Why ‘Beat Saber’ Played a Greater Role in Advancing VR Than ‘Half-Life: Alyx’

John Carmack, the well-known former CTO of Oculus and programming legend, has always been candid with his views on XR technology. In his opinion, Meta’s popular rhythm game Beat Saber (2018) holds a greater significance than Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx in advancing the widespread adoption of virtual reality.

Although Half-Life: Alyx, released in 2020, is often regarded as the gold standard for ‘AAA’ VR gaming experiences, Carmack believes that Beat Saber’s impact was more profound, mainly because it was available on the original Quest back in 2019.

“In every conversation where I criticize how Meta handles VR, there’s always someone from the more traditional camp chiming in with, ‘We need more AAA PC VR Games!’” Carmack remarked in a recent post on X. He added, “Just to clarify — the standalone VR headset was VR’s biggest breakthrough by far, and Beat Saber played a larger role than Half-Life: Alyx in that success.”

Carmack argues that focusing on ‘AAA’ titles for PC VR headsets is not a viable strategy for studios that want to see strong returns on their investments. “PC-driven VR experiences form a niche, almost boutique market,” he explained. “It’s valuable and worth supporting as an additional feature, but it was never going to achieve the success levels seen with consoles or even mobile devices,” he noted.

It’s hard to contest Carmack’s perspective, particularly given Beat Saber’s milestones. The game has reportedly sold over 10 million copies on the Quest platform alone. This tally doesn’t even include the revenue from the numerous paid DLC music packs featuring artists like Metallica, Britney Spears, and Daft Punk, among others, that Meta has offered.

Meanwhile, Valve has kept its cards close to the chest regarding Half-Life: Alyx’s sales figures. However, estimates compiled by SteamDB suggest that the game boasts between 2.2 and 4.4 million owners.

That doesn’t mean there’s no place for ‘AAA’ PC games to incorporate VR functionalities, which Carmack refers to as “VR bonus features.” The idea is to offer VR as an extra option rather than designing full-fledged VR projects from the ground up for PC-only accessories. “The economics of AAA development don’t justify widespread investment in projects centered solely around a PC peripheral,” he said. “However, incorporating ‘VR bonus features’ in AAA games could certainly present a profitable avenue.”