Half Life: Alyx – Will Coronavirus Pandemic Take a Toll on The Sales?

Half Life: Alyx is less than a week away and the hype it has built is chaotic. Though this shouldn't come as a surprise as Half Life games have a history of making the video game fandom crazy with each new installment.

With the Half Life franchise, Valve has always been eagle-eyed precise and careful since the very first game hit the shelves. Hence the reason why almost every Half Life game has set revolutionary milestones for the video games to follow, in whichever decade they were released.

With Half Life: Alyx, Valve is again set to cross the usual norms and venture into an untouched realm – Virtual Reality.

Virtual Reality is not exactly a new term. The technology has been around for almost a decade now and since recent years, it has been prolifically used in several applications related to medical science, engineering, and yes, video games too.

However, it remains an 'element of wonder' rather than something that is regularly used as an integral function of most of the system. Since Valve has always been known for daringly experimental with implementing the technology of the future in Half Life games, they decided to go for Virtual Reality this time.

Half Life: Alyx is completely VR based and will require a VR headset to play the game. Besides the trailer showcasing it, a few in-game footages were made available by the Valve that show the gameplay and how it would be to play with the VR.

 

Fans are on a frenzy. Though ensuring the Half Life games are the pinnacle of video games, Valve is also notorious for delaying the franchise for an unbelievingly long duration of time – The game, Half Life 2: Episode Three, was supposed to be out by 2010 but after numerous hints by Valve employees and the Big Man (Gabe Newell) himself, it hasn't seen the light of the day till date and is considered by many a vaporware now.

Therefore, the hype is real, very real.

This time, things are a bit different than ever before; the Coronavirus pandemic has engulfed the world and organizations across the globe are shutting down to prevent its spread. In a time like this, it won't come as a surprise if the overall sale of the game is also affected, though the presales have already been great and Valve is quite satisfied with it. 

Through the years, the fandom of Half Life has crossed the boundaries and has included people from several countries outside the US. The games have been extremely popular in countries like India, Pakistan, Costa Rica, Brazil, and many more. The love for the franchise has been such that the fan-created Counter Strike, which was based on the original Half Life engine, has become a full-fledged video game franchise itself.

It goes without saying that fans are eagerly waiting to see their favorite franchise return. However, there have been concerns related to it being completely playable in VR. Valve has announced that the Valve Index headset owners will get the game for free. The thing is, Valve Index is not really cheap. On Steam, the price is listed as $999. That is not the kind of amount a lot of people can afford to pay for a video game accessory in several countries.

In India, 1 USD equals to approx. 74 rupees. In Pakistan, it's equivalent to almost 160 rupees. Comparing the average income per person, that price is ridiculously high. Hence the reason why a lot of fans have objected Alyx being VR only and not having an option to play it as a conventional first-person shooter.

Half Life: Alyx will be completely Virtual Reality based. 

So, will a lot of fans in the third world countries are going to be disappointed and left without the game? Or will they have to wait till they can save enough money to play it?

Maybe.

Or maybe, they can go for much cheaper alternatives. Headsets like Valve Index, Occulus Quest, and PlayStation VR are at the upper ends. But if you really want to play the game and are looking for an affordable headset, you can try Dell Visor or HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset.

Half Life: Alyx is definitely one of the most anticipated video games of 2020 and as a video game fan myself, I can understand how disheartening it can be to not get your hands on your favorite game when it comes out. But if you are someone who doesn't care about the spoilers much and just enjoy the overall gameplay experience, whenever you get to, you might wait for a couple of months, save enough, and buy yourself a nice VR headset before entering into the realm of City 17.

 

As the G Man said, “The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.”

The abovementioned quote has no relevance to the topic of this article. I just wrote that so that you can get into the vibe of Half Life.

The Resistance lives!