Former Half-Life scriptwriter Marc Laidlaw has stated that he never intended Half-Life 2: Episode 3 to be the end of the Half-Life franchise. The episode was supposed to tie up loose ends for future Half-Life games.

In a recent interview with website Arcade Attack, Marc Laidlaw stated that he never intended the last Half-Life 2 episode to be the end of the Half-Life franchise.

Instead, the final episode was supposed to tie up loose ends by finishing story arcs introduced in Half-Life 2 and its two episodes Episode 1 and Episode 2.

According to Laidlaw, finishing story arcs in Half-Life 2: Episode 3 would have given the next generation of game developers and writers complete freedom as there would have been no reason to continue the story arcs in future Half-Life titles.

However, because Valve never pushed on to release the final episode Laidlaw was not able to finish the game's story.

According to Laidlaw, the ending of the final Half-Life 2 episode would have been similar to that of Half-Life 1 with Gordon in an indeterminate space, on hold, waiting for the next game to begin.

The statements made by Laidlaw are interesting because Valve never publicly commented on how the Half-Life 2 story would have ended, leaving millions of gamers wondering what the game's conclusion would have been like.

Back in March of this year new screenshots were released that supposedly show maps of a cancelled Half-Life 2 episode. The episodic content was supposed to "fill in one of the gaps in the Half-Life universe" and would include a new type of weapon called the Magnet Gun that would complement the iconic gravity gun.