Half Life: Alyx - The VR "Killer App" That Likely Wasn't

[Octavean]

More recently, 4K was launched in 2012, 8 years ago. On the TV side that took several years to have a worthwhile amount of content to justify the purchase, and on the PC monitor side, we are just now barely able to use them at an acceptable frame rate..... 8 years later, and only with the highest end hardware available.

You make a good point.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't a legit use case for 4K displays beyond gaming and I've had 4K displays for a number of years (possibly 5 or so years) regardless of GPU prowess with respect to gaming.

4K is for programmers / Tiamat

tiamat.tsotech.com

The good thing about the 4K resolution is that it scales well to 1080p if you don't have the GPU prowess to drive it for games. I get that if you're a hammer everything looks like a nail but there are definitely reasons to have a 4K display whether you can play at that resolution realistically or not (or have access to 4K media). Perhaps not for everyone but that doesn't change that facts because this is a question that individuals must answer for themselves.

Likewise even if we didn't have the mainstream VR industry at the ready it doesn't mitigate the legitimate use case of VR / AR in other aspects and other industries.

 

[Ruru]

Never played any HL game for more than 5 minutes so this didn't cause any reactions to me. I guess it's better late than never; I should get Black Mesa and try 'em out.

But for me, Beat Saber was the reason to buy an used Oculus CV1 from my friend when he upgraded to Rift S.

 

[Equus_Ferus_Caballus]

I really want to play it, but VR headsets are too expensive and the requirements to run a VR game are too high for a majority of the market to grasp, as well as the physical space requirements, in my opinion.
Maybe in a year or two when i save up for a headset. (probably a Vive or index)

 

[candle_86]

There are a number of different factors at play here. Pairing it down to cost of HMD and available VR games to play or a "Killer" VR title doesn't do justice to the complexity.

HMD's from different manufacturers were selling out before Half-Life: Alyx was released but the supply started to become an issue around the time that the game was rumored / announced. Money isn't necessarily an issue because the ~$1000 USD Valve Index was back-ordered and difficult to keep in stock so Valve grossly underestimated demand. So while a lot of people will loudly cite cost of VR hardware as an impediment a lot of people silently just buy it.

Back in August 2018, I posted a thread on a Lenovo Explore WMR HMD model that was going for ~$99 USD without controllers and $199 with controllers. So prices have gone up and availability has gone down since then.

There are also a lot of people that unrealistically expect the best HMD that money can buy for pennies on the dollar and that isn't going to happen anytime soon. These are likely some of the same people that took issue with Intel's Extreme Edition processor pricing hitting the multi thousand dollar threshold. There is reason to bristle at this but only a change in the industry will change such things and in the meantime are you going to stop using a computer out of protest,...? Also no one needs an Intel EE processor (or a Xeon for that matter at least not for games).

People who are truly interested in VR don't necessarily need a "killer" app or game to sell them on it.

Conversely there are a people who are averse to VR and can't be sold on it no matter what.

No I'll wait for a price drop, I didn't adopt lcd until 2011, when screens that didn't give me migraines dropped below 100, until then the budget panels still used ccfl and ccfl gives me migraines. When vr quality is even with a good $100-150 monitor while costing the same price I might consider it. But then I also look at my game pad, joystick, and macro board and realize how little I use "gaming" peripherals.

Prove the quality is good, it's affordable, and it's more useful than my macropad and we might have a sale.

 

[Fierce Guppy]

What an absurd article given the current situation. Many people are waiting until they receive their Valve Index/controllers before playing Half-Life: Alyx. There's still a delay of 8 weeks between when orders are placed and when orders are shipped, and THAT's if your lucky enough to be living in a country where the gear is available to buy.


"However, as it stands, the game was not unlike a popping balloon: it peaked at 16,459 concurrent players on the day of release, and has since seemingly settled in a 3,000 average concurrent player count. This speaks nothing of the game's quality, as we've seen: it speaks to the adoption of VR."

I mean, what a derp moment....

 

[sepheronx]

Its not price alone. VR headsets have been as expensive as an average console, multiple times already and PSVR, like you mention, was really accessible. It even had a nice peak in sales.... and then it died. If people really wanted it, they could have jumped even after tasting PSVR... They knew there were better versions of it. Right now, in the VR topic, I see 200-300 dollar headsets of good quality pass by. That's what, two packs of toilet paper in 2020...

