Valve leads thought of making a “mediocre” game forward of Half of-Existence to fetch the crew up, nevertheless usual advertising and marketing and marketing exec said “must you attain that, the corporate will fail”

Within the world of inaugural games, few can match the extraordinary impact of Valve‘s Half-Life on the industry. Indeed, the company is often recognized more for Steam, MOBAs, and overlooking Team Fortress 2 today; however, the original Half-Life was a groundbreaking launch for the FPS genre since Doom debuted five years earlier, due to its compelling narrative and engaging gameplay (plus it gave rise to Counter-Strike). Nevertheless, it appears there was a time when Valve considered creating another game to accompany its impressive debut.

Monica Harrington, Valve’s former chief marketing officer, spoke at the 2025 Game Developers Conference (GDC) during the panel titled ‘How Valve Became Valve: An Insider’s Tale,’ which was attended by GamesRadar+. During this session, Harrington shared that while assembling the team to develop Half-Life, the studio was actively recruiting developers globally and persuading them to relocate to Seattle. However, there was another plan to build the team that never came to fruition.

There was a proposal for a second game to launch prior to Half-Life, which in turn, would help Valve expand its team. Harrington stated, “The original idea was to create what they called the B title. This was intended to be somewhat of an average game, and the thought was that the development of that game would grow the team.”

However, Harrington was indeed the one who dismissed this idea, asserting, “I told them, I guided them through the business analysis, and I said that’s just not gonna work. If you do that, the company will fail.” She later remarked, “From the very start, we insisted on going all in. It’s got to rank in that top 10. I told Gabe that I believed the only path for Half-Life to genuinely succeed was if it earned the title of Game of the Year.” Harrington provided no specifics on what this potentially “average” game might have been, yet it presents an intriguing ‘what if?’ scenario undeniably. Perhaps if it had been released, the Dreamcast might have endured longer, and PlayStation would now be distributing its titles on Xbox; you never truly know.

Harrington also disclosed that the developers of Half-Life were anxious after its significant E3 1998 presentation, fearing that Gabe Newell had “promised things that they couldn’t possibly deliver.”