5 years after Half-Life: Alyx reshaped expectations for VR gaming, Valve stays a quiet but vital power within the business. Regardless of little fanfare, the corporate has continued to form the VR panorama via regular updates to SteamVR, integration with standalone headsets like Quest, and whispers of recent {hardware} and video games. Now, because the fifth anniversary of Alyx passes, the query looms bigger than ever: is Valve nonetheless all-in on VR, or is it slowly retreating from the frontier it helped outline? Right here’s what we all know.
All it takes is one little international pandemic and—increase!—Half-Life: Alyx is 5 years outdated. Although it solely felt like two or three years for many people.
In actual fact, the pandemic practically postponed the launch of the sport altogether. Half-Life: Alyx launched in March of 2020—the identical month that a lot of the US started issuing stay-at-home orders in an effort to sluggish the unfold of COVID-19. Many companies have been disrupted in a single day; these fortunate sufficient to have a enterprise mannequin that might be completed remotely needed to scramble to determine learn how to preserve the gears turning whereas enterprise was something however traditional.
That included Valve Software program, the developer of Half-Life: Alyx. Had lockdowns hit only a few weeks earlier, the corporate has mentioned it very effectively may have disrupted the launch of the sport. In actual fact, the pandemic led the corporate to cancel its solely Half-Life: Alyx press preview occasion. Fortunately the sport nonetheless made it out the door on its scheduled March twenty third launch date.
Half-Life: Alyx has been hailed by many not simply because the ‘finest VR sport’, or ‘finest Half-Life‘ sport, however even one of many ‘finest video games ever’. 5 years later, the sport holds the twenty fourth spot on Steam250’s checklist of the most effective rated video games on all of Steam.
However Valve has completed greater than make among the best VR video games up to now. The corporate’s ‘Index’ VR headset lengthy stood because the premier alternative for PC VR, and let’s not neglect that Steam’s complete VR help has made it the lifeblood of the PC VR business within the final 5 years.
Regardless of having such an impression on the form of the VR panorama, Valve has been very quiet about its plans for the class in the previous few years. There’s been basically zero official bulletins of any main plans (like a brand new VR sport or headset).
So then, what’s Valve as much as in VR—if something? Right here’s what we all know.
What’s Subsequent for Valve in VR
For one, we shouldn’t disregard that SteamVR has remained the singularly most essential PC VR platform up to now. The corporate has made sluggish however significant updates to SteamVR over time. The most important addition lately got here on the finish of 2023 when Valve unexpectedly launched the Steam Hyperlink app for Quest headsets, which made it extra handy for Quest customers to play SteamVR video games wirelessly from their PC.
And it seems like Valve isn’t completed with Steam Hyperlink. Latest datamining from dependable sources factors to the corporate working to launch Steam Hyperlink on new headsets just like the Vive Focus headsets from HTC and Pico headsets from Bytedance.
Additional, evidently Valve has extra plans to enhance wi-fi PC VR for standalone headsets. References present in latest Valve software program level to a “SteamVR Hyperlink Dongle,” which is more and more anticipated to be a USB system to create a devoted wi-fi hyperlink between the consumer’s PC and headset.
At present, whenever you use Steam Hyperlink, your headset wants to connect with your router after which your router wants to connect with your PC. Should you’re enjoying inside a room or two of the router, it’ll most likely work simply effective. However for individuals with subpar wi-fi setups (or those who need to crank their bandwidth to the max for the very best quality), it’s not unusual to see connection-related high quality points like stuttering or pixelation.
Assuming it really works like anticipated, a SteamVR Hyperlink Dongle would create a direct connection between the PC and the headset. Not solely would this minimize out the intermediary of the router, it will additionally imply having a wi-fi connection of identified functionality that might permit Valve to fine-tune issues for probably the most seamless PC VR expertise. Datamining suggests the dongle would use Wi-Fi 6E.
It’s unclear if the SteamVR Hyperlink Dongle would help third-party headsets like Quest, or if it’s being designed as an adjunct for Valve’s long-rumored ‘Deckard’ headset.
Valve’s Subsequent VR Headset
After the 2019 launch of Index, the primary critical hints that Valve was engaged on a brand new VR headset got here within the type of patents that filed in 2020. The patents envisioned a number of concepts from the corporate together with a totally standalone headset and a variety of ergonomic designs.
It’s been 5 years since these patents have been first printed. And regardless of no definitive announcement {that a} new headset is within the works, a drip of clues from Valve itself and datamining efforts recommend the corporate remains to be actively engaged on a brand new VR headset, even whether it is taking place on Valve Time™.
It was only a few months in the past {that a} 3D mannequin of beforehand unseen VR controllers—believed to be designed for Valve’s subsequent headset—confirmed up in not too long ago up to date SteamVR recordsdata. The controllers didn’t simply present recent hope that Valve was nonetheless at work on a brand new VR headset, additionally they trace towards the way in which the headset might be positioned.
