Portal Writer Gives Important Ultimatum About The Next Sequel
Well, what's the hold up?
Portal and Portal 2 are some of the most beloved games of the modern era, but fans have been left hanging on the possibility of a Portal 3. Though this is not necessarily because of a lack of desire on the part of the creators. Recently, Erik Wolpaw said in an interview that he’d be willing to work on the threequel if given the green light and the resources.
During an interview with Kiwi Talkz, he explained why Portal 3 isn’t in development and why his willingness to join the project isn’t the development go-ahead fans would hope it is. In the interview, he said he’d work on another Portal game “in a second.” But he also pointed out that the company has 300 employees and dedicating a team of even 75 of those employees would be a big undertaking for Valve and could be a financial risk for the company. In addition, Wolpaw said he’s getting to the point where he might be too old to want to work on Portal 3, so they should just do it and make the game if they’re planning on making it. You can watch that interview below.
Wolpaw was a co-writer on both of the previous entries to the franchise, so this would be an absolutely necessary piece of the puzzle. The Portal games are famous for being incredibly well-written, with unique humor, engaging robot characters, and dialogue that is still quoted years later. If you know the deceptive nature of the existence of cakes, then you’re familiar with Portal’s writing. Of course, just because Wolpaw is in for the Portal 3, it certainly doesn’t mean that the game is going to happen.
Portal 2 was the last entry to the series and was released in 2011. The game was met with near-universal praise for its story, fun puzzle-solving and physics, and snappy writing. Fans have waited a long time for any news of another entry in the form of Portal 3, but fans of Valve are also aware that they can be pretty stingy with follow-ups to their most beloved games. Just look at Half-Life 2. The wait for a third episode reached meme status, to the point where the gaming community just gave up on there ever being a follow-up. Finally, Half-Life: Alyx was released in VR in 2020. This was definitely not the return to the series fans were expecting, despite the fact the game received good reviews and was enjoyed by fans overall. If we do get a Portal 3, there’s a chance it will come in a way we don’t expect.
Though Portal 3 may never come to fruition, you can return to the Aperture Science labs in the form of a Steam Deck tech demo. In 2022, Aperture Desk Job was released to show off the capabilities of the Steam Deck controller. This might be the closest thing we get to return to the world of Portal, but you never know. Valve is an unpredictable company and there’s always a chance that we may get more Portal, especially with a possible movie on the horizon. We may just have to wait a while.
