Half-Life’s return to the limelight would have been a huge deal no matter what, considering the massive hiatus the series took after 2007’s Half-Life 2: Episode Two, but when Valve announced months ago that Half-Life: Alyx would be a VR-exclusive title, that made its comeback seem even more special and unusual. The developer was insistent in the weeks leading up to the game’s launch that it being designed around virtual reality was a huge part of the experience, and it’s become clear since it’s release that it was a gamble that paid off very, very well.
But does this mean Valve will be exclusively focusing on VR for all their future releases? They said not too long ago that Half-Life: Alyx represented their return to the franchise and that more games in the series were very likely to be made- will they – or games outside of the Half-Life series – be following in the footsteps of Alyx and be built exclusively for VR? Well, not necessarily.
Speaking with VGC, Valve programmer Robin Walker said that that’s not necessarily a mandate within the studio. In fact, they’ve not set any plans in stone, and are very open to working on different kinds of games as different opportunities present themselves.
“The super short answer is no, we’re not committed to all VR but we’re not committed to all non-VR either,” said Walker. “We would just never make any statement like that. Some of the journalists I’ve been talking to recently have been bringing up a comment Gabe made ten years ago about how we wouldn’t make single-player games again.
“There was more nuance to his statement than that, but the reality is we should never say we’re going to do X or Y in the future, because nobody knows what the state of the video game landscape will be five or ten years from now.”
“One of the things we have as a company is freedom,” he continued. “We don’t have to produce sequels just for the sake of it and we don’t have to stick to any particular vision of the future for how video games are going to turn out. I know it’s frustrating perhaps for players who think we’re refusing to answer these kinds of questions, but the honest answer is we don’t know.
“We don’t know what we’re going to do in five years from now and we don’t think it serves us or our customers well to try and make that decision today. So let’s just roll with what happens.”
Half-Life: Alyx is out now for PC- and for what it’s worth, the developers are looking forward to players attempting to mod out its VR requirements so non-VR players can experience it as well.
