Dataminer Thinks Half-Life 3 Is In Development After Resume Leak

Valve might finally be working on Half-Life 3, according to a Half-Life expert and a recent credit in an actor’s resume.

Over the weekend, Half-Life fans spotted a now-removed credit on a voice actress’s resume that marked, “Project White Sands (video game),” and speculated that it could be referencing a new Half-Life game. This is due to the resume directly mentioning that it was a project with Valve, and also that “White Sands” is a park and missile range in New Mexico. Protagonist Gordon Freeman’s former employer, Black Mesa, is located in the New Mexico desert.

Now, Valve expert Tyler McVicker has created a video explaining why he thinks Project White Sands could be the next fully fledged non-VR Half-Life game. He reported that another single-player Half-Life game was in pre-production around the same time as Half-Life: Alyx, and the codename was HLX.

Through datamining Valve’s Source 2 projects and games like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2, Vickers said that the character in HLX wears an HEV suit and goes “off-world,” to places with things like “xengorillas,” and “pentatanks.” He thinks that these were actually cut from Half-Life: Alyx but were still being worked on in some capacity.

He also initially wasn’t sure if HLX was just an engine feature or file format for saves, but due to the recent leak from the voice actor, he believes that Project White Sands is the internal codename of HLX.

Vickers finished the video saying that he thinks the project is in fact Half-Life 3. Back in 2021, Vickers didn’t think Half-Life 3 was in development yet, saying that at the time, the Steam Deck handheld was Valve’s priority.