light and shadow technology.

But the other stuff yeah. They are not fond of the Nr 3.

[Manny]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q065Kaz3CI&feature=share