It's the anomaly. Do we proceed? Yes. He is still.. (whispered) Only Human.

So I finally figured it out. Episode 3 is taking forever to complete because of Gabe's density. You see, the denser the object means a higher mass. A large mass equates to a large gravitational field. The closer you are to a gravitational field, the more time slows down to outside observers. In other words, people who work at Valve are near such a large mass (Gabe), it's slowing down time for them. To them, it seems like time is going the same speed. To us (outside observers), it seems like they are moving in slow motion.

This also explains Valve time. They make time predictions of releases for certain items when they are AWAY from Gabe. When they go back near Gabe, they end up working at a slower pace relative to outside observers.

Based on the predicted release and the actual release, we can determine the mass of Gabe during that period. Using the variables Pr for predicted release, and Ar for actual release, and using the predicted release of Episode 3 being Christmas 2007 (Tuesday, the 25th of December) and the current date is Sunday, 21st of November 2010, that is a difference of 1,063 days. Because Episode 3 was announced around May 24, 2006, it should have only taken 580 days to complete the entire Half Life 2 trilogy. In other words, 580 days is equivalent to at least 1,063 days to Valve.

"Valve Time" has become an industry term used jokingly with game releases from Valve, used to acknowledge the difference between the promised time for released content stated by Valve and to the actual release time; "Valve Time" includes predominately delays but also includes some content that was released earlier than expected. Valve itself has fully acknowledged the term, including tracking known discrepancies between ideal and actual releases on their public development wiki and using it in announcements about such delays.

Valve ascribes their delays to their mentality of team-driven initiatives over corporate deadlines to make sure they provide a high quality product to their customers. The company does try to avoid unintentional delays of their projects, and believes that the earlier occurrences of "Valve Time" delays, primarily from Half-Life development, has helped them improve their release schedules.