The world's most anticipated game may never come out — so its writer leaked the story

For nearly 10 years, a highly-anticipated finale to the "Half-Life" video game franchise has eluded fans. Mere mention of the words "Half-Life 3" has become farce.

It appears as though the game's writer just leaked the conclusion fans have been waiting on all this time.

Half-Life 2: Episode 2

Long-time Valve Software writer Marc Laidlaw tweeted out a link on Thursday night to a story that sounds an awful lot like what could've been "Half-Life 2: Episode 3" (aka "Half-Life 3").

Epistle 3 https://t.co/8BEG25AV7A
— Marc Laidlaw (@marc_laidlaw) August 25, 2017

Laidlaw left Valve in the last few years, having served as a writer through the entirety of the main "Half-Life" series. Though the story he lays out uses pseudonyms for various characters and alien races, it's pretty clear that Laidlaw's laying out his vision for the conclusion to the series.

Thankfully, fans have already "translated" Laidlaw's version into "Half-Life" language (of course they have).

In a subsequent tweet, Laidlaw refers to the story he posted as "fanfic," and "a genderswapped snapshot of a dream I had many years ago." In so many words, though this shouldn't be considered the definitive conclusion, it's a close approximation of what was once the plan.

In an answer to a fan, Laidlaw even refuses to go into more detail about a specific couple of characters, saying "that is something Valve might still want to develop, flesh out and explain someday."

It's not clear what happened to the development of "Half-Life 2: Episode 3"/"Half-Life 3," only that it eventually faded to the point of non-existence. What is clear is that Valve has set its sights elsewhere.

Steam

"Half-Life" creator Valve has largely moved on from the type of narrative-based, single-player game that "Half-Life" was. The outrageously successful Steam storefront is Valve's primary concern, though the company still makes plenty of games: "DOTA 2," "Team Fortress 2," and several others.

None of those games, though, are the promised finale to the "Half-Life" series. It's been nearly 10 years since the last installment in the series, "Half-Life 2: Episode 2," arrived. A promised third episode never came, and Valve eventually stopped answering questions about the franchise.

Fans of the series, as you might imagine, are very excited about finally getting some closure.

Thank you, @marc_laidlaw. This feels right after 10 years. Finally, closure. Thanks again. http://pic.twitter.com/59JtBKF8u4
— Gabriel Vendríes (@gvendries) August 25, 2017