Half-Life: Alyx launched 5 years in the past.
Thought-about by many to be the very best VR recreation ever made, Alyx arrived just below 9 months after Index as the primary of the three “full” Valve VR video games the corporate had teased earlier than the headset’s launch.
The issue, in fact, is that the opposite two video games by no means arrived, with Valve confirming upon Alyx’s launch that they weren’t even in improvement. Within the virtually six years since launching the $1000 Index, Valve has launched only one recreation and commissioned two 15-minute demos, Aperture Hand Lab and Moondust.
Valve: “At The Second, There Aren’t Three Different VR Titles In Improvement”
Again in February 2017, Valve’s Gabe Newell revealed that the corporate was engaged on three ‘full’ VR video games. Over three years on, and we lastly have a kind of video games in Half-Life: Alyx, out right this moment (evaluation right here!). Are there nonetheless two different new Valve VR video games on the best way?
No different gaming platform holder would get away with this. Think about the response, and the headlines, had Nintendo performed this with Change, or Sony with PlayStation 5. However for some cause Valve is given a free go.
In actual fact, paradoxically, it is Meta that’s consistently accused of abandoning, or being on the verge of abandoning, VR gaming. Yearly with out fail, our trade comes up with rumors and theories about how Meta will pull out of gaming any second now. But since Alyx launched, Meta has delivered Medal of Honor: Above and Past, Lone Echo 2, Resident Evil 4 VR, Murderer’s Creed Nexus, Asgard’s Wrath 2, and Batman: Arkham Shadow – basically a blockbuster VR title yearly, a minimum of. It has additionally funded a whole bunch of smaller builders, whereas we have seen no indication of Valve doing the identical.
Meta: “We’re Nonetheless Investing Massively In VR Gaming And Don’t Plan To Cease”
Meta says it funded over 100 VR & blended actuality titles that shipped in 2024, in addition to over 200 at the moment in “lively manufacturing”.
I convey up Valve’s lack of dedication to VR as a result of for my part, it is one of many few firms that really understands the medium, and thus its absence is sorely felt.
Half-Life: Alyx is not a flatscreen recreation shoehorned into VR, as so many different VR titles sadly nonetheless are. It is an instance of content material made out of the bottom up for digital actuality. Regardless of its narrative scale, Alyx focuses on polished and compelling hand interactions, does not get slowed down by janky IK arms, and prioritizes a pointy presentation with high-resolution textures and prime quality supplies over flashy dynamic lighting.
In our timeline, SteamVR has grown over the previous six years, however at a glacial tempo. Can we think about a timeline the place Valve leveraged its different IPs like Counter-Strike, Portal, Left 4 Useless, Staff Fortress, and Dota to launch a blockbuster SteamVR title yearly, and even each few years? Is it actually an excessive amount of to ask that the one firm to make severe revenue from PC VR invests in its future?
“However that is simply not Valve’s model!” you could argue. And you could be proper. However in that case Valve may fund different builders to construct nice SteamVR content material. Fairly than fee Cloudhead Video games to make a 15-minute Portal-themed demo, why not a 15-hour Portal-themed recreation?
“However Valve simply does not need to artificially inflate the market!”, you could additional retort. However in that case, why launch Alyx within the first place, and why tease the opposite two “full” Valve VR video games?
“However Valve is a a lot smaller firm than Meta!”, you could proceed. And whereas it is true that Valve is not Meta scale, it is not as small because it’s typically depicted. Valve is estimated to herald $10 billion income every year, and Gabe Newell reportedly owns an “armada” of luxurious superyachts. Valve hasn’t been an indie darling for many years now. It will possibly afford to spend money on VR.
Half-Life: Alyx Assessment – Supremely Polished, Surprisingly Acquainted, Often Awkward And Unshakably Important VR
Second possibilities. Not everybody will get one. And but, in Half-Life: Alyx, Valve finds itself with a humiliation of them. Overlook all that ‘again from the useless’ stuff for a minute; you don’t want me to let you know Half-Life has been away for a really very long time. Extra urgent is
How Newell spends his cash is finally as much as him. But when we will name for larger funding in VR gaming from platform holders, Valve must be on the prime of our checklist. I say this as a result of I like Half-Life: Alyx, and I consider our trade would vastly profit from seeing extra from the geniuses behind it.
