It has been over a week now since Valve and Zen Studios teased a collaboration via a cryptic rendered image of a pinball draining between two flippers. Fans speculated about which Valve game would be the next to get Zen's trademark licensed digital pin treatment. Because this is Valve, there were also plenty of jokes about the upcoming confirmation of Half Life 3 (There are three objects in that image. CONFIRMED!)
Today, Zen put a halt to the speculation by announcing Portal Pinball, a new downloadable table coming to "Zen's pinball platforms" (which we assume means both Pinball FX and Zen Pinball) on May 25. The table was "crafted in collaboration with Valve" and will reportedly feature familiar design elements like aerial faith plates, turrets, GLaDOS, and, of course, portals to warp the ball around the table. Chell, Wheatley, ATlas, and P-Body also make an appearance, and the above teaser video shows them navigating the playfield as new pathways get opened up by completing certain shots.
Valve's characters aren't often licensed for official use in games from other companies, but it's not unheard of. Left 4 Dead's familiar foursomes have shown up to blast bad guys in both Payday: The Heist and Resident Evil 6. Telltale's Poker Night at the Inventory features Team Fortress 2's Heavy as one of its card players, treating us to some hilarious quotes. Valve even teamed up with Bethesda to put Portal 2 Space Core into the world of Skyrim, as a way of introducing the idea of Steam Workshop modding.
Outside of games, Portal's GLaDOS even made an approved cameo in Pacific Rim. Come to think of it, we're still waiting for that J.J. Abrams/Valve movie collaboration announced over two years ago. Come on, Abrams, it's not like you're busy with anything else at the moment.
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