Confirmed

dusts off the ol’ valve-spiracy hat

It’s curious that they chose “white sands” because that provides 3 possibilities, two of which point to Half-Life or something related.

The first possibility is that name is completely unrelated to the project or the project is unrelated to an existing Valve IP.

The second possibility is that it’ll be another game set sometime around the Black Mesa resonance cascade. White Sands, New Mexico is where the original nuclear bomb test occurred. This suggests that the game may take place in New Mexico (where Black Mesa was located), and possibly before or during the resonance cascade.

The third possibility is that it’ll be the Episode 3 everyone’s wanting. White Sands could also refer to snow, particularly a snowy wasteland. Considering the direction Half-Life is headed in, they could be finally bringing Gordon to the Borealis.

It could also be the new game from the creators of Firewatch. Valve bought Campo Santo when they were working on In the Valley of Gods. The game got shelved later, since everyone helped finishing Alyx. Maybe they are working on it again. I really hope so I liked Firewatch

Borealis buried in the white sands of the Arctic…

and hopefully not VR, single player non VR would be the dream.