Gearbox Software



Gearbox Software is an American video game development company based in Plano, Texas. The company contributed to the Half-Life franchise with three games : Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift and Half-Life: Decay.

Canonicity issues of its Half-Life games
The level of canonicity of the three Gearbox expansions is not precisely known and is still very ambiguous. It is known that the series' writer, Marc Laidlaw, had some input at the writing of the three games, but is level of involvement is not very clear. Indeed, no direct reference to any of the plot details of the Gearbox expansions has been made in any of the subsequent games of the Half-Life series. It is even likely that the Barney seen in Half-Life 2 is not the same Barney seen in Blue Shift, since he is not the one owing a beer to Gordon, referenced at the beginning of Half-Life 2.

Validation or invalidation is therefore yet to be given by any Valve official. Even though the expansions are official, their canonicity is not set in stone.