With the recently-announced Half Life: Alyx poised to reinvigorate both the long-dormant Half Life franchise and the slowly-languishing VR games market, it's almost altruistic that Valve chose to make the game compatible with so many different VR headsets. However, as a multi-billion dollar corporation, Valve isn't entirely blind to the monetary benefits of exclusivity, so they've offered some bonuses for anyone who has purchased their newest virtual-reality equipment, the Valve Index.
The biggest benefit, of course, is the fact that owning a Valve Index will get you a free copy of Half-Life: Alyx. That's a decent incentive for anyone who hasn't yet purchased a VR headset, though with prices of the Index ranging from $500 to $1000, it'd still be more budget-conscious to just shell out for an older headset like the Oculus Rift and buy a copy of the game separately.
That's where the other incentives come in, of course. Valve has made a fortune off of hats, skins, and hats made out of skin, so they've turned back to cosmetics in hopes of luring more customers to their new VR platform.
The most immediate benefit will be for players of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Valve has promised that purchasers of the Valve Index will recieve "Special Half-Life: Alyx-themed content" for the game. What, exactly, this content would be hasn't yet been specified. There will also be gun skins within Half Life: Alex that are exclusive to Index owners.
There will also be environments from Half Life: Alyx available to be explored in the SteamVR home space -- the functional main menu that VR players visit when they're not playing a game.
It remains to be seen whether this new prequel to Valve's most-iconic franchise will bring new gamers to the VR market, much less whether it'll inspire people to purchase the Valve Index. However, if anything has a chance of inspiring the masses to flock to VR, a new Half Life game seems like the safest bet.
Source: Gamespot