5 years after Half-Life: Alyx reshaped expectations for VR gaming, Valve stays a quiet but crucial power within the trade. Regardless of little fanfare, the corporate has continued to form the VR panorama by regular updates to SteamVR, integration with standalone headsets like Quest, and whispers of recent {hardware} and video games. Now, because the fifth anniversary of Alyx passes, the query looms bigger than ever: is Valve nonetheless all-in on VR, or is it slowly retreating from the frontier it helped outline? Right here’s what we all know.
All it takes is one little international pandemic and—growth!—Half-Life: Alyx is 5 years outdated. Although it solely felt like two or three years for many people.
Actually, the pandemic almost postponed the launch of the sport altogether. Half-Life: Alyx launched in March of 2020—the identical month that a lot of the US started issuing stay-at-home orders in an effort to sluggish the unfold of COVID-19. Many companies had been disrupted in a single day; these fortunate sufficient to have a enterprise mannequin that could possibly be carried out remotely needed to scramble to determine methods to preserve the gears turning whereas enterprise was something however traditional.
That included Valve Software program, the developer of Half-Life: Alyx. Had lockdowns hit just some weeks earlier, the corporate has stated it very properly may have disrupted the launch of the sport. Actually, the pandemic led the corporate to cancel its solely Half-Life: Alyx press preview occasion. Fortunately the sport nonetheless made it out the door on its scheduled March twenty third launch date.
Half-Life: Alyx has been hailed by many not simply because the ‘greatest VR sport’, or ‘greatest Half-Life‘ sport, however even one of many ‘greatest video games ever’. 5 years later, the sport holds the twenty fourth spot on Steam250’s record of the most effective rated video games on all of Steam.
However Valve has carried out greater than make among the finest VR video games so far. The corporate’s ‘Index’ VR headset lengthy stood because the premier alternative for PC VR, and let’s not neglect that Steam’s complete VR help has made it the lifeblood of the PC VR trade within the final 5 years.
Regardless of having such an impression on the form of the VR panorama, Valve has been very quiet about its plans for the class in the previous couple of years. There’s been basically zero official bulletins of any main plans (like a brand new VR sport or headset).
So then, what’s Valve as much as in VR—if something? Right here’s what we all know.
What’s Subsequent for Valve in VR
For one, we shouldn’t disregard that SteamVR has remained the singularly most necessary PC VR platform so far. The corporate has made sluggish however significant updates to SteamVR over time. The largest addition lately got here on the finish of 2023 when Valve unexpectedly launched the Steam Hyperlink app for Quest headsets, which made it extra handy for Quest customers to play SteamVR video games wirelessly from their PC.
And it appears like Valve isn’t carried out with Steam Hyperlink. Current datamining from dependable sources factors to the corporate working to launch Steam Hyperlink on new headsets just like the Vive Focus headsets from HTC and Pico headsets from Bytedance.
Additional, plainly Valve has extra plans to enhance wi-fi PC VR for standalone headsets. References present in current Valve software program level to a “SteamVR Hyperlink Dongle,” which is more and more anticipated to be a USB machine to create a devoted wi-fi hyperlink between the consumer’s PC and headset.
At the moment, while you use Steam Hyperlink, your headset wants to connect with your router after which your router wants to connect with your PC. In case you’re taking part in inside a room or two of the router, it’ll most likely work simply superb. However for individuals with subpar wi-fi setups (or people who need to crank their bandwidth to the max for the very best quality), it’s not unusual to see connection-related high quality points like stuttering or pixelation.
Assuming it really works like anticipated, a SteamVR Hyperlink Dongle would create a direct connection between the PC and the headset. Not solely would this lower out the intermediary of the router, it might additionally imply having a wi-fi connection of recognized functionality that may permit Valve to fine-tune issues for probably the most seamless PC VR expertise. Datamining suggests the dongle would use Wi-Fi 6E.
It’s unclear if the SteamVR Hyperlink Dongle would help third-party headsets like Quest, or if it’s being designed as an adjunct for Valve’s long-rumored ‘Deckard’ headset.
Valve’s Subsequent VR Headset
After the 2019 launch of Index, the primary critical hints that Valve was engaged on a brand new VR headset got here within the type of patents that filed in 2020. The patents envisioned a number of concepts from the corporate together with a completely standalone headset and a variety of ergonomic designs.
It’s been 5 years since these patents had been first revealed. And regardless of no definitive announcement {that a} new headset is within the works, a drip of clues from Valve itself and datamining efforts counsel the corporate remains to be actively engaged on a brand new VR headset, even whether it is taking place on Valve Time™.
It was just some months in the past {that a} 3D mannequin of beforehand unseen VR controllers—believed to be designed for Valve’s subsequent headset—confirmed up in just lately up to date SteamVR recordsdata. The controllers didn’t simply present recent hope that Valve was nonetheless at work on a brand new VR headset, additionally they trace towards the best way the headset will probably be positioned.
