What happened to Half-Life Alyx?

[I Will Haunt You]

It was the hype of the year, drove VR sales up big time, got great reviews and now....I've heard next to nothing about it. Did it fizzle out already? The last two things I've read about Alyx were about making it work without VR and those were early demos.

Alyx was supposed to drive VR out of the niche and into the mainstream. Did it have less of an impact than was expected?

 

[LifeisaGame]

I think, just like any other game, that the hype around it has settled. Most people were very happy with the game (like me). But its in Valve's hands now, i expect more VR games from them in the coming years and one of them is definitely going to be a Half-Life game. You need to give it time though, 1 very good game is not enough to make VR not a niche, the impact was big, but like i said time is needed.
Also its not just up to Valve to make good VR games, other triple-A developers need to step in as wel and take note on what Valve did right with Half-Life: Alyx, Valve has set an example before with Half-Life and they can (did) do it again.

I still believe Half-Life: Alyx shifted VR from the backround to more in middle so to speak. Also Valve sold a ton of index's so in a way they are kinda forced to make more VR games, because people are not going to be happy to let a 1000$+ piece of hardware collect dust in a corner somewhere.

This is just my two cents tho.

 

[I Will Haunt You]

I get when other game's hype dies down quickly. The non-VR gaming world is crammed and moves from one to the next quite quickly. Alyx was supposed to be the biggest thing ever to hit VR. I really expected a much longer period of reviews, analysis, debate and whatnot.

I'd imaginge stuff like that exists on VR-centric websites, but I'm rather surprised how quickly it was abandoned by general gaming sites. I think its been almost 3 weeks without an Alyx article on PCG.

 

[lamboto]

The other thing is that VR is still in a niche. The Steam Hardware Survey currently has the percentage of users with VR headsets at 1.91%. The number of owners is higher than that because there are people like me who don't use their VR headset outside of showing friends and family.

It's sort of like when you're at a bar and see a strange sport on TV, you know you don't watch it, but if it's on EPSN3, someone's gotta be watching it. Let's suppose this sport is Turtle Racing, that is what VR is right now. I think you'll see some major coverage in a few years, which I would hope is when the first VR game comes out that's ready for E-Sports.

 

[Kabouter]

The majority of people haven't even had the chance to play the game because they simply lack the equipment. I think this has opened the eyes of the audience and very likely also to the companies, basically pioneering the way for the VR platform to become more mainstream.

However, the investment for most people to even be able to play it is still a very big hurdle, as besides the VR headset you would need a very powerful PC to back it up of course. I think a lot of people are therefore still on the fence, perhaps waiting for the right moment to step in. I'm sure (I hope..) more amazing games will follow HLA's example and new generation of HMD's and new hardware will make it easier for people to take that step.