You may have to link me to Canadian priced sites with those VR headsets then. At those prices I would buy one. But over here they tend to be double the price what you guys pay as I mentioned in my post.

 

[NC37]

Price is the problem. VR systems outside of US are expensive. A PSVR for PS4 is rather cheap here. But something to work on PC on other hand costs almost double the price.

Exactly and I've said it before and I'll say it again, Sony bombed big with the PSVR. If they would have enabled it to be used outside of PS4 and set the standard for entry level VR, we'd be seeing a different VR market today. Heck I would have likely bought one since the price was within reason for what you got.

 

[Vya Domus]

Many people are waiting until they receive their Valve Index/controllers before playing Half-Life: Alyx.

Many meaning what ? Potentially hundreds of thousands ? Let's be realistic, the bulk of the people who wanted to play it have played.

 

[londiste]

Exactly and I've said it before and I'll say it again, Sony bombed big with the PSVR. If they would have enabled it to be used outside of PS4 and set the standard for entry level VR, we'd be seeing a different VR market today. Heck I would have likely bought one since the price was within reason for what you got.

http://www.trinusvirtualreality.com/psvr/
Honestly, PS4 (even Pro) leaves to be desired when it comes to performance in VR.

 

[Fierce Guppy]

Many meaning what ? Potentially hundreds of thousands ? Let's be realistic, the bulk of the people who wanted to play it have played.

Meaning that due to the high demand for Valve's VR gear, Valve is struggling to reduce the long waiting time for buyers to receive their VR gear. It is then stupid to claim among other things that the asking price for VR gear is inhibiting mainstream adoption, or that the interest in Half-Life: Alyx has dropped to a low level while demand for Valve's VR gear outstrips supply. Do you understand? Does the author understand? Those people who have not received their order will not yet be playing Half-Life: Alyx. I won't be playing Half-LIfe: Alyx until I have the Index Knuckles to go with my HTC Vive. Other controllers just don't cut it.

 

[Vayra86]

Meaning that due to the high demand for Valve's VR gear, Valve is struggling to reduce the long waiting time for buyers to receive their VR gear. It is then stupid to claim among other things that the asking price for VR gear is inhibiting mainstream adoption, or that the interest in Half-Life: Alyx has dropped to a low level while demand for Valve's VR gear outstrips supply. Do you understand? Does the author understand? Those people who have not received their order will not yet be playing Half-Life: Alyx. I won't be playing Half-LIfe: Alyx until I have the Index Knuckles to go with my HTC Vive. Other controllers just don't cut it.

You realize this stuff released in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, and that VR Headsets have been available for many years now?

Its quite a stretch that, just because you are still waiting, everybody else is doing the same. A much bigger leap than the consensus that VR isn't really gaining momentum all that much. Some, but not much.

As for demand bigger than supply... that is just about standard procedure for ANY new product release.

 

[londiste]

As for demand bigger than supply... that is just about standard procedure for ANY new product release.

Wasn't Index released last summer?

 

[Octavean]

Many meaning what ? Potentially hundreds of thousands ? Let's be realistic, the bulk of the people who wanted to play it have played.

This is unlikely.

The Valve Half-Life: Alyx forums are clogged with none players who want to play the game But can’t or won’t due to the VR prerequisite. This usually takes the form of a complaint or a request to make a non-VR version of the game. This doesn’t address the “sour grapes“ demographic, which are the people who want to play but won’t admit it. They are tougher to spot but having a very strong opinion of the game (saying it’s garbage for example) while having zero experience with it could be a sign.

Exactly and I've said it before and I'll say it again, Sony bombed big with the PSVR. If they would have enabled it to be used outside of PS4 and set the standard for entry level VR, we'd be seeing a different VR market today. Heck I would have likely bought one since the price was within reason for what you got.

You may have a point there but that would be difficult or impossible to quantify.

I too would have liked to have seen the PSVR made available to PC users as a viable official option. That would have put the PSVR in direct competition with the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. The PSVR tracking would have put it at something of a disadvantage IMO but it would have been forgivable at a lower price point.

