In a Valve-esque ‘put your money where you mouth is’ move, the company has affirmed that Half-Life: Alyx will support any SteamVR capable headset, which includes Valve’s own Index as well as headsets from Oculus, HTC, WMR, and Pimax. The move underscores the company’s yearslong commitment to making Steam an open platform for VR content and hardware. Owners of Index (or even just the Index controllers) do get a nice perk for their expensive purchase though: a free copy of Half-Life: Alyx.
If you haven’t been paying close attention to the VR space, you might be surprised at just how prominent Valve is in the space. Not only has the company turned Steam into one of the leading storefronts for VR content, it’s also the platform with the widest range of headset support. Valve even supports its competitor Oculus’ headsets on Steam, despite the Facebook-owned company keeping its own Oculus platform exclusive to Rift headsets.
Half-Life: Alyx is compatible with the full range of SteamVR capable headsets, including Valve’s own Index, Oculus Rift & Rift S, HTC’s Vive, Vive Pro, and Vive Cosmos, all WMR headsets, Pimax, and then some.
More of Today’s Half-Life: Alyx News
- ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Trailer Revealed, Release Date Set for March 2020
- First Look: ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Screenshots Are Classic Valve, with a Decade More Detail
- Valve’s Gabe Newell: ‘We’re excited to return to Half-Life, VR has energized the studio’
- Source 2 Tools Will Ship with ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ for VR Content from the Modding Community
After being an instrumental enabler of the VR industry for years, earlier this year Valve released its own VR headset called Index, which has turned out to be a top pick for enthusiasts.
Half-Life: Alyx will likely ‘play best’ on Index thanks to advanced finger-tracking built into the controllers, but that isn’t the only treat those with the headset are in for; Valve has said they plan to give the game away free to all owners of the Index headset or controllers (that’s right, if you have a Vive or other headset and only bought Index controllers, you’ll get the game for free as well).
For everyone else, Half-Life: Alyx will cost a full $60, set for release in March 2020.
Valve says that anyone with the appropriate hardware will simply see the game appear in their library when it’s available; no codes to redeem and no redemption dates to risk missing.
Anyone who orders Index hardware (headset or controllers) by the end of 2019 will also get the following bonus content in 2020:
- Explore environments from Half-Life: Alyx in your SteamVR Home space
- Alternate gun skins to embellish Alyx’s arsenal
- Special Half-Life: Alyx-themed content for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive