Half-Life 2 Episode 3 in 2009? Don't hold your breath

While speaking with Kikizo.com about Left 4 Dead, Valve PR head Doug Lombardi was asked when we can expect the company to release Episode 3. Doug's answer? Not anytime soon: 

Kikizo: When are we going to start to hear about Episode Three? Because the gaps seem to be quite long based on the first couple of episodes.

Lombardi: Yeah, the next time you play as Gordon will be longer than the distance between HL2 to Ep1, and Ep1 to Ep2.

Kikizo: Won't you announce or show anything on Episode 3 this year?

Lombardi: We may at the very end of the year.

Doug went on to state that each Half-Life release has taken longer and has been more costly to develop. For instance, Valve spent six years and $40 million on Half-Life 2. My favorite quote comes later in the interview however:

So I think we were successful in that it's been less than four years since Half-Life 2, and we've gotten two episodes out; each of them had new technology, each of them had new gameplay - arguably Ep2 had more new gameplay than Ep1, but I think that we were successful in giving players more time with Freeman, more time with Alyx, giving them new experiences, telling them more of the story, in a much quicker fashion. I mean, "episodic" conjures up this notion of television where it comes once a week for 12 weeks or whatever, and so maybe there's a better word for what we're doing!You know what I mean? 

I think there is a word for this. It's called an expansion pack. :D

Valve is currently hard at work putting the finishing touches on Left 4 Dead, which will hit shelves next month...