It’s no secret that Valve is working on several projects at a time, but it’s a pretty big secret what those projects are. Besides Half Life 3, or Half Life 2 Episode 3, we dunno much of what’s going on, besides the occasional hats for Team Fortress 2.

But according to new evidence, the studio is working on a science fiction game with the codename “SOB”. From the recently leaked DOTA 2 code, there are several references to “ep3″, “cstrike2″, and “SOB”. According to one rumor, the SOB includes code references to “nebula”, “npc_ship”, “ship_guns”, “client_ship”, “flightplan”, “server_ship” and more. We’ve also gotten some concept art from one of Valve’s artists, who featured it on his website — the concept art of a space ship which you can see above.

The next generation Xbox console, rumored to be named Xbox 720, will be sporting a GPU based on the Radeon 6000 series, according to a rumor from IGN. The Radeon 6000 series was launched last year, and the Xbox 720 version will reportedly be close to the Radeon HD 6670 — a mid-range GPU. Despite being a mid-range GPU in 2011, it’s still said to be 6 times more powerful than the current Xbox 360 ATI GPU. Mass production of the chip is said to start in late 2012, which could mean a new console launch at the very end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013. Compared to the Wii U, another new console that’s launching this year, the Xbox 720 GPU will be around 20% more powerful.

According to a new report coming from Chiphell, which has a decent track record when it comes to GPU leaks, Nvidia has decided to launch the next generation GPU, GTX 680, earlier than expected. The original launch was slated for March/April, but due to AMD’s slight lead, Nvidia decided to release the card in late-February.

The GTX 680 is said to offer the same performance as AMD’s 7970 card, and will ship with 2 GB of RAM and a clock speed of 780 MHz. The GTX 680 will reportedly be followed by the GTX 700-series later this year.

The big Warhammer 40K MMO, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online, has reportedly been cancelled due to financial issues over at publisher THQ. According to rumors which are flooding out of THQ, the company is in such a dire state that it might announce bankruptcy soon, or offer itself up for sale. More THQ games are reported to be on the chopping block, but it’s unclear which ones. Currently, the publisher is funding projects such as Darksiders 2 and Metro: Last Light.

According to reports coming from game analyst Kevin Dent, THQ is now desperately looking for a buyer, and has not only cancelled all projects it had lined up for 2014, but has returned IP rights it acquired from Disney. With no refund.

It’s still unlikely that THQ will go belly up, considering that the company has a lot of assets and a lot of IP that they can sell, like Red Faction, Saints Row et al. If not sell, the IP can be used to attract potential buyers. Currently the company employs around 1,000 people. All things considered, things aren’t looking good for THQ.

As for Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online, it looks like this expensive project is over. The game has been in development since 2009 at Vigil Games.

Halo 4 on the PC might be a possibility, according to a new rumor emerging from developer 343 Industries. The rumor comes from an “inside source” sent to DigitalBattle, suggesting that 343i has a “team looking into the possibility of porting Halo 4 to the PC” and that Microsoft is interested in this in order to “breathe life back into Games For Windows Live”. While 343 has yet to release a PC game, many developers from the defunct Pandemic studio left for 343, developers with a lot of PC experience (Pandemic shipped some 10 PC titles over the years) — so 343 definitely has the capacity and talent to work on the PC platform.

Halo hasn’t seen a Windows PC release since Halo 2 back in 2004. Since then, it’s been an Xbox 360 exclusive, even Halo Wars, an RTS, was only released on the Xbox 360.

Naturally, take this rumor with a grain of salt. Halo has been a system seller for the Xbox 360 over the years, and even if we see a Halo 4 PC release, don’t expect it to be simultaneous with the Xbox 360. Perhaps a year down the line, 2013, we might see Halo 4 on the PC. Might.

According to a screenshot from one of the new Battlefield 3 maps (Wake Island), developer DICE has put in a little Easter Egg in the form of the number “2143″, obviously referring to a possible Battlefield 2143 — a remake of 2006′s Battlefield 2142. As BF3Blog points out, this won’t be the first time DICE teased an upcoming game: they added the very same type of Easter Egg in Battlefield 2 Armored Fury where they teased Battlefield 2142 a few weeks before its official announcement. Does this mean we’ll see Battlefield 2143 in the future? It sure looks like it, but there is the slight possibility that the developer is just trolling us.

We’re already anticipating the 5th installment in the Hitman series, called Hitman: Absolution. However, according to a new trademark filing in Europe, developer IO Interactive is looking to trademark “Hitman: Profession“. This could possibly be the next installment in the series, after Absolution is released next year. However, it could also be a spin-off, possibly a mobile game. Or perhaps it could be something completely different: a book, comic book, etc. Let the speculation begin!

If there’s one game we’re all eagerly awaiting to see, it’s the next Half Life game. Whether it’s called “Episode 3″, or just “Half Life 3″, we wish Valve would announce something soon. And they may be closer to announcement that we think, as Half Life 3 t-shirts have been spotted being worn by a Valve employee at an industry event.

Now, this could be a hoax, it could be that the employee just got the t-shirt made for himself, it could be that it’s Valve trolling us — it could be a number of reasons why this doesn’t mean that Half Life 3 announcement is around the corner. But we really want it to be true.

Half Life 2 was released back in 2004, and got two small “sequels” in form of Episode 1 (2006) and Episode 2 (2007).

Call of Duty has time and time again managed to be without a doubt the most popular first person shooter franchise on the market. Modern Warfare 2 really solidified the hype surrounding the previous release, Call of Duty 4, and Black Ops only furthered that managing to break records and sell like hot cakes. However, while Black Ops was a highly successful game everyone knows that the game we’re really waiting for is none other than Modern Warfare 3.

Unfortunately, there has been virtually no news to share regarding Modern Warfare 3′s gameplay but today something interesting has leaked. What you see above is reportedly a leaked copy of the official Modern Warfare 3 logo. Of course, the chances of this being a Photoshopped fake seem quite high but take it as you will.

If the past is anything to go by, expect Modern Warfare 3 to hit store shelves sometime later this year.

It seems like rumors are flying every which way about an MMO being developed for pretty much every video game franchise out there. But really? Halo? Come on. BioShock, on the other hand, would make a bit more sense as an MMO which is why it’s a relief that rumors have arose stating that a massively multiplayer online game is in the works based on it.

There has been virtually no official word on whether or not these rumors are true so we’ll just have to wait and see.

via cvg