I don’t really fault Sony for this decision though. Ultimately, the bigger missed opportunity IMO would be Microsoft’s decision not to allow support for WMR HMD’s on the Xbox One. Microsoft did the opposite of what Sony did When they could have had their VR HMD on their own in-house gaming set top box as well as PC.

 

[Vayra86]

Wasn't Index released last summer?

Sure but if sales surge because only now there is content to really use it, isn't it de facto a new release?

Point being, a sudden shortage does not point at massive popularity and it certainly doesn't point to mass adoption.

This is unlikely.

The Valve Half-Life: Alyx forums are clogged with none players who want to play the game But can’t or won’t due to the VR prerequisite. This usually takes the form of a complaint or a request to make a non-VR version of the game. This doesn’t address the “sour grapes“ demographic, which are the people who want to play but won’t admit it. They are tougher to spot but having a very strong opinion of the game (saying it’s garbage for example) while having zero experience with it could be a sign.

Sales don't lie, they never do. Everything else is hot air. So far, the concurrent player counts do not point at momentum. The total number of sold headsets don't either. That is what we have.

 

[candle_86]

Meaning that due to the high demand for Valve's VR gear, Valve is struggling to reduce the long waiting time for buyers to receive their VR gear. It is then stupid to claim among other things that the asking price for VR gear is inhibiting mainstream adoption, or that the interest in Half-Life: Alyx has dropped to a low level while demand for Valve's VR gear outstrips supply. Do you understand? Does the author understand? Those people who have not received their order will not yet be playing Half-Life: Alyx. I won't be playing Half-LIfe: Alyx until I have the Index Knuckles to go with my HTC Vive. Other controllers just don't cut it.

Vr isn't even close to mainstream adoption, the mainstream are the people with 200-300 gpus, 100-150 monitors, and ryzen 5 or i5 CPUs.

 

[Vya Domus]

Other controllers just don't cut it.

Of course they do, many people have played it with other controllers and said it worked absolutely flawlessly. Regardless, you seem to be absolutely convinced for some reason that there will be an explosion in the number of people playing this once they receive this thing. It's not clear at all as to why that'd be the case but OK.

I'll also add this : whoever had the 1000$ or whatever for the Valve VR gear probably was already into VR and had the means to play it. I just can't picture how someone that desperate wouldn't have given in and played the game anyway.

The Valve Half-Life: Alyx forums are clogged with none players who want to play the game But can’t or won’t due to the VR prerequisite.

If they wanted to play the game that bad they'd buy a VR kit, but they didn't, so clearly the incentive to play it wasn't that high. I sure would have liked to play the game but it simply didn't convince me to buy a VR set.

It's a "want to be in shape but puts no effort in it" kind of thing to make an analogy. Many people would like to but most can't be bothered, a few will do it though, can you really put both in the same group ? Clearly somewhere you'd have to draw a line between those who mean it and those who don't.

 

[Octavean]

If they wanted to play the game that bad they'd buy a VR kit, but they didn't, so clearly the incentive to play it wasn't that high. I sure would have liked to play the game but it simply didn't convince me to buy a VR set.

It's a "want to be in shape but puts no effort in it" kind of thing to make an analogy. Many people would like to but most can't be bothered, a few will do it though, can you really put both in the same group ? Clearly somewhere you'd have to draw a line between those who mean it and those who don't.

That is a fairly good analogy and I totally agree.

It is at times difficult to make the distinction definitively between those that legitimately want an avenu to play the game and those that are just trolling or trying to stir the pot.

The point I was trying to make was subtle though. How badly someone wants to play HL:A isn’t the point but rather that there are those in the gaming community that feel underserved by the requirements to play (VR prerequisite) but otherwise would play. It’s a reality that there were a lot of people waiting for a new Half-Life game.

Ergo, the number of people wanting to play is greater then the number of people actually playing. Statistics about an installed base in this respect is irrelevant.

This is not a referendum on VR pro or con, it’s about the basic desire of a gamer to play,.....a game.

 

[candle_86]

That is a fairly good analogy and I totally agree.

It is at times difficult to make the distinction definitively between those that legitimately want an avenu to play the game and those that are just trolling or trying to stir the pot.

