In May 2006, Valve announced a trilogy of episodic games that would continue the "Half-Life 2" story, with the final episode planned for release by Christmas 2007. Newell said that the approach would allow Valve to release products more quickly after the six-year "Half-Life 2" development, and that he considered the trilogy the equivalent of "Half-Life 3". According to Newell, where "Half-Life" saw the G-Man transform Freeman into his tool, and "Half-Life 2" saw Freeman being used by G-Man, the episodes would see G-Man lose control.