Valve has basically implied that this is going to be the case, since it's been too long without a release for them to continue the episodic format
Gabe Newell talks about abandoning the episodic schedule here: https://www.develop-online.net/analysis/the-valve-manifesto/...
My assumption has been for years that "HL3" is as much a joke inside Valve as it is outside of it.
> Gabe Newell talks about
This was six years ago.