The cynical take is that they've given up on singleplayer games as a whole because their multiplayer titles are
far more lucrative. In the 13.5 years since Portal 2 they've only released
one full SP title, HL:Alyx, and that was arguably motivated by their VR initiatives need for a flagship showcase more than the desire to make a new SP game. It just had to be an SP game because VR was too niche to sustain an MP population.
Everything else they've made in that time has been live-service forever-games which have relatively minimal development costs but generate hundreds of millions of dollars in profits, largely through predatory gambling mechanics. Putting a fresh coat of paint on Counter Strike made them upwards of a billion dollars in the first few months alone, and it'll keep printing money for much longer than Half Life 3 ever could:
https://esports.gg/news/counter-strike-2/valve-cs2-money-202...
The sad thing is that being a private company they don't need to pursue Scrooge McDuck billions at any cost like a publicly held company would, they have the freedom to make whatever they want, but apparently what they want to do above all else now is to peddle lootboxes.
Everything else they've made in that time has been live-service forever-games which have relatively minimal development costs but generate hundreds of millions of dollars in profits, largely through predatory gambling mechanics. Putting a fresh coat of paint on Counter Strike made them upwards of a billion dollars in the first few months alone, and it'll keep printing money for much longer than Half Life 3 ever could:
https://esports.gg/news/counter-strike-2/valve-cs2-money-202...
The sad thing is that being a private company they don't need to pursue Scrooge McDuck billions at any cost like a publicly held company would, they have the freedom to make whatever they want, but apparently what they want to do above all else now is to peddle lootboxes.