In November 2019, when Valve announced that a new Half-Life game was finally in development after 12 long years, some fans expressed disappointment to learn that Half-Life: Alyx would be available exclusively in VR because access to a VR headset is financially out of reach for many households.
Many gamers also wondered if a headset would soon be in the works to coincide with Valve’s apparently burgeoning interest in virtual reality, and now a page for a new VR headset has appeared on HP.com and Steam, where it is called simply “Next Gen HP VR Headset.”
Very little information about the product is available yet other than a short blurb explaining that this next generation virtual reality headset is being developed in collaboration with Valve, Microsoft, and HP. The companies expect the new headset to set a new standard in VR and deliver a more comfortable and compatible VR experience than the previous generation. No release date, price point, or technical specs have yet been made available, but potential buyers can sign up on the HP website for notifications as more news is released.
Valve already has a VR headset on the market, the Valve Index, which currently ships with a free copy of Half-Life: Alyx. Although the premium headset has generally garnered praise and positive feedback from reviewers and consumers alike, the Valve Index's price is a deterrent for many potential buyers. The headset alone sells for $499, while the full kit with headset, controllers, and base station goes for $999, a daunting price tag for a lot of gamers.
Hopefully, the new headset created in collaboration with Microsoft and HP will have a more appealing price point, especially considering that it seems Valve may have its eye on developing more VR games. When Half-Life: Alyx was announced, the company called the game its “flagship VR game,” implying that Alyx is not the only VR title Valve plans to release in the future. So if the company hopes to see long-term success in the VR space, it may need to find a more affordable way to get VR headsets and peripherals into the hands of gamers.
There is definitely enough interest in VR games for Valve to see success in this arena. In the fourth quarter of 2019, Valve sold 103,000 units of its Valve Index VR headset, a notable contrast to the 149,000 units sold during the first three quarters of the year. A large number of those fourth quarter sales have been attributed to the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx, which has earned predominantly positive reviews since its release on March 23.
Half-Life: Alyx released on March 23, 2020, for PC.