Half-Life was Valve's debut game, released by Sierra Studios on 19 November 1998, with the European release following on 27 November. It runs on GoldSrc, a heavily modified version of id Software's Quake engine. Marc Laidlaw wrote the story, and Kelly Bailey composed the music.
Gabe Newell expected about 180,000 lifetime sales; by July 2001 the game had sold 2.5 million copies. A Dreamcast port by Gearbox and Captivation Digital Laboratories was cancelled by Sierra in June 2001, only weeks before release, but its work became the basis of the 2001 PlayStation 2 version, which added the co-op campaign Decay. In 2004 Valve moved the game to its new engine as Half-Life: Source, and in 2013 it came to macOS and Linux on Steam. PC Gamer named Half-Life the best PC game of all time in 1999, 2001 and 2005.
For the 25th anniversary in November 2023, Valve released a free update that peaked at 33,471 concurrent Steam players.1
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Half-Life | Windows | Nov 19, 1998 | Sierra Studios | 1 |
| NA | Half-LifePort by Gearbox Software, based on the cancelled Dreamcast port; adds the co-op campaign Decay. | PlayStation 2 | Nov 14, 2001 | Sierra | 1 |
| EU | Half-Life | Windows | Nov 27, 1998 | Sierra Studios | 1 |
| EU | Half-Life | PlayStation 2 | Nov 30, 2001 | Sierra | 1 |
| WW | Half-Life: SourcePort to the Source engine (Steam). | Windows | 2004 | Valve | 1 |
| WW | Half-Life | Linux | Feb 14, 2013 | Valve | 1 |
| WW | Half-LifeSteam release for macOS and Linux. | Mac | Feb 14, 2013 | Valve | 1 |
| WW | Half-Life (25th Anniversary Update)Free update to the Steam version; adds Uplink, new multiplayer maps, Steam Deck support. | Windows | November 2023 | Valve | 2 |
Also known as: ハーフライフ JP3Half-Life: Source WW1
Box art by region
NA Half-Life
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
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CensorshipWindows (DE)
The German release was censored: human enemies became robots, and blood was replaced with oil and gears. The ban was lifted in 2017, and Valve released a free "Half-Life Uncensored" pack.1
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ContentPlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 version adds competitive multiplayer and Decay, an exclusive two-player co-op campaign.1
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GraphicsHalf-Life: Source
Half-Life: Source (2004) moves the game to the Source engine, adding ragdoll physics, better water and 5.1 surround sound while keeping the original levels.1
Translations
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Spanish Official
ValveWindows · Steam versionReleased · complete
The Steam version offers Spanish (Spain) with full audio, along with French, German, Italian, Korean and Chinese.4
Where to play legally today
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Steam Purchase
How to run it today
Buy Half-Life on Steam. The 2023 anniversary update was made for modern systems: it adds UI scaling for high resolutions, widescreen FOV, gamepad configuration and a native Linux/Steam Deck runtime, so no fixes are needed on Windows 10 or 11. As an alternative engine, the open-source Xash3D FWGS runs Half-Life on Windows, Linux, BSD, Android and other systems, using the "valve" folder from your own copy.
- Half-Life on Steam store.steampowered.com
- Xash3D FWGS on GitHub github.com
Best version
The Steam version with the 2023 anniversary update is the definitive release: it includes Uplink, bug fixes, widescreen support and Steam Deck support.2
Reception
Half-Life scored 96/100 on Metacritic, won more than 50 PC Game of the Year awards and had sold over 9.3 million retail copies by 2008 — against an expected 180,000.1
In lists
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
Spotted a mistake? Write to atlas@old-games.net.