The reveal of Half-Life Alyx was pretty surprising to a lot of us, but what’s even more surprising is that Valve says there might be a Half-Life: Alyx PSVR version coming one day.
Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: no, a Half-Life: Alyx PSVR version will not be coming at launch. That privilege is reserved for the Valve Index, and it’s done pretty well for the Washington-based software and hardware developer — the Steam Store page for the VR headset says that any orders made today won’t actually ship out until January 2020.
ALSO: Microsoft fires back at Sony with Untitled Goose Game Xbox Game Pass reveal
Speaking to Push Square, Valve Designer Greg Coomer has confirmed that Half-Life: Alyx will initially be “available for SteamVR only”. He also confirmed that, at the moment, they are currently not working on a PSVR version. That’s not to say, however, that they’ve entirely ruled it out.
“We believe Sony’s VR platform has been a huge success for the medium, and we assume that lots of Sony customers would love to experience this new chapter of Half-Life,” Coomer said.
Coomer went on to add that a PSVR version isn’t in production as Valve would like to focus 100% on the SteamVR version of the game. That certainly makes sense — SteamVR and PSVR, while similar, are different systems running on different platforms and each have their own challenges. Trying to develop for both simultaneously could result in pushing back the Half-Life: Alyx release date.
However, more than a few game developers have managed to make games for both SteamVR and PSVR. Beat Saber came to Steam VR in May 2018 and then followed up with a PSVR release in November 2018 and an Oculus Quest release in May 2019.
So, will we see a Half-Life: Alyx PSVR version? Coomer concluded by saying that they have “not ruled anything out,” so we may one day see the next Half-Life game on a Sony system.
