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The Valve Index is selling out in Canada and the U.S., only one week after Valve Corporation revealed its new VR Half-Life title (via RoadtoVR).
Half-Life: Alyx is Valve’s latest entry into the classic series, and will be a wholly VR venture. Focusing on Alyx Vance’s attempts to resist the Combine, the adventure will follow the franchise’s fusion of puzzle and combat gameplay experiences. When the developer was experimenting with the possibilities of VR, it was surprised by how well Half-Life worked with the tech. “We thought we had something playtesters would finish in 15 minutes, and instead, players spent 45 minutes exploring it, and didn’t want to stop,” said Half-Life: Alyx programmer Robin Walker.
Neato. Well, according to Valve’s October 2019 hardware and software survey of Steam users, only 37 per cent of them are “VR ready”, and that statement is based on the user’s graphics processing unit alone. Only 1.03 per cent of users use a VR headset and of these, 0.05 per cent are donning a Valve Index. That could all change, however. RoadtoVR found that the Valve Index went out of stock on Steam’s Canadian and U.S. store sites not long after the game was announced.
Valve bundles the Index because it’s got bits and bobs to go with it, like the unique controllers and base stations. Three of these bundles are currently sold out: the headset, controllers, and Half-Life: Alyx; headset and Half-Life: Alyx; and the controllers and Half-Life: Alyx. Before the game’s reveal, all of the bundles were available for immediate dispatch from these stores. VR has its doubters, but not many of them are Half-Life fans, it seems.
The Index, base stations, controllers, and Half-Life: Alyx bundle is priced at $999.00, or £919.00, or ‘way too many pennies for me thanks for the offer though’. There were concerns that the expensiveness of VR kits and the accompanying hardware to run the games smoothly would price people out of Half-Life: Alyx. That fact remains, but what this does tell us is that people are extremely enthusiastic for the new game, even after twelve whole years.
Half-Life: Alyx is out for the Valve Index in March, 2020.
