Valve has, up to this point, been even more firm about staying clear of first-party support, with the company even seeming pretty sceptical of Oculus' decision to spend money on exclusive software.
"Valve may once have believed that killer apps weren't what VR needed, but it has clearly changed its mind"įor the most part, VR platform holders have preferred to stay one step away from the coal-face, funding and publishing titles from independent studios and encouraging third-party publishers to get on board with favourable deals and marketing, but only making limited commitments in terms of their own first-party development. In their own ways, Oculus, Sony and other firms have all engaged with VR development, of course - even creating first-party titles - but there has always been a limit to that support. That's what Half-Life: Alyx amounts to it's a VR platform holder making the kind of huge, eye-catching commitment to first-party development that's been conspicuously absent from the VR market thus far. But the fact that Valve has thrown down the gauntlet in what's likely to become a major first-party battle for big, high-profile VR exclusives could have an even greater lasting effect. The fact that the next Half-Life game is going to be a VR title is inevitably going to have a pretty big impact on VR as a sector overall. The second thing is that Half-Life: Alyx marks a fairly radical departure from Valve, not merely from a decade of not making Half-Life games, but from their previous strategy with regards to VR. There are two really major things of note about Valve's announcement of Half-Life: Alyx, but the most obvious and noteworthy of those things - namely "holy shit Valve remembers that Half-Life exists, they're making a new game, deep breaths deep breaths" - is somewhat obscuring the second.
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