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.
I don’t see a timer at the bottom of their website - instead I see this line of text:
https://blackmesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/SampleinGC.png DAMN! You guys are quick... Didn't even have time to put the right image up yet.That SampleinGC.png image is accessible, and is a picture of a vial in a testing chamber of some sort. The image also has metadata attached; a description that is a string of morse code:
-.-- --- ..- / .-. . .- .-.. .. --.. . / .-- . / .- .-. . / .--- ..- ... - / -- .- -.- .. -. --. / - .... . ... . / -... . -.-. .- ..- ... . / -.-- --- ..- / ... . . -- / - --- / .-.. .. -.- . / - .... . -- / .- -. -.. / .... .- ...- . / ..-. ..- -. / .-- . / -.. --- / -. --- - / .... .- ...- . / .- -. -.-- - .... .. -. --. / - --- / -.. --- / .-- .. - .... / - .... . / ...- .. -.. . --- / --. .- -- . / - .... .. ... / .. ... / -. --- - / .- -. / .- .-. --.translated:
YOU REALIZE WE ARE JUST MAKING THESE BECAUSE YOU SEEM TO LIKE THEM AND HAVE FUN WE DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE VIDEO GAME THIS IS NOT AN ARGHl3 confirmed.
It depicts a vial of XEN CRYSTALS from Dr. ______.
This is 100% marketing an extension of the half-life universe
Going this all out? I wanna say it…
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
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
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 egg type stuff hidden on the site to be decoded. This is a real company, but I’m very excited to see what happens tonight
Edited bc I missed some autocorrects
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.
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?
Timers up, reveals a URL that someone else pointed out:
https://blackmesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/SampleinGC.png
Dr. _______
Xen crystal.
These are more Half Life references.
We love the Half Life community. In the last couple of days we’ve received a ton of messages of support and curiosity about Black Mesa. It’s heartening to see that the internet can still be a place where people send inquisitive messages while staying respectful - thank you. Thank you as well to those who sent the thousands of fake inquiries on our website, they made us laugh. We loved seeing the creative messages.
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.
We <3 all of you, you’ve made us laugh quite a bit this week at a time when we needed it. We might put up a couple fun challenges and send the first solvers some swag. That is Black Mesa - the Boston biotech company swag.
Our love, The Black Mesa team.
PS: Gabe, call us. You know where we are. PPS: KingPotatoVII please reach out, we’ve been trying to send you some swag for cracking the cipher a while back 🙂
I don’t want to keep feeding OP’s unhealthy arg paranoia, but I’m pretty confident this is a real company. The catch being if they really do know Gabe or he at least knows of this company and they are half life fans, it’s entirely in the realm of possibility they are working with Valve on a legit arg. Not saying valve owns that company, in fact the opposite, but I also definitely believe an arg is still a very real possibility and something valve would do. They did call out Gabe after all.
TLDR: op is not paranoid but the company is real and working with Valve on an arg because they’re fans of the half life series but they’re still a bioengineering company IRL.
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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
So I went for a little drive…
https://i.imgur.com/gXWIXj4.jpeg
See that little black placard?
https://i.imgur.com/oglXV45.jpeg
Valve has the resources, yes, but wouldn’t go that far for no payoff. I’m convinced they’re a real company, not an ARG.
Pahaha if op keeps this up they’re gonna get this lab in trouble for cribbing half life ip
Apparently they reached out to Valve and got the OK from someone to use the name and variant logo, according to a comment I saw either here or on reddit.
Not if contributing to actual research, for which they applied for govt grants (and received) contributes to a tax write-off.
They have the means.
I’m not sure if you’re serious. Technically yes, Valve could set up a real biotech company, staff it, apply for government grants, receive money, and do actual biotech work… But it doesn’t make sense to do for a video game marketing stunt.
There’s going to be a real resonance cascade in Massachusetts.
Anyone know what the OldManMurray kids are up to these days?
