Josh Holes of Playnow was lucky enough to pay a visit to the Valve offices (Thanks BluesNews) and get a look at what the folks there are working on. One of the biggest things mentioned in the article is the confirmation that Valve Software is working on their own in-house engine technology. This was all pretty much speculated bordering on fact with the huge number of 3D programmers they were bringing but now...

What is holding further development of TF2 is that Valve are currently building a new engine to drive TF2, and have been doing so for a number of months. As far as Robin Walker is concerned, this new engine will allow them to do things with TF2 they otherwise couldn't have. It will also make it more scalable across a wider range of system specifications, both capable of delivering superior graphics on high end systems, whilst also making it possible to play on low end computers. It's not another re-tooling of the Quake engine - it's a completely new beast. <snip>

I guess all those TeamFortress2 screenshots are now obsolete. What do they call this new engine? Hm... well I'd put my money on the name ValveTech. :) (6:20 update, how quickly we forget. Check out this news Maarten ran on May 18th.)