A work-in-progress video that's allegedly the big finish of Heart of the Swarm, the second chapter in Blizzard's StarCraft 2, is now making the rounds on the tubes.

Nobody knows if there's any truth to this one and I can't shed any light on the situation because I don't know a thing about StarCraft 2, but if it is true, it's a biggie. A video that purports to be grand finale of StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm got out into the wild today and while Blizzard has been moving to keep it off of sites like YouTube and Vimeo, we all know how that goes. This genie is out of the bottle.

The clip appears to be prototype animation with no lip-syncing and storyboard graphics inserted in a couple of spots, but according to Kotaku the voice acting is a "close match" for that in StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty. The site also noted that The Third Floor, whose watermark appears in the bottom right corner of the video, is a production company that lists Blizzard as a client and StarCraft 2 as one of its "projects in development." The timing is very interesting as well, following as closely as it does on the heels of an alleged leak of Blizzard's long-term release schedule and other sensitive data out of the company's office in China.

The fact that Blizzard is working so hard to keep the trailer offline also lends some credence to the theory that this is more than just a half-baked fan vid, although the studio would only say, as usual, that it "does not comment on rumors or speculation." It also means that the trailer attached to this post may be gone by the time you read it, although it should still be available at Kotaku. We'll do our best to keep it around for you.

Bear in mind that if it is the real ending to Heart of the Swarm, and assuming Blizzard doesn't change it entirely as a result of the leak, it is hugely spoilerrific. Don't watch it unless you're prepared to deal with that, and have some respect in the forums for those who may not want to share the foreknowledge.