Real company or Half-Life 3?

It’s been a running joke for years that Half-Life 3 is (not) announced. Fans look in the most absurd places for clues that the shooter might actually exist or be in development. Now there’s a mysterious company that calls itself Black Mesa.

Black Mesa – real company or not?

Valve fans and those familiar with the game may roll their eyes at this point, but it is still too strange to ignore. Fans have created a website called BlackMesa.com discovered and behind it is a real company – allegedly (via Ars-Technica). The name is undoubtedly a direct reference to Half-Life and the logo is also similar to the one that Valve designed for the imaginary company that created the shooter. However, it can and must be said that the name and logo are too reminiscent of the game’s model. So much so that one has to wonder why Valve has not already reacted with a lawsuit.

Of course, the company claims that it has nothing to do with Valve or Half-Life, at least not directly. They say the name was chosen because Charles Fracchia, the CEO and founder of Black Mesa, is a big fan of the shooter. You can see that immediately on his Twitter account, where Fracchia has a crowbar as a banner, along with a picture of a man lying down in a lab coat with a (rubber) facehugger on his face. Black Mesa’s website also claims that they are a real company and addresses the Half-Life community directly: “As many of you have correctly guessed, we are actually a real company in the Boston area.

We work hard to ensure and secure the production of vaccines and other biological products. As much as we would be honored to be part of a Valve game, we do not work in that sector at all. We are not secretly working on Half Life 3, Project White Sands (whatever that is/may be) or any other Valve title – we are just nerds working to secure the global bioeconomy.”

Half-Life 3 confirmed! Not

Black Mesa is most likely a real company, but questions remain, especially as to why Valve does not object to the use of the logo and name, even if the logo is a modified version. That is why some do not give up hope that this is all just a clever viral marketing campaign.