Valve Is Working On Project "White Sands" — Is This Half Life 3?

Valve is currently working on a new project, code-named as "White Sands". While people are speculating about what it might be, hints are pointing towards Half-Life 3...

Half life 3
Is Valve woking on Half-Life 3? | © Valve

Valve is cooking something behind the scenes, and we're not supposed to see it yet. Project "White Sands" is currently in development and fans are speculating about what it could be. Latest leaks that surfaced because of a Valve data miner reveal that Half-Life 3 doesn't seem to be an odd guess.

Update (August 26) — Valve Leaker Provides Half Life 3 Overview

The known Valve leaker "Gabe Follower" released a video on YouTube gathering all his findings on Half Life 3, and it seems that White Sands really could be legit.

He's spent years putting all his findings together, and he's both confident the game is on the way, and already able to provide an overview of what he thinks Half Life 3 will look like:

  • Semi-Open World
  • A Weather System
  • Day & Night Cycle
  • “Smart NPCs that can talk with you”

We aren't sure whether we believe all the exact details, but we agree that Half Life 3 feels like a sure thing.

Valve's Project "White Sands" Data Leaked

Valve white sands
Valve... What is Project White Sands? | © Valve

Valve has always been a master of secrets and their latest project, code-named "Project White Sands" is no exception. Recently, a slip by a voice actress has put the project back in the spotlight, triggering a wave of rumors among fans.

One of the voice actresses, working on "Project White Sands" has added the project into her online resume, unknowingly about the fact that the project hasn't been announced yet. Although the website has been updated ever since, you're still able to find it through the WayBack Machine.

The discovery and analysis of "Project White Sands" come from Tyler McVicker, who is known for his deep dives into Valve's projects.

In one of his recent videos, he explains how he went through Valve's recent updates, and found out that "Project White Sands" is linked to a single-player title developed by the team behind Half-Life: Alyx. This project, internally referred to as "HLX," has been in the works since Alyx's release over four years ago.

Initially, there was doubt about what HLX actually was – some thought it might just be a technical feature or tool for the game engine rather than a complete game. However, with that much data being leaked we are almost certain that HLX is most likely a fully-developed, non-VR Half-Life game... And so is McVicker:

"Do I think this is Half-Life 3? I gotta be very careful in answering that question, but yes." ~ Tyler McVicker

Malena Rose

Malena is a game design student and writer at EarlyGame. Her life-long passion for videogames inspired her to make a living out of it. Through her studies in Game Design, she now plays an active role within the gaming industry....