Last week the Internet was flooded with pictures and articles on the Half-Life 3 trademark filing, we even reported on it. However the trademark filing seems to have disappeared along with our hopes of seeing the long awaited sequel any time soon.

The filing had not been examined by the Trademarks and Design Registration Office of the European Union, Valve made no comment amongst all of the hype and similar trademark filings were not made in any other territories so it looks like this story has come to an end.

Its not all doom and gloom though, last week we also reported on Valve increasing the work force behind Half-Life 3, among other projects including the Source 2 engine and Left 4 Dead 3. A Portal 3 trademark was also filed recently although this one has been examined by OHIM making this one seem a bit more realistic.

Valve could be preparing launch titles for when the Steam Machines release next year of course and we now know the proposed specifications for upcoming prototypes. The specs include:

• Nvidia graphics varying between Titan, GTX780, GTX760 and GTX660
• Intel CPU's varying between I7, I5 and I3
• 16GB DDR3 RAM with 3GB dedicated VRAM
• 450W gold certified PSU
• 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD

No AMD specs although these are just the prototypes, so far we know the final Steam Machines will be manufactured by multiple partnering companies, Valve itself will not be releasing its own, or at least it hasn't announced its own yet.

KitGuru Says: Well Half-Life 3 wasn't trademarked, Portal 3 looks like it was and the Steam machines have some weird and vague specs. It's all kicking off for Valve at the moment, but are you guys excited to see what the Steam Machine prototypes can do? Did you get your hopes up for Half-Life 3 like the rest of the Internet did?

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