Valve considered making a new VR game for the Steam Frame, before tackling the "ludicrous" task of getting Half-Life: Alyx running standalone

Valve have sometimes – if perhaps not often enough to call it a grand old tradition – massaged interest in their hardware by pairing the kit with a new game. For the Steam Deck it was Aperture Desk Job , and for 2019’s jammy sod of a VR headset, the Valve Index , it was Half-Life: Alyx , a full-length City 17 adventure that reviewer Graham (RPS in peace) called “ a masterclass of first-person shooter design .” Still, people rarely want to take the same class twice, hence why padding-compacted eyebrows have been raised by Alyx again being a tentpole of the new Steam Frame headset – this time, to showcase the game running in PC-less, standalone VR. Why not make something new, even a smaller tech demo like ADJ or the Index’s own The Lab collection of Portal-themed minigames? According to Valve staff, several of whom I spoke to prior to the Frame’s Monday night launch , there were several reasons why a return to Alyx was considered more valuable – even though a brand new VR game was, at least briefly, on the table.