Interest in Half-Life: Alyx Trails Far Behind Other Anticipated 2020 Games

In case you missed it (and I'm sure you haven't), the Half-Life franchise is finally back with a VR-exclusive title featuring Alyx Vance, by far the most appealing character in the games. (Admit it, no one really likes that nerd Gordon.) The trailer has racked up nearly 9 million views, along with many industry stories asking variations of this question: Will Half-Life: Alyx be the game that finally makes VR a killer app? (As here, as here, as here, ad infinitum.)

I mean maybe? But if you compare interest in Half-Life: Alyx with other anticipated games for 2020 on the collective hive mind that is Google Trends, you get another story:

To be sure this is not a fully fair comparison, because the marketing buzz for these other titles has been building for months or even years. Then again, anticipation for a new Half-Life game has been building for basically 15 years. 

I hope I'm wrong and the buzz keeps building to the point where actual VR headset sales start growing in preparation for the game's March 2020 launch. But far as a killer app? I would not put my money there. It's a new Half-Life game, and that's exciting, and isn't that enough?

Comments

[Taylor]

I think there's probably two things going on here.

One, yeah, is that it's VR and any VR game is gonna be handicapped in a popularity comparison with non-VR titles.

But the other thing is that 15 years is a really long time. While on the one hand, sure, anticipation for a new HL game has been building for 15 years, that's only true for us older (30+) gamers. Most younger people -- a huge chunk of the total game-playing population -- have never touched a Half-Life game. They don't have the nostalgia for the series that we do. I think a lot of games journalists, who mostly seem to be on the older side as well, often forget that. I would bet that even a proper Half-Life 3 would have an uphill climb today.

[Wagner James Au]

That could be, though OTOH, the Final Fantasy VII remake has much more buzz, and the original came out in 1997. Though to your point, videogame titles tend to have a longer shelf life than PC games.

In any case I'd be horrified if Kids Today are not playing Half-Life anymore! I'm gonna go bug my nieces and nephews to play HL2 at least.

[TonyVT Skarredghost]

Well, I agree that it is not the killer app of VR. But is letting VR have a lot of awareness, and that will facilitate VR spreading in the next years.