Valve’s ‘Deckard’ headset (which can be branded as ‘Index 2’) is regarded as a standalone headset that primarily streams content material from a number PC working SteamVR. That is basically the identical factor that anybody utilizing a Quest headset and Steam Hyperlink makes use of right now.
However the format of the leaked Deckard controllers—which has a conventional format with a D-pad on the left aspect and 4 face-buttons on the precise aspect—means that Valve may place the headset for each VR video games and enjoying flatscreen VR content material on an enormous digital display.
In spite of everything, SteamVR already helps enjoying flatscreen video games on an enormous digital display. However as a result of nearly all VR controllers right now don’t fairly mirror normal gamepads, enter compatibility isn’t assured. Which suggests if you wish to go from enjoying a VR sport to a flatscreen sport on a digital display, you could have to set down your VR controllers and choose up a gamepad.
If the Deckard controllers stick to the standard gamepad format, it might be a lot simpler for gamers to maneuver between VR video games and flatscreen video games and again once more.
Much more not too long ago than the controller leak, a leaker who has revealed correct information on a variety of Valve-specific tasks previously claims Valve’s subsequent headset will launch in 2025 with a worth of $1,200.
Whereas we are able to’t independently confirm that declare, there’s a minimum of some proof that it may not be a complete farce.
Brad Lynch, a dataminer who has established himself over time as a dependable supply of Valve-related information, uncovered newly added references to “Deckard EV2” within the newest launch of SteamVR simply final week.
EV2 doubtless refers to a second “Engineering Validation” system, which suggests the headset is getting nearer to manufacturing. There may certainly be an EV3 or EV4 to come back, however in keeping with Lynch, Valve’s Steam Deck OLED handheld reached EV2 earlier than heading to manufacturing. Additional, he says “I’m very assured [Valve’s next headset] might be revealed this 12 months.”
Valve’s Subsequent VR Recreation
Half-Life: Alyx launched again in early 2020 to close common acclaim. 5 years later it stays one of many largest and most polished VR video games ever made. Even so, it’s unclear if the corporate was pleased with the gross sales efficiency of the sport in comparison with the time and sources required to make it.
Whether or not or not Valve will commit to creating one other VR sport of that scale remains to be an open query. However right here’s what we all know.
Final month, the identical Valve leaker that claimed the Deckard headset would launch in 2025 additionally claimed the corporate is sort of set to ship video games or demos “which can be already completed,” particularly for Deckard.
This aligns with particulars from Tyler McVicker, a long-time Valve dataminer who beforehand unearthed important particulars about Half-Life: Alyx within the years main as much as the sport’s launch.
Lower than a 12 months in the past McVicker mentioned he discovered proof that Valve was constructing one other VR sport alongside work on the Deckard headset. And whereas Valve has loads of main IP to attract from, McVicker believes the corporate’s subsequent VR sport might be one other entry within the Half-Life sequence. Or it might be two entries within the sequence, technically.
McVicker believes the sport might be an uneven co-op sport the place one half of the sport is constructed for a flatscreen participant on PC and the opposite half for a VR participant.
“The pc participant would all the time be Gordon Freeman, whereas the VR participant can be Alyx Vance. The thought was that these two characters would work together, with the VR participant experiencing Alyx’s story and the PC participant experiencing Gordon’s story, each having cooperative parts between them,” he mentioned.
Maybe Valve envisions this sport as a cohesive expertise to unite its two newest {hardware} tasks: Steam Deck and Deckard?
For Valve’s half, the corporate isn’t prepared to substantiate or deny its work on a brand new headset or VR sport. We reached out to the corporate to ask if it had something to share about its future VR plans on the 5 12 months anniversary of Half-Life: Alyx.
“We don’t have something new to share proper now however […] we’ve actually loved seeing all of the cool experiences that folk have created and uploaded to the Half-Life: Alyx Workshop,” a spokesperson instructed Highway to VR.
Valve is Not like Virtually Any Different Firm
There’s one thing value understanding about Valve that places all the things above into context. The corporate has a novel ‘flat’ administration construction that’s not shared by any peer in the identical weight class as Valve. In comparison with most firms, Valve offers its staff considerably extra freedom to determine what the corporate builds and releases.
As described by the Valve Worker Handbook, it’s largely as much as staff on the firm to decide on what tasks to tackle, and to encourage others to hitch them. If an worker needs to work on one thing however can’t encourage others to assist construct it, that venture most likely received’t go wherever.
However when a venture does get traction, the group constructing it’s usually comprised of people that genuinely imagine in what they’re constructing. Other than having the coffers to pay for world-class expertise, this can be a main purpose why Valve punches far above its weight class regardless of having a comparatively small workforce in comparison with business friends.
Valve is probably not releasing new headsets or VR video games yearly, however the regular enhancements to SteamVR—and the occasional hints of one thing brewing behind the scenes—recommend there’s nonetheless a gaggle inside the firm that genuinely believes VR is value constructing.
