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

[Fierce Guppy]

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...

It is something I hadn't considered. After all, Valve conceived of the Steam controller, and the Steam Box which everyone apart from Gabe Newell knew was just a PC severely handicapped by SteamOS, and was unwanted and redundant. Once burned twice shy. How do you explain Valve's VR gear being available to only 31 countries? If Valve were sufficiently worried about not selling its VR gear in any kind of profitable volume then surely it would've made the products available to people in many more countries (mine included) rather than constrain production to ensure a backlog of orders?

 

[Octavean]

It is something I hadn't considered. After all, Valve conceived of the Steam controller, and the Steam Box which everyone apart from Gabe Newell knew was just a PC severely handicapped by SteamOS, and was unwanted and redundant. Once burned twice shy. How do you explain Valve's VR gear being available to only 31 countries? If Valve were sufficiently worried about not selling its VR gear in any kind of profitable volume then surely it would've made the products available to people in many more countries (mine included) rather than constrain production to ensure a backlog of orders?

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Perhaps there were some linguistics involved that would result in significantly higher prices With respect to the 31 countries it is currently available in? Higher costs for an already expensive product likely would result in fewer if any units sold.

Just a guess.

 

[Mindweaver]

@Mindweaver Do you mods ever talk to the editors here? It seems there is a negative bias against VR from the editor team all the way back when VR first launched in 2016. Or maybe just to generate more clicks, after all a hateful perspective always attract more readers as we all know Internet is full of haters.

Also, it this your original idea @Raevenlord or consensus from the editor team? Have you ever tried one?

Not really, If I see something early enough I pass the news to our news guys rather than posting it first. I pm'ed all the news team about HLA when I heard about it. Sometimes they are slow to respond (Kind of like my slow response to your post... lol sorry I have been super busy lately.. I didn't even get to play yesterday...). So, I post something. Example: HLA.. lol but we have to remember that we are a PC tech site first.

A) kids don't have jobs, hence have no money
B) people that have vision issues and need corrective eye-ware ( contacts are not for every one. )
C) issues wearing devices that cause motion sickness

All of the things you have listed have been resolved.

• kids have parents that spend a lot of money to just let their kids give it away to twitch channels.. Plus, VR is as cheap as ever. You can get a WMR for as cheap as a cheap monitor.
• They have drop-in vision correction lenses now
• Motion sickness isn't as bad as everyone thinks it was when the first round of hmds launched like the Oculus DK1. I mean there are people that get motion sickness from 3d games on monitors, but we still sell monitors.

Of course, most of the people that played it already had VR sets and have been interested in VR in general for a long time, those who didn't have them just moved on. I love Half-Life and suffice to say ... I moved on.

If you like HL then you would be amazed at HLA in VR. It's truly amazing and Valve has gone above and beyond at making it as easy for anyone to start playing.

 

[kanecvr]

Ever since I first tried a VR headset (a few years ago) I decided to get one, and I've been waiting for the prices to go down. And I'm still waiting. I checked the prices on headsets after reading this article. The cheapest one I can get in my country is the ocuclus rift S and it costs 814$. The HTC Vive cosmos is 950$. The vive pro gull kit is a whopping 2000$. Way WAY to expensive for what it does.

Like me, most consumers are not willing to pay more then 300-350$ (tax included) for such a device - it's just not worth it - especially considering the fact that you also need to beef up your PC (another 500-1000$) with a top-end video card just to get good framerate and avoid motion sickness.

There's another huge issue - people who wear glasses. No manufacturer has bothered to come up with a solution for us.

 

[londiste]

Second-hand 1st generation Oculus and VIVE kits are going for 300-400€ lately. This should be enough to get started and see if this is something for you. Obviously the current-gen kits have benefits over old ones but these cost over a grand more often than not.

 

[Octavean]

Ever since I first tried a VR headset (a few years ago) I decided to get one, and I've been waiting for the prices to go down. And I'm still waiting. I checked the prices on headsets after reading this article. The cheapest one I can get in my country is the ocuclus rift S and it costs 814$. The HTC Vive cosmos is 950$. The vive pro gull kit is a whopping 2000$. Way WAY to expensive for what it does.

