Mmm. . . Being honest I've only read half of this thread because I've gotta hit the sack real soon, but I did read the title ages ago and had a little think about this.
If Valve wasn't too busy with Half-Life, and I know there wouldn't be any chance in hell of this happening, but who better to continue the Oddworld games then other game artists who think about everything? Valve are very good at creating both natraul and industrial 3D environments, they take thier inspiration from the real world and mix thier own ideas into it. And when I last checked, the Steam engine is perfectly capable of 3rd-person games with a little extra programming. . .
The Oddworld games would probably end up being very Half-Lifey, maybe there'd be gaps or non-sensicle(SP) bits that aren't explained to you properly in the storyline, but you'd be certain all the characters would be well-played by proper voice actors, well-designed, have proper movements, the game world would look amazing, and they'd make the storyline gripping. :P Oh, and it'd have physics in. :P Just imagine it for a bit.
It'd never happen but I'd love to see the results.
Equally if OW was turned into an MMORPG, if Blizzard weren't too busy with WoW I'd love to see them make a well-thought out version of an Oddworld RPG. . . Except customer service would be crap and it'd be very overpriced. :S But the game would still be addictive and fun.
EDIT:
From the second page, Ubisoft aren't bad candidates either for making the OW games, provided they do as good a job as they did back on Beyond Good and Evil in 2003 - Parts of that game reminded me of Abe's Oddysee a little bit. They're good at creating atmosphere and lush 3D environments. . . Maybe thier non-seriously-violent style of combat (as in no gore or guts) would fit OW more, even if it would be unrealisitic. . . Though parts of the games would also be cheesy in parts. :P