Valve has responded to demand for Half-Life 3 information, claiming to have its games more "baked" before any announcements are made.

Head honcho Gabe Newell admitted Valve is aware of how much it annoys fans with the turnaround time of some games, Penny-Arcade reports.

"It's pretty frustrating to us when we put them into that situation. We try to go as fast as we can and we try to pick the things that we think are going to be most valuable to our customers" he said.

The reason for Valve's current silence on future titles is due to this very fact.

"We're trying to be careful not to get people too excited and then have to go and disappoint them," claimed Newell, who would like to avoid a repeat of how the company handled Half-Life 2 and its various delays.

"We're sort of reacting in the other direction and saying 'okay, well let's have things a little more baked before we start getting people all excited about it'."

Those were the days...

The interview will do little to appease fans of the franchise who have petitioned for further information on the next Half-Life title. But if Newell's pledge to develop games that are most valuable to its customers can be believed, you can bet your bottom dollar the next instalment of Half-Life is well in the works already.

Let's hope the oven has been on for a while. Valve cooked up another cake for Portal 2 recently, so surely it's time the firm focused squarely on Gordon Freeman and co. and gave fans just what they've all been waiting for. ®