The point I was trying to make was subtle though. How badly someone wants to play HL:A isn’t the point but rather that there are those in the gaming community that feel underserved by the requirements to play (VR prerequisite) but otherwise would play. It’s a reality that there were a lot of people waiting for a new Half-Life game.

Ergo, the number of people wanting to play is greater then the number of people actually playing. Statistics about an installed base in this respect is irrelevant.

This is not a referendum on VR pro or con, it’s about the basic desire of a gamer to play,.....a game.

This gamer won't give valve money for another valve game until I get half life 3, I must know what happened to Judith.

 

[Octavean]

This gamer won't give valve money for another valve game until I get half life 3, I must know what happened to Judith.

Which really drives home the fact that we are all very much aware of,.....

There is a lot of hostility towards Valve for releasing a new Half-Life title that isn’t Half-Life 3 with specificity let alone a VR only title.

Valve knew that there would be a lot of salivation over a new Half-Life title and they weren’t altogether wrong on that point but they are missing the mark on broad appeal and or accessibility. Valve knew this and went along this course anyway,.....

 

[londiste]

There is a lot of hostility towards Valve for releasing a new Half-Life title that isn’t Half-Life 3 with specificity let alone a VR only title.
Valve knew that there would be a lot of salvation over a new Half-Life title and they weren’t altogether wrong on that point but they are missing the mark on broad appeal and or accessibility. Valve knew this and went along this course anyway,.....

This is not a new thing for Valve.
HL2 release had a lot of controversy due to forced Steam installation/account/platform/DRM. Keep in mind that online platforms did exist but were not a major thing at that point.

 

[er557]

snagged the fake VR mod off the web, i.e. for keyboard and mouse, I will try the game tonight, I am not buying that gear in today's economy.
Visit youtube "unreal academy", there are some links there

 

[Octavean]

This is not a new thing for Valve.
HL2 release had a lot of controversy due to forced Steam installation/account/platform/DRM. Keep in mind that online platforms did exist but were not a major thing at that point.

Sure there are a lot of people in the gaming community that have a lot of bones to pick with Valve.

Anger and vitriol very rarely make people think calmly and clearly though.

 

[candle_86]

Sure there are a lot of people in the gaming community that have a lot of bones to pick with Valve.

Anger and vitriol very rarely make people think calmly and clearly though.

I'm not leaving it negative reviews or complaining I just made a choice, one vr gives me headaches on my buddies and two until half life 3 is released gave Newell stays in the dog house as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Octavean]

I'm not leaving it negative reviews or complaining I just made a choice, one vr gives me headaches on my buddies and two until half life 3 is released gave Newell stays in the dog house as far as I'm concerned.

As is any individuals right,....

Similarly, someone might say they aren't buying another Valve game until Team Fortress 3 comes out or Portal 3 comes out. It's their prerogative,.....

They might boycott Steam altogether,....

I have no such self imposed limits though,....

If Valve comes out with Portal 3, I'll try playing it if its within my power to play. If its a Portal VR only game I'd be willing to try that too.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Meaning that due to the high demand for Valve's VR gear, Valve is struggling to reduce the long waiting time for buyers to receive their VR gear. It is then stupid to claim among other things that the asking price for VR gear is inhibiting mainstream adoption, or that the interest in Half-Life: Alyx has dropped to a low level while demand for Valve's VR gear outstrips supply. Do you understand? Does the author understand? Those people who have not received their order will not yet be playing Half-Life: Alyx. I won't be playing Half-LIfe: Alyx until I have the Index Knuckles to go with my HTC Vive. Other controllers just don't cut it.

That isn't how the supply chain works in this instance.
The reason for the back order is because of low volumes in manufacturing...aka nobody is willing to take a risk on a product that more than likely won't sell in any kind of profitable volumes so they are taking orders to drastically reduce the risk of loss....They are literally asking you to pay for it before they make it...not only that but they are more than likely waiting for a large group before producing a new batch.
The product here is the Valve Index and they are using Alyx to sell it...while they take little to no risk.
Imagine if Microsoft or Sony took the same approach...


I'm not hating on VR...and I can't wait until someone with an actual business approach takes on the challenge to bring to the masses...What Valve did here was pathetic.
I actually hope Epic takes on VR...