My current theory is that mainline Half-Life titles will be traditional games while HL: Alyx sequels will be VR only.
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If Half-Life: Alyx succeeds in sales, can we expect Half-Life 3 to be in VR as well?
- Thread starter Empyrean Cocytus
- Start date
After the reception this game is getting I think we can expect very good sales numbers, at least for being a VR game. Going back to a 2D game doesn't make sense now. What they need to do now is keep improving and evolving this formula even more.
HL3 will only exist *if* VR justifies it. It makes no sense financially for them to invest that much in a single player non-VR exclusive.
Now calculate how much this game has pushed VR mindshare, index sales and Steam VR. Individual sales do not matter for Valve, just how fast they can push the medium forward.
Current peak is 42k and I feel this tweet comes across somewhat ignorant. Gabe even mentioned in the recent interview that it's not about how much money it makes. This game is for providing that hype and breakthrough for VR as whole. If one sticks to traditional medium, then there will never be anything new. There were similar people, who mocked smart phones, saying that those were for the few rich/business/tech savvy people. Now it's an inseparable piece of tech in everybody's life. VR/AR devices of some form will become that, is what I strongly think, in the near future and Valve is contributing to it.
What kind of bitter take is that? Did he think Valve wasn't aware of the size of the addressable market? Clearly they aren't all that focused on sales of the game alone.
I hope this is true because Alyx is on another level. The best experience I've ever had with a game period. I honestly hope that this goes to PSVR so that they can have an opportunity to play it. The more that experience this, the better.
On one hand I'm bummed that I don't personally have the gear to play this game, on the other hand I respect Valve for taking this different route and trying to push a platform forward at the loss of a bunch of sales.
I'm sure someday I'll be able to give it a go.
He should have waited a few minutes, jumped up to 42k concurrent like someone above said. Which is straight up unprecedented for a PCVR game. I follow concurrent users constantly, and the highest I've seen before this was Boneworks at maybe 8k?
This. By the time Half Life 3 releases, if it ever does, VR hardware will likely have cracked some of it's most important improvements. Things like eye-tracking and foveated rendering, body tracking and hand-tracking. The leap from Alyx to 3 will be just as big as 2 to Alyx, if Valve play their cards right.
On the other hand, the leap from Alyx to a traditional Half Life 3 in say 5 years just isn't... I mean where can you really go with it, especially at a time where other VR FPS titles will have their own improvements over Alyx.
Not suddenly, no. However we're talking at least 4 years of development time, and that's if they start tomorrow.
It has nothing to do with worth for them. They aren't a standard game company where they have to chase units sold. They're most likely to do a project because it excites them. Keep in mind that ONE cs go crate very likely brings in more than most full games in revenue. They ain't hurtin for money.
You can relax in a chair with VR, and it won't be clunky by the time Half Life 3 actually released.
This is what people need to realize; technology, amazingly progresses.
Valve really doesn't care, and it will grow in the long development cycle of another Half Life title.
Half life will make it less niche. And the gaming industry will benefit greatly from it.
Yeah finally a big company that is trying to push the medium forward instead of making the next GaaS loot shooter money grab and still a lot of people complain. It's really shitty. I hate this sentiment.
I get that some people have problems with VR. Like uncomfortable to use, getting motion sick, too expensive, too fiddly.
But all of these things won't get worked on if VR isn't pushed farther. A game like Alyx will help to spread VR more and if VR is growing, problems will get solves more quickly, hardware will become cheaper and more devs will be interested in offering (optional) VR content.
@topic: I am really not sure about Half-Life 3. Making it non-VR would be a huge downgrade to what we have now. But making Half-Life 3 non-VR and Alyx 2 VR also makes sense.
Still too much movement for my tastes. Realize that I even consider gyro aiming to be terrible. I know I'm not representative of everyone but still.
Yeah, I've been holding out until PS5 and PSVR2 to get into VR. I have to imagine they would put it on that. Is it on all VR platform stores?
It's only on Steam but you can use near enough any VR set with it.
Personally, on social media I only see people talk about Animal Crossing and to a lesser extent, Doom.
I don't have the feeling that it has had a great impact on the general public.
Valve is a company with foresight, and they aren't necessarily looking to pump out a game for MASS SALES and REVENUE. because lets be honest, they have steam to keep their pockets filled, which opens them up for creative freedom and do interesting products. So in my mind I see them do another VR game to raise the bar even more within that medium, in combination with future headsets just to push the VR medium forward.
While I get what you are saying, and I agree Valve is unique in the industry, I don't think they would justify spending the budget to produce a full Episode 3, let alone HL3, spending one would presume AAA levels of money and resources, to then relegate it to a niche market of their VR ecosystem which might not even make up the budget. It's all conjecture, but if they don't limit the game development I worry it would lose money or maybe break even. If they don't care about money, which I mean part of the reason they've made some of the choices they have seems to be because of the financial benefits, they still have to consider the fan reaction.
Ultimately if you want to ignore everything I've said before, I believe it would be hubris to create the conclusion to one of the most beloved trilogies in modern gaming to the still nascent VR segment of the industry after almost 15 years of waiting for the story to be concluded. Especially after The Orange Box seemed to give hopes to "everybody" that the series was expanding its presence to be available to as many people as possible.
Like, imagine if Sony made TLOU 2 exclusive to PSVR. That doesn't even encapsulate the HL3 scenario, but I don't think many people would believe it was a smart decision even irrespective of money.
Now a DLC/Episode of TLOU with the PSVR and new 3D audio would be absolutely terrifying and incredible, lol.
It just released a few hours ago. That's not really a fair comparison.
Well that might be a problem with Half-Life knowing it would involve movement. But I think people always overestimate how much movement motion controls involves - it's not much if the game doesn't go crazy with it.
You said that you are basically incompatible with VR for this reason. That can't be true longer term though, because VR allows you to be seated and use a gamepad, and will have fixed it's clunykness at some point.
So maybe motion controlled VR games might not be your thing, but gamepad VR definitely seems applicable, at least with more comfort improvements.
It is not just now, it is the months before. People were anxious about those two games, they made memes, there was noise in social media. You could know that the games were coming even without being a gamer.
I only read about Alyx on sites like this one dedicated to video games. I daresay I saw more noise with AstroBot.
It got a ton of attention when it was announced. Not sure you could miss it.
You said it yourself, when it was announced. Right now? No that much.
The company that's all about chasing currently hot trends like MOBAs or card battlers isn't about to restrict its own market that much.
There is still a lot of innovation to be made in VR, I don't think Valve wants anything to do with non-VR since it won't be pushing the industry forward
We can absolutely expect HL 3 to be a VR game already
Watch the latest Gabe interview by IGN.
They know that sales wont be amazing due to the low user base in VR. They are interested in the reception from reviewers and etc.
And the reception couldnt possible be better
So yeah, expect HL 3 to be a VR game, whenever it releases
Watch the latest Gabe interview by IGN.
They know that sales wont be amazing due to the low user base in VR. They are interested in the reception from reviewers and etc.
And the reception couldnt possible be better
So yeah, expect HL 3 to be a VR game, whenever it releases
I think that they really found their footing with VR, imo VR is not a trend it's just too expensive to have mass appeal, but once costs go down there would be a great demand for titles like Alyx.
More like £200-300, and by the time their next Half Life game releases, there's no question you'd be able to buy headsets for under 100.