Confused on Steam Play and Proton? Be sure to check out our guide.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Valve has now confirmed Half-Life: Alyx, their new VR flagship title

By - | Views: 37,302

Update 23:25 UTC: Well, that was a little sooner than expected. Valve have now officially confirmed Half-Life is back with their VR title Half-Life: Alyx.

Valve have now posted on Twitter to actually announce Half-Life: Alyx. Details are light right now of course so here's exactly what they said to save you an extra click around:

We’re excited to unveil Half-Life: Alyx, our flagship VR game, this Thursday at 10am Pacific Time. Can’t wait to share it with all of you!

This came along with a picture:

That's it, that's all we have until Thursday.

Begin your wild commenting.


Original article:

Valve did say they were working on three VR titles some time ago and it looks like one is almost ready to be shown off, with Half-Life: Alyx.

The information is all speculation and rumours right now though, so take it all with a heavy truckload of salt. We know a Half-Life VR game is pretty much a thing though, ValveNewsNetwork even had a video going over various details on it back in October so it's not like this is suddenly coming out of nowhere.

Now though, we have more apparent leaks. Spotted by PC Gamer, they linked to a pastebin and in a later update a Google Document (update: contents now removed, so link removed) apparently showing snippets from an interview between Geoff Keighley of The Game Awards, Robin Walker and someone else they presume to be Gabe Newell.

These leaks come from someone named Midoriyan, who apparently also leaked out Dota Underlords before it was released which is supposed to give credit to the leak in what looks like a Steam chat with Tyler McVicker from ValveNewsNetwork. Sounds like McVicker from VNN isn't particularly happy about PC Gamer running the story and all the details leaking out like this. Not sure what they expected though, and despite McVicker covering a lot of Valve news, it's not something that only they're allowed to speculate and report on.

On top of that, something else which is quite interesting is that the team from Campo Santo who joined Valve all seem to have removed mentions of In The Valley of Gods from their Twitter profiles. Something is clearly going on over at Valve, although this could be unrelated of course.

Looking over the details inside the links above, they all point to a March 2020 release for Half-Life: Alyx and it will also apparently be shown off at The Game Awards on December 12.

There's further rumours that we may see some kind of announcement as soon as this week. That would line up quite nicely, considering the original Half-Life released on November 19 back in 1998. So Valve could be marking the 21st anniversary with their announcement.

While Half-Life might be nearly 21 years old, for Linux gamers it's not all that old considering Steam only came to Linux back in 2013. I can imagine plenty of our readers playing the Half-Life series long before that though, so it has still been a long wait for a new game either way.

Since this would be a VR-only title, would something like this push you towards buying a VR kit if you were on the fence? Certainly might help me make a decision on it.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
18 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
40 comments
Page: «2/4»
  Go to:

Purple Library Guy Nov 18, 2019
If I were on the fence, maybe. I'm not currently on the fence though. Not that I'm against VR--I can see the appeal, and there are certain kinds of game that could be really amazing in VR . . . like, swordfighting simulators say. It's just too far down on my list of demands on my money and time for one game to sway my decision.
saturnoyo Nov 18, 2019
I was gonna write a long text about how I feel about VR, but I would bore even myself. TLDW; I love VR but I don't see anything that pushes me to buy it.

Maybe this is the first of many things that will finally push most people to VR.

We'll see, it's difficult to trust Valve but the Index is a great product and it won't matter if they don't make something great to play with it.
Mountain Man Nov 18, 2019
I saw the words "Half-Life" and I got excited. Then I saw "VR" and stopped caring.
Liam Dawe Nov 18, 2019
It's real, article updated.
Egonaut Nov 19, 2019
There is not much I have less interest in than VR. Probably the next Valve title after Artefact which will fail, because of not enough possible customers.
omicron-b Nov 19, 2019
I believe they will port it to classic display eventually saying VR did not provide enough revenue.
jarhead_h Nov 19, 2019
I can already write a review of the game that should be valid for at least two years. Maybe three. :

After everything that Valve has done for Linux gamers with Steamplay, I wish I could review this Half Life game, but after spending $2500 on a PC capable of playing it I was kinda tapped for cash and couldn't hope to afford the extra $1000 for the VR headset required. Is it good or bad? I have no idea. Hey, Steam itself was TERRIBLE when it launched. I was one of the people that couldn't even log-in in 2004 when it launched. I actually used a pirate copy of HL2 for literally years until I got the Black Box with my ATI 2900XT and was genuinely surprised to be able to log in years later and have my account still be valid. Now Steam is my primary game platform, has been for quite a while, and looks to continue being so into the future.

Maybe this game launch will have a similar outcome - EPIC disaster followed by slowly but surely taking over the entire market. We'll see.


Last edited by jarhead_h on 19 November 2019 at 6:45 am UTC
vector Nov 19, 2019
If this were Actuary Simulator, Interactive Pet Rock Collection, or Shuffleboard 2020, I might be interested. But who has ever heard of Half-Life? Sounds like a cheap asset flip to me.

When VR hardware with few compromises reaches the $299 price point and supports Linux, call me. It would probably spend 90% of its life in my tech closet as opposed to actually being used, but at least I would feel less guilty about it.
Mal Nov 19, 2019
  • Supporter
I always thought Half Life 3 would have been a VR title so I was simply waiting until VR was mature enough for the game. Given the price of VR I'm not sold it's the right time yet. Though I guess the argument is that without killer games there will never be enough push for VR to make it get democratic prices. We will see.

Besides, now that HF3 has been officially announced anyone pricked Pitchford on twitter to uphold his stupid pledge regarding B3?


Last edited by Mal on 19 November 2019 at 6:53 pm UTC
fractal Nov 19, 2019
For a company with almost limitless access to user data, surely they must be aware that VR, while growing, would give them sales nowhere near those that a non-VR, mainstream Half-Life would. They could release absolutely anything else with the Half-Life logo and people would flock to it, there's still a community around the Half-Life series just like with their other titles such as Left 4 Dead, while the only group I regularly see going back to VR are people who wear anime avatars in VRchat.

QuoteSince this would be a VR-only title, would something like this push you towards buying a VR kit if you were on the fence?

I've had the opportunity to try out Oculus CV1 with ETS2, IL-2:BoS, DCS and Alien:Isolation quite a while ago as well as some tech demos and static museum-type presentations on a decent hardware and the VR technology just isn't there yet. Tech demos and static presentations were great, in regards to other titles - it was okay for casual, short intervals (coincidentally the type of gameplay that dominates the VR market at the moment), but overall it felt like trying to play the game while having a bag on your head while it was making you nauseous at the same time. I'd give it 5 years before trying it again.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.