Like me, most consumers are not willing to pay more then 300-350$ (tax included) for such a device - it's just not worth it - especially considering the fact that you also need to beef up your PC (another 500-1000$) with a top-end video card just to get good framerate and avoid motion sickness.

There's another huge issue - people who wear glasses. No manufacturer has bothered to come up with a solution for us.

Timing and location are key here.

The Oculus Rift S typically went for about ~$399 USD IIRC which IMO isn’t too bad. Lower would be better naturally. When the original Oculus Rift CV1 was discontinued its MSRP was lowered to ~$350 USD new. What that translates into with respect to exchange rate and tax / VAT globally will vary (unfortunately). There were other cheaper WMR HMD options as well.

The announcement of Half-Life: Alyx and the current global economic shutdown / slowdown translated into scarcity of PC HMD’s ranging from entry level VR HMD’s to the higher end models like the Valve Index.

Simply put, now is not the ideal time to be shopping for a VR HMD.

Having said that, as much as I would like to buy a Vive Index, I honestly don’t think it’s worth the $1000 USD asking price, at least not to me anyway. Also I’m still hearing about Knuckles controller defects and more issues so when it comes to the Valve Index it’s a be carful what you wish for proposition. RMAing tech expensive or otherwise is not fun.

 

[Mindweaver]

Second-hand 1st generation Oculus and VIVE kits are going for 300-400€ lately. This should be enough to get started and see if this is something for you. Obviously the current-gen kits have benefits over old ones but these cost over a grand more often than not.

Yea, that's the downside right now for people not able to get the msrp price... but I can only say that HLA will only get better over time as well. So, when you do jump in it will be even more amazing after we get mod tools. I hope they are working on a HLA deathmatch or something, but if not someone will mod it.

Timing and location are key here.

The Oculus Rift S typically went for about ~$399 USD IIRC which IMO isn’t too bad. Lower would be better naturally. When the original Oculus Rift CV1 was discontinued its MSRP was lowered to ~$350 USD new. What that translates into with respect to exchange rate and tax / VAT globally will vary (unfortunately). There were other cheaper WMR HMD options as well.

The announcement of Half-Life: Alyx and the current global economic shutdown / slowdown translated into scarcity of PC HMD’s ranging from entry level VR HMD’s to the higher end models like the Valve Index.

Simply put, now is not the ideal time to be shopping for a VR HMD.

Having said that, as much as I would like to buy a Vive Index, I honestly don’t think it’s worth the $1000 USD asking price, at least not to me anyway. Also I’m still hearing about Knuckles controller defects and more issues so when it comes to the Valve Index it’s a be carful what you wish for proposition. RMAing tech expensive or otherwise is not fun.

I can say after owning an HTC Vive and a Rift S the Rift S is a good upgrade at a good price. The visuals are much better on the Rift S. The sounds isn't as good but headphones can make it better. I 3d printed some to attach them to my headset and they are as good as the vive das and cheaper. I need to try HLA on my Vive, but we recently moved to our new house and I haven't mounted my light houses.

 

[Octavean]

I can say after owning an HTC Vive and a Rift S the Rift S is a good upgrade at a good price. The visuals are much better on the Rift S. The sounds isn't as good but headphones can make it better. I 3d printed some to attach them to my headset and they are as good as the vive das and cheaper. I need to try HLA on my Vive, but we recently moved to our new house and I haven't mounted my light houses.

I think the HTC Vive was worth buying new at about $500 USD before it was discounted. Had I bought the HTC Vive at that price I could better justify purchasing the Valve Index HMD alone at ~$500 a year or two later.

I haven’t tried the Rift S but I’m sure it’s a great experience Since it should be a notch or two above the Oculus Quest.

The tech that went into the Vive Cosmos which allows for The default inside out tracking to be upgrade to Steam Lighthouse is IMO impressive and I would like to see more of that in future HMDs. Likewise the tech that allows the Oculus Quest to function as a stand alone HMD as well as supporting Oculus Link PC support is also a great approach. Flexibly and options are a great thing IMO.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Ever since I first tried a VR headset (a few years ago) I decided to get one, and I've been waiting for the prices to go down. And I'm still waiting. I checked the prices on headsets after reading this article. The cheapest one I can get in my country is the ocuclus rift S and it costs 814$. The HTC Vive cosmos is 950$. The vive pro gull kit is a whopping 2000$. Way WAY to expensive for what it does.

