The bottom of the page there is a countdown that will expire at midnight Eastern standard Time tonight.
This company claims to be in Boston. They’ve received federal grants. I’ve done a small amount of digging, but it would be entirely within valves resources to set up such a company. They have a LinkedIn, but it doesn’t really seem like anyone really works there? It seems like a viral marketing campaign.
There was a Reddit thread. A while back. Some people noticed classes in the HTML that referenced other half-lifey things. But, some people in that thread shut it down as nothing out of the ordinary.
Then, there have been recent leaks with regard to a new game being developed. Someone found a resume suggesting that a person had done voice-over work for an unreleased project with Valve in 2023.
There was also a leak of some files with .hlx file types, and I guess prior to the half-life alyx release some .hla files leaked.
In the .hlx file leak, I guess there was found references to things like the EV suit.
Here’s a YouTube video that touches on all of this.
If this was truly a real start-up, they’d have information for investors to invest.There would be something about what they do other than just “biotech.” There would be some kind of contact information besides an email. There would be names associated with it.
But they don’t.
I don’t, however, believe it was actually made by Valve. Either a modder hyping some mod or just a prankster.
If it is a real company, I’m pretty sure they’re breaking copyright using that trademarked logo.
The domain was previously owned by the people who did the half-life remake.
My thought is that Valve poached them.
That would fit their MO. 🤔
They did it for Portal 2!
Prior to Nov 2022, the domain just had a spam page. After that, it just had this: https://web.archive.org/web/20221105002601/https://blackmesa.com/
And it was like that until recently.
The Black Mesa team has support from Valve, but I don’t think they’re actually employees or anything.
Edit: yeah the more I look into this, the more certain I am that it’s an ARG.
Wait.
Black Mesa Technology, Inc. is a real, registered company in the state of Massachusetts: https://corp.sec.state.ma.us/CorpWeb/CorpSearch/CorpSummary.aspx?sysvalue=_HQ3ku.qlnLpl8nUgbgbwS_ZHmpGWTQOFgh1PxfQUAs-
Current business address is 9 Alfred Cir, Bedford, MA 01730. Google Maps has that as Lexington Alarm Systems, but their site says they moved out of that building in Jan 2019, which somewhat lines up with Black Mesa turning up.
Maybe they really are a real company? But if they are, they’re doing a real good job of making it look like they’re not. Maybe for free advertising.
I am also capable of registering a company, though. Dig further. You’ll find that they indeed secured a grant. But again, all this takes is a reasonable application for that grant as a part of a budget for a viral marketing campaign. I want to reiterate that this is absolutely within the means of valves resources.
This is what viral marketing campaigns do.
I WANT TO BELIEVE
https://blackmesa.com/resonance-cascades This article on their site explicitly states that they are a real biotech company in Boston not associated with valve in any way. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news :(
Again, is completely within Valves resources to set up a biotech company for a viral marketing campaign.
I WANT TO BELIEVE
Nothing to do with Half Life besides someone there being a fan:
As many of you correctly assessed, we’re actually a real company in the Boston area. We’re working hard to assure and secure vaccine and other biological manufacturing production. As much as we would be honored to be part of any Valve game - we do not work in this sector at all. We are not secretly working on Half Life 3, Project White Sands (whatever that is/may be) or any other Valve title - we’re just nerds working to secure the global bioeconomy.
There definitely is some kind of ARG-type stuff going on here tho. The timer ends on the planned release date of HL2, there’s a link on the site to an email address, “[email protected]”, and they literally said they had some easter web type stuff hidden on the site to be decided. This is a real company, but I’m very excited to see what happens tonight
Black Mesa is working with select public and private-sector partners to evaluate and test the technology. If you are interested in partnering with us to usher in a new era of assurance and quality in biomanufacturing, please reach out.
Oh, that’s not good.
Lots of corporate jargon about AI mixed with biotech talk. Perhaps teasing some in-game AI related shennigans.
I mean that’s basically the backstory of black mesa in the half life world.
The heavy AI integration though? Thats more of an Aperture thing I think?
Like a kid in 2000 desperately hoping that box under the tree is a PS2, I really think that we might be about to see news of something I dare not say. But if it’s nothing, I’m going to be really disappointed. Sigh.
It’s definitely a marketing campaign. The logo is literally the Black Mesa logo, and it has a picture of a headcrab on a scientist. I guess the team is releasing a new campaign or something.
This site is actually for a real company that has the same name and logo, but yea there’s some fun stuff going on here that I wanna see figured out
the same name and logo
That’s how you know it’s not real. Valve owns the rights to the logo, especially when combined with the name Black Mesa.
Yeah, who would go to the internet and infringe copyright and trademark laws? That has never happened before.
/s
But for real. It’s a viral campaign for something but definitely not for a video game. Look at deadlock, that’s how valve does marketing now. They don’t even need ads or webpages anymore.
Says them?
Their address is a house.
Where do you see the address?
https://corp.sec.state.ma.us/CorpWeb/CorpSearch/CorpSearchResults.aspx
9 ALFRED CIRCLE BEDFORD, MA 01730 USA
