Valve said yesterday in a statement to Road To VR: The World Health Organization cites the first reported case of COVID-19 appearing in Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019. Coronavirus is now a global concern, with cases reported in 27 countries, though according to today’s latest figures from WHO, 98% of confirmed cases are in China. Restrictions meant to contain further spread of the virus in China have prevented many people from returning to work, including factory workers. You don’t actually need Valve’s own Index VR set to play Half-Life: Alyx, because it will run on Vive, Rift, and other PC VR headsets. That said, Valve are not the first to have production of VR sets affected by coronavirus. Earlier this month, Facebook halted new orders for their Oculus Quest VR set, citing similar manufacturing delays related to coronavirus. When they originally announced the HL2 prequel, Valve said it would be difficult to imagine Half-Life: Alyx without VR. It will launch on March 23rd, leaving little time to get newly-made VR sets out the door. If you don’t already own a PC goggles, you may just need to imagine playing Alyx for a while after it’s been released. Valve have reiterated that customers should sign up on their website to receive a back in stock notification when Index sets become available again.