Valve’s ‘Deckard’ headset (which can be branded as ‘Index 2’) is considered a standalone headset that primarily streams content material from a number PC working SteamVR. That is basically the identical factor that anybody utilizing a Quest headset and Steam Hyperlink makes use of in the present day.
However the format of the leaked Deckard controllers—which has a conventional format with a D-pad on the left aspect and 4 face-buttons on the fitting aspect—means that Valve may place the headset for each VR video games and taking part in flatscreen VR content material on an enormous digital display screen.
In spite of everything, SteamVR already helps taking part in flatscreen video games on a giant digital display screen. However as a result of virtually all VR controllers in the present day don’t fairly mirror customary gamepads, enter compatibility isn’t assured. Which implies if you wish to go from taking part in a VR sport to a flatscreen sport on a digital display screen, it’s possible you’ll have to set down your VR controllers and choose up a gamepad.
If the Deckard controllers persist with the standard gamepad format, it could possibly be a lot simpler for gamers to maneuver between VR video games and flatscreen video games and again once more.
Much more just lately than the controller leak, a leaker who has revealed correct data on a variety of Valve-specific tasks previously claims Valve’s subsequent headset will launch in 2025 with a worth of $1,200.
Whereas we are able to’t independently confirm that declare, there’s not less than some proof that it may not be a complete farce.
Brad Lynch, a dataminer who has established himself over time as a dependable supply of Valve-related data, uncovered newly added references to “Deckard EV2” within the newest launch of SteamVR simply final week.
EV2 possible refers to a second “Engineering Validation” machine, which suggests the headset is getting nearer to manufacturing. There may certainly be an EV3 or EV4 to return, however in response to Lynch, Valve’s Steam Deck OLED handheld reached EV2 earlier than heading to manufacturing. Additional, he says “I’m very assured [Valve’s next headset] will probably be revealed this yr.”
Valve’s Subsequent VR Recreation
Half-Life: Alyx launched again in early 2020 to close common acclaim. 5 years later it stays one of many largest and most polished VR video games ever made. Even so, it’s unclear if the corporate was pleased with the gross sales efficiency of the sport in comparison with the time and assets required to make it.
Whether or not or not Valve will commit to creating one other VR sport of that scale remains to be an open query. However right here’s what we all know.
Final month, the identical Valve leaker that claimed the Deckard headset would launch in 2025 additionally claimed the corporate is sort of set to ship video games or demos “which can be already carried out,” particularly for Deckard.
This aligns with particulars from Tyler McVicker, a long-time Valve dataminer who beforehand unearthed vital particulars about Half-Life: Alyx within the years main as much as the sport’s launch.
Lower than a yr in the past McVicker stated he discovered proof that Valve was constructing one other VR sport alongside work on the Deckard headset. And whereas Valve has loads of main IP to attract from, McVicker believes the corporate’s subsequent VR sport will probably be one other entry within the Half-Life collection. Or it could possibly be two entries within the collection, technically.
McVicker believes the sport will probably be an uneven co-op sport the place one half of the sport is constructed for a flatscreen participant on PC and the opposite half for a VR participant.
“The pc participant would at all times be Gordon Freeman, whereas the VR participant can be Alyx Vance. The thought was that these two characters would work together, with the VR participant experiencing Alyx’s story and the PC participant experiencing Gordon’s story, each having cooperative parts between them,” he stated.
Maybe Valve envisions this sport as a cohesive expertise to unite its two newest {hardware} tasks: Steam Deck and Deckard?
For Valve’s half, the corporate isn’t prepared to substantiate or deny its work on a brand new headset or VR sport. We reached out to the corporate to ask if it had something to share about its future VR plans on the 5 yr anniversary of Half-Life: Alyx.
“We don’t have something new to share proper now however […] we’ve actually loved seeing all of the cool experiences that folk have created and uploaded to the Half-Life: Alyx Workshop,” a spokesperson instructed Street to VR.
Valve is Not like Virtually Any Different Firm
There’s one thing price understanding about Valve that places every thing above into context. The corporate has a novel ‘flat’ administration construction that’s not shared by any peer in the identical weight class as Valve. In comparison with most firms, Valve offers its workers considerably extra freedom to determine what the corporate builds and releases.
As described by the Valve Worker Handbook, it’s largely as much as workers on the firm to decide on what tasks to tackle, and to encourage others to affix them. If an worker desires to work on one thing however can’t encourage others to assist construct it, that mission most likely received’t go anyplace.
However when a mission does get traction, the group constructing it’s usually comprised of people that genuinely consider in what they’re constructing. Other than having the coffers to pay for world-class expertise, this can be a main purpose why Valve punches far above its weight class regardless of having a comparatively small workforce in comparison with trade friends.
Valve will not be releasing new headsets or VR video games yearly, however the regular enhancements to SteamVR—and the occasional hints of one thing brewing behind the scenes—counsel there’s nonetheless a bunch throughout the firm that genuinely believes VR is price constructing.
