Valve's exploitative gimmick pays off

Valve more than doubled the sales of it's exuberantly overpriced brick on your face.

Halflife: Alyx, which as of yet, has no official gameplay footage beyond shitty off-cam footage has still managed to generate much-so hype. While the overall number may seem not huge, those headsets are about a grand a pop.

Hopefully this isn't the Picard of video-games, that would be terrible.

Half-Life: Alyx more than doubled Valve Index sales in 2019

As headset stocks sell out worldwide.

Looks like Valve's decision to make the next Half-Life a VR title is already paying off, as Valve Index headset sales more than doubled in 2019 following Half-Life: Alyx's announcement.

According to stats from SuperData, Valve Index sold 46k units last year prior to Q4, but after Alyx was announced in November, that figure jumped up to 149k. That means 103k headsets were sold between October and December - more than double what had been sold for the rest of the year.

The stats are impressive (particularly considering the hefty price of a VR kit, currently £919) - but they could have been ever higher, as nearly every package of the headset sold out worldwide by 15th January (via Road to VR). Those hoping to buy an Index are still greeted with an out-of-stock message on the official store page, and are instead prompted to sign up for email notifications.

So, how does this compare to other VR headsets on the market? SuperData says Index is currently the best-selling PC VR headset, but as you can see in the graph below, it's still some way behind PlayStation VR and the standalone Oculus Quest. In terms of the total Steam user market share, meanwhile, the Index is still only used by a small number - as the latest figures from Valve report an active monthly user base of 90m (as of 2018). But then, given the price of a headset, maybe you don't need the whole market.

Those who purchase the headset get a copy of Half-Life: Alyx included for free, and it's a strategy that's driving hardware sales for Valve. Once headsets are back in stock once more, we can probably expect to see further impressive results ahead of the game's launch in March.

As expected, valve donot care about games. they know Half life name will sell thier VR set and it did.

Thank you Valve and GabeN!

It's interesting to see Valve try and normalise the pseudo platform of PC taking a cue from Nintendo. Link a sought after product (Half Life) with some hardware that only you manufacturer.

Of course, PC users mostly only play free games and mostly only use the workaround control method of M&K.

I'll be honest, i'll consider buying an Index if Alyx turns out well enough

Na im going Occlus Quest, I'm not paying 1000 dollars for VR. Alyx better work on the quest.

Rift S is better, and basically the same price.

Not only did the Valve Index do well but the Oculus Quest did even better it sold 705k units in 2019. The Oculus Rift S sold 71k units in Q4 2019 alone.

There goes the argument of the game flopping in sales because there aren't enough VR users.

This is my thinking as well. I've been stand-offish with VR up until now, but this game may push me over.

Valve Index is the best VR headset in terms of quality. However, it is cumbersome to setup with the lighthouse sensors and it is very expensive. So, after the diehards have bought it, it will be a tough sell to the average consumer.

it was only released at the end of june last year.

me too. or, consider it, then opt for borrowing a mate's rift instead

Or you could not buy it and quit playing the 1st world victim card, ffs.

Is it back in stock yet!?!?!?!?

Undeniable proof that HL & VR is a total flop, only managing to hype the sale of 103k devices since the announcement LMFAO.

Black Mirror fans will understand this reference.

Well for the people that go and invest in a VR set for half life and what ever else is worth playing like beat saber or super hot , I hope it feels worth it.

Me im going to pass, I love half life but not going to spend that kind of money for one game I have interest in, and even then... Its not going to be a traditional half life game , it will be VR afied...

I smell a cash grab game using its license name to push expensive tech people really dont want yet.

Right, Valve doesn't care about games and gaming, that's why they took a huge risk and dumped a bunch of their own money into something as niche as VR when they did not need to.

I might be naive but I'm going to laugh my ass off at everyone that is hating on HL Alyx when it get awesome professional and consumer reviews and is hailed as not just the best VR title ever, but one of the best games of the decade.

Same, I kind of want to get an Index after seeing how cool Alyx looks. Probably will wait till after it's released, though.

VR Skyrim is surprisingly good when you mod with user-mods from people who actually gave a shit, rather than just a cash-in to resell the game for what should have been a patch.

That and install like 70-80 mods to remove whole "Bethesda design".

It is the best way to play it.

Makes sense to me. If there is an upcoming game that will utilize the hardware by the hardware manufacturer, the incentive to buy the hardware is higher.