Steam Frame Could Come With a Free Copy of Half-Life: Alyx
Valve may have one very good reason for Steam Frame buyers to pick up the headset at launch: Half-Life: Alyx could be included for free.
References to “HLAlyxPromoButtons” have reportedly appeared in Steam’s code, pointing toward a promotion connected to Valve’s upcoming VR headset. Valve has used a similar offer before, giving Half-Life: Alyx to buyers of the Valve Index and even customers who purchased an Index controller.
Steam Frame could get a Half-Life: Alyx launch bundle
Half-Life: Alyx remains one of the most impressive examples of what a high-end VR game can look and feel like more than six years after its release. Valve built the game specifically around VR, with physical weapons, detailed environments, interactive objects, and a level of polish that very few VR games have matched.
Bundling it with Steam Frame would also give new owners an obvious game to try on day one. The headset is being positioned as a wireless, streaming-first VR device, but Valve has also confirmed that it can run games independently thanks to its standalone hardware.
That creates an especially interesting possibility for Half-Life: Alyx. Valve has previously said that the game could potentially run standalone on Steam Frame, although the company has stopped short of promising that it will officially support the standalone version.
Valve could be preparing Steam Frame for a major launch
The suspected Alyx promotion arrives while Valve is putting the finishing touches on Steam Frame. The company has already started testing games for the headset and has introduced a dedicated Steam Frame Standalone Verified program to show players which titles work properly without a PC.
Valve has also been preparing the Steam backend for launch, with new headset-related files, setup content, and other signs that the hardware is getting closer to release.
The remaining question is the price. Valve has not announced how much Steam Frame will cost, and recent hardware pricing has made a cheap launch increasingly difficult to predict. Steam Machine already arrived at a higher price than many PC gamers expected, while rising memory and storage costs have put additional pressure on hardware manufacturers.
A free copy of Half-Life: Alyx would not completely change that calculation, but it would give Valve a strong launch incentive. The game normally costs $59.99, although Steam sales have regularly pushed it much lower.
The promotion is still unconfirmed, so buyers should not assume Half-Life: Alyx will definitely be included until Valve announces it. The appearance of the “HLAlyxPromoButtons” references is nevertheless a pretty compelling clue, particularly given Valve’s history of using Alyx as an incentive for its VR hardware.
If the promotion is real, Steam Frame could launch with exactly the kind of killer app it needs: one of the best VR games ever made, included with the headset from day one.
