Valve sells out of new wave of Valve Index in less than 30 minutes

Half-Life: Alyx is right around the corner with Valve releasing the VR-focused game set in the Half-Life universe, with its release on March 23 -- and its hype is driving Valve to sell out of its Valve Index VR headsets almost instantly. Valve also sold 103,000 of its flagship Valve Index VR headsets after it revealed Half-Life: Alyx.

Valve opened up a new wave of Index headsets on March 9, and within 30 minutes they were sold out. There were some customers who were locked out of their Index sales with issues on Valve's own website -- where they refreshed and lost their headset. I can't imagine the pain to their soul, as it would've crushed me, too.

The new wave of Valve Index headsets will be sent out in the next 8-10 weeks, while Index controllers will ship in 3-5 weeks. If you were looking at spoiling yourself and buying a Valve Index for Half-Life: Alyx on March 23, you'd be waiting until at least sometime in May before you're playing it on your Valve Index if you ordered your new VR headset today.

Other than that, you can use an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive headset -- with Half-Life: Alyx working on the Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, Oculus Quest headsets. It will also work on HTC's own Vive and Vive Cosmos headsets. You won't get the special "Knuckles" controllers that you do with the Valve Index kit, which are specially made with Half-Life: Alyx in mind.

Valve Index Pricing

• Valve Index Headset: $499.99
• 2x Knuckle Controllers: $279.99
• 1x Base Station: $149.99 (two needed for room-scale VR)
• VR Headset + Controllers: $749.99
• VR Headset + Controllers + 2 Base Stations: $999.99