Valve’s Reason New Half-Life Game Being VR Only is Crap [OPINION]

When Valve used its official Twitter account to announce a new Half-Life game, Half-Life: Alyx a game that takes place before Half-Life 2, my first thought was excitement. That is until I read the fine print. A virtual reality only Half-Life game is not the game I’ve been waiting 15 years for and the excuse they’re using to justify it is just as disappointing.

Valve developer Dario Casali made a statement as to why the game is VR only during a video interview with Geoff Keighley, who hosts the video game awards show.

“The more we used the controllers and the headset, the more we realized the amount of interactions, the possibilities these things give us, the more we explored it, the more we realized that there’s so much opportunity that we can’t really translate back to the keyboard,” Casali said. “When you can track your hands separate from your head, all 3D space, all simultaneously tracking and moving, you can’t really get that with a mouse and keyboard.”

I’m not buying this in the slightest. The real reason behind making this game VR only is for Valve to try and sell their incredibly expensive VR headset. How expensive you may ask? How’s a cool $999 for a VR setup? Yeah, I can’t afford that either. Of course, there are cheaper VR systems on the market. The Oculus Quest is listed at $399 on Amazon, although there are less expensive used options that come in at around $200, but that doesn’t change the fact that the sole motivation behind making this game VR is for Valve to sell its own expensive headset.

There are arguments out there that if all Valve wanted to do was promote their VR they wouldn’t have waited so long to release a new Half-Life game. I have no doubt that the developers who are working on Half-Life: Alyx are extremely passionate and are putting their hearts and souls into making this game be the best game VR has to offer, but decisions aren’t made by developers. They are made by talking suits at the top of a skyscraper, obviously not always true but you get the picture.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with a corporation trying to sell its own product by using another product, but we’ve waiting so long for a new Half-Life game that restricting it to VR seems like a cruel punishment. I cannot justify spending hundreds of dollars on something I don’t want to play a single game and I know others agree.

Everyone knows why corporations, like Valve, make these decisions, but here is a Valve developer telling the consumer a very probable lie. These companies should instead just come out and tell the truth. State from the very beginning that the motivation behind this move is to make money off of its own product, in Valve’s case it would be its VR headset. No one would be shocked about the statement because Valve would be telling the consumer something they already know.

VR has come a long way and, as I mentioned earlier, used headsets can be rather low for VR. Essentially a gimmick back in the ‘90s, VR has become rather appealing. Games like Skyrim, DOOM and Borderlands 2 are available in VR. It’s impressive and exciting, but the price point is still too high to play so few games. Even the games I just mentioned are old. Skyrim released eight-years ago. This new Half-Life come has a tough act to follow.

Half-Life 2 is an incredible video game. One of my favorite games I’ve ever played. This whole situation has made me want to play the game all over again, but I can’t help but wish that there was a non-VR option for this new Half-Life game. Granted, the game looks incredible and if I had a VR I would pre-order the game right now. It would be a non-brainer, but I’m not buying into VR until it’s a cheaper more realistic option.

It all boils down to disappointment. I’m sad that I won’t be able to play this game for a long, long time because I simply do not have the means of affording VR. Sure, there’s saltiness here, but it’s clear that Valve is motivated to move their VR system. Corporations are about profits. Things need to profit in order to justify keeping the product or service around. Half-Life: Alyx gives greater purpose to their thousand-dollar VR system. The only thing left to do is wait and see if it works out.