
Valve sold 103,000 Index VR headsets after Half-Life: Alyx reveal - Impossible
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/70249/valve-sold-103-000-index-vr-headsets-half-life-alyx-reveal/amp.html
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anw
The main meat of the article seems to come from
[https://www.superdataresearch.com/blog/superdata-xr-
update](https://www.superdataresearch.com/blog/superdata-xr-update)

Which states:

> Valve sold 149K Index headsets in 2019. Sales more than doubled from Q3 to
> Q4 (103K) thanks to anticipation for Half-Life: Alyx, which was announced in
> November and is slated to arrive in March. The Index sold more units than
> any other PC VR headset during the quarter despite a steep price of up to
> $1000. It would have sold even more if not for inventory issues (the device
> is currently sold out worldwide).

It’s not hard to imagine gamers spending $1,000 USD for such a game changing
(pardon the pun) piece of hardware. Being a gamer, it’s not unusual to budget
$1500+ for a build, and if this is truly the future of gaming, it’s more than
worth it to a lot of early adapters — especially for a new Valve game.

Anecdotally, I first remember watching a friend play Half Life 2. The
combination of graphics, game mechanics, and gameplay led me to save all the
money I could to buy a brand new computer that could handle it. Valve doesn’t
release often, but when it does it’s so far been ground breaking and a total
immersion of craftsmanship.

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kfarr
At $1k per headset these numbers get interesting. And only 1 month of sales. I
realize low margin, it's hardware and all, but $100m in headset sales in one
month? Is my math right?

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lostmsu
I find it surprising, that Samsung Odyssey and other VR headsets did not make
top 5 list despite much lower price. That actually makes me question
reliability of this data.

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crocodiletears
The kind of person who purchases a system exclusively to play an unreleased
game title, especially the latest in a series in over a decade and a half, is
rarely concerned about the economics of their decision, they just want the
best.

I've had friends with barely two pennies to run together buy new PCs,
monitors, desks, and chairs on credit for little more than a slightly better
play experience in anticipation of a release.

I'd wager that's even more true for half-life, since its fans are likely older
and more established than Steams typical "hardcore" gamer.

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lostmsu
I understand the uptick in Index sales because of that. But there are 4 other
headsets listed, and somehow none of them are of the Windows Mixed Reality
family. I am not even sure Oculus is in any way better than Odyssey. And the
later does not come with its own stupid store.

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FullyFunctional
In other news, water is wet! I doubt anyone is surprised by how important the
release-shy HL franchise is, but the real tsunami will come when the thing is
real and independently reviewed.

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hnuser123456
Of course, short term, the quality of the game experience is going to
determine the initial response in terms of Index and VR sales, but long term,
the quality of the development tools is going to be a major factor, just like
with HL2 and source. If the tools are easy to use, and allow for any mildly
motivated individual to create original, unique, immersive, interactive,
hands-on experiences (especially co-op or pvp multiplayer), it will truly be a
new era of video game creativity.

