A new Portal game is out this year but it costs at least £3,000

The newest Valve game is set to launch this summer and yet again it involves some expensive, bespoke hardware.

Despite being one of the most celebrated game developers in the world Valve’s release schedules are never exactly busy. The launched Counter-Strike 2 in 2023 and hero shooter Deadlock is currently in playtesting but it is a very long time since they’ve made a normal single-player game.

What Valve fans are really after, are traditional sequels to Half-Life and Portal for PC and consoles. Rumours about a new Half-Life 3 have picked up in recent months) but there’s never been so much as a rumour about Portal 3.

Ever since 2011’s Portal 2, fans have had to make do with crossovers and spin-off material, like 2018’s Bridge Constructor Portal, and now there’s a new one…. a licensed pinball table that’s due out this summer.

The new release is by pinball table manufacturer Multimorphic and is officially licensed by Valve, right down to having Ellen McLain provide new voice work as the iconic AI antagonist GLaDOS.

Diehard Portal fans who know the two games inside and out will appreciate the amount of detail on display, with a companion cube that can be pushed through a ‘portal’ to appear elsewhere.

There’s an LCD screen that’s used to display seven different test chambers, as well as a main hub area. By completing objectives provided by a new character – a personality core called Reggie – you can also unlock a boss fight against GLaDOS.

While the table is perfect for that specific Venn diagram of Portal fans and pinball aficionados, it is by no means cheap. Even at its lowest price, it’ll set you back $3,900 (about £3,000) and that’s for a game kit you can attach to a compatible pinball machine you already own.

If you need the machine with the Portal game built in, that’s a whopping $11,620 (roughly £8,940). Plus, you’d likely have to pay additional import fees since we can’t find any mention on the Multimorphic website of the company having a UK division.

While it’s nice to know Valve hasn’t forgotten Portal, it’s frustrating knowing it’ll probably never make a traditional sequel – since most of the people involved with the original games have long since left the company.

Series writer Erik Wolpaw has insinuated Valve is always too busy to commit to a Portal 3, especially since it needs manpower to keep its long-running games like Counter-Strike and Dota 2 running.

Aside from Deadlock, Valve hasn’t formally confirmed any other games it has in development. There are plenty of rumours though, including both Half-Life 3 and a sequel to VR game Half-Life: Alyx.

Valve has already confirmed a successor to the Steam Deck but it’s also rumoured there’ll be a new wireless VR headset at some point as well.

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