Like me, most consumers are not willing to pay more then 300-350$ (tax included) for such a device - it's just not worth it - especially considering the fact that you also need to beef up your PC (another 500-1000$) with a top-end video card just to get good framerate and avoid motion sickness.

There's another huge issue - people who wear glasses. No manufacturer has bothered to come up with a solution for us.

Rift S is $750 here. It's the same problem everywhere, VR is at the end of the shopping list which is why uptake is so slow. For example, my shopping list in order is: 4K144 Hz screen -> "big Navi" -> motherboard/processor/RAM -> and then if I have $1000+ I need to make disappear, a VR headset and a game or two. The thing is, those first three are perpetual because of Moore's Law always pushing the goal post further away. I don't see reaching phase 4 for over a decade at the earliest...and I know I'm part of the majority.

PC gaming is a luxury in itself. VR PC gaming is a luxury on a luxury which makes it somewhat exclusive. Until there's some revolution that makes it inclusive, it's not going to get much market share.

 

[Mindweaver]

Rift S is $750 here. It's the same problem everywhere, VR is at the end of the shopping list which is why uptake is so slow. For example, my shopping list in order is: 4K144 Hz screen -> "big Navi" -> motherboard/processor/RAM -> and then if I have $1000+ I need to make disappear, a VR headset and a game or two. The thing is, those first three are perpetual because of Moore's Law always pushing the goal post further away. I don't see reaching phase 4 for over a decade at the earliest...and I know I'm part of the majority.

PC gaming is a luxury in itself. VR PC gaming is a luxury on a luxury which makes it somewhat exclusive. Until there's some revolution that makes it inclusive, it's not going to get much market share.

I hear you buddy, but VR HMD's are expensive right now do to limited manufacturing because of a pandemic. The regular msrp for the Rift S is $399. The msrp on an Quest it $399 and it's an AIO VR HMD. If the Rift S follows the same path as the OG Rift then we should see the Rift S drop to $350 by christmas. It's really exciting to think about how cheap it might be in the next year or two.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Even at $100, it would still be at the end of the list. Maybe $20 I'd buy it because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. That's how I ended up with the Steam Controller and Steam Link. Link only ever got used three times; Controller, never.

 

[Octavean]

Rift S is $750 here. It's the same problem everywhere, VR is at the end of the shopping list which is why uptake is so slow. For example, my shopping list in order is: 4K144 Hz screen -> "big Navi" -> motherboard/processor/RAM -> and then if I have $1000+ I need to make disappear, a VR headset and a game or two. The thing is, those first three are perpetual because of Moore's Law always pushing the goal post further away. I don't see reaching phase 4 for over a decade at the earliest...and I know I'm part of the majority.

PC gaming is a luxury in itself. VR PC gaming is a luxury on a luxury which makes it somewhat exclusive. Until there's some revolution that makes it inclusive, it's not going to get much market share.

I think we can all relate to this sentiment one way or the other. We all have our own lists that we curate.

Since I purchased the parts for a new system late last year I can strike motherboard, processor and RAM from my list. I had planned to upgrade the video card later since for the new build I took advantage of an old GTX970 I had around going unused. I intended to buy an RTX 2060 / 2070 Super or wait for nVidia Ampere. I also planned to buy an HP or Dell server. Failing that a rack mount Synology, QNAP or Asustore NAS With at least 10 HDD bays if not 12 (and HDD shelf support / expansion).

While we’re at it I wouldn’t mind a new all electric vehicles but I haven’t seen one that meets expectations and there is nothing wrong with the vehicle I have now.

All of that has been put on hold now. Not because it’s no longer obtainable but because it might be wiser to be a bit more conservative with the spending Given the state of the economy.

Sometimes waiting isn’t the best thing to do though. For example, if an Earthquake in Japan effects HDD availability and prices for some significant time.