Why would Pimax want to put themselves out of the largest digital gaming market? I guess it is Valve, who does not want to promote Pimax for some reason (while it has no problem promoting Oculus), so it says something about the “close” relationship.
I believe that point is not in having some hardware connected to your PC, but buying that hardware. This can be easily verified by Valve in your account history.
Yeah if it’d be that simple as detection of hardware, one could borrow his index controllers to everyone in the classroom.
Oh man I’m glad I bought my controllers through valve.
The least Pimax-involved way would be for Valve to have a “register your controllers” page that would lock them to your profile. Not likely though, as Pimax’s reselling of Index equipment is a pretty large exception to the rule.
In fact, if I’m not mistaken they’ll (Pimax) only be allowed to sell basestations going forward, and the Knuckles were only to help Pimax meet obligations to backers and preorders. So obtaining Knuckles will always and only be from Valve (with the exception of a ~1000 sets through Pimax).
My hopes are very, very low that we’ll get Alyx.
Exactly. The large companies who hold the cards get to choose the terms
Contracts are mutual agreements after all, there’s benefits for both but will there will be restrictions as well.
I’m sure Valve and HTC will have done something similar eg Valve will say “We agree to assist you, but we retain the right to reuse our Intellectual Property to produce our own VR headset in future”. Of course I’m sure HTC would have loved to nail Valve down to promising not to produce one, but they’re not in a position to force such a clause
I do not know, the way I remember it is more like Valve saying to HTC, “we will let you manufacture our headset and you may eventually build your own, if you dare.”
Ah sure, of course only Valve and HTC employees and lawyers will know the full details
But as a general guide, I can understand why contractual stipulations can exist that mean Pimax don’t get a mention as an official SteamVR headset, and why Pimax might have to just accept that
I have a good news:
“Any steam Vr compatible system”
INCLUDE PIMAX
as well
When you buy the Index Controllers from Valve you have to use Steam client and you must have an steam account. It’s like buying any other game from them. You don’t get a key. The purchase is just registered to your account and it is not transferable. It is only logical to assume that valve would use the same method to award the the HL:Alyx license to the account that made the purchase of the Index Headset or controllers. They appear to confirm this when they state the game just would just appear in your game Library the day of release. That they would NOT issue game keys!.
Considering this I think that if you buy the controllers from a third party you don’t get the game. From a third party is not possible to register that purchase to your steam account and they can’t directly gift it to you. The only workaround I see is that Pimax can negotiate, as part of their resell agreement, that Valve issue game keys (that they say they would not do) and email them to you.
True but Valve still hasn’t added pimax to steam vr icons either.
Okay if needed would someone send their controllers for a week if can’t find someone local?
I would hope that there are no more potential compatibility issues with HLA and Pimax than any other SteamVR app.
The free license though…perhaps if Pimax buyers can get those registered in Steam as if they were bought from Valve, that could work. As far as Valve is concerned, they are the same controllers, just purchased through a 3rd party.
And worst case if that is too complex, they need to generate ~1000 special keys that they (or probably Pimax) can distribute to buyers, and in Steam this does the same job as a direct purchase - the presence of this key will unlock the game. These types of keys are routinely available eg I bought Elite direct, but I received a Steam key for it from Frontier so I could move over to the Steam version for the VR support
Woohuu…! I bought the Index Controllers weeks ago…!
TBH about Pimax being listed on the website. I don’t think they are ready for the prime time yet. Need to add a good bit more polish before they go mainstream. Best not to get the extra attention for a little while.
Yes true, another factor and Kevin specifically mentioned not being ready for a large PR push recently. It may well be that Valve have not set any rules and Pimax are just waiting until they are ready
Well then Pimax need to issue refund for those that don’t want their controllers, Index or Sense…and their ridiculous shipping rate…that’ll solve the problem.
They would never do it although I would then respect their business ethics. So far they’ve acted just like carpet sellers! Besides, I believe we may never see a controller from Pimax. I don’t believe them anymore…