Last month, Valve opened the floodgates with not one, not two, but three big announcements on their new plans to changing the world of video games. Naturally, everyone held their breath for the only announcement that really matters, casually shrugging off the news of the SteamOS, the Steam Machines, and the Steam Controller as if they were all the latest tchotchkes on sale at the local Christmas Tree Shop, but it never came.

…until today.

On the popular and reputable video game forum site NeoGAF, a screenshot of a trademark application filed with the European Union’s Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM) has surfaced, covering “computer game software; electronic game software, downloadable game software via a global computer network and wireless devices; and video game software” and more.

Fans of the notorious first-person shooter pioneer Half-Life have been waiting for six years now for an epic conclusion to the series if not at least a bone thrown their way on what will happen to Gordon Freeman and Alex Vance next, so they are no strangers to hype and bogus news stories touting the return of series.  In the wake of all of the other big announcements from Valve delivered all in the same week, however, there is no mistaking the need for some killer app to emerge from the secretive Bellevue-based developer to prove investment in the new hardware worthy…and there is no killer app more hotly anticipated from Valve than Half-Life 3.

You might say that this trademark tease is just in…

…time?