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Gabe Newell provided insight into the reason for the Valve Index headset supply shortage, saying the company is “forced to manufacture,” according to an interview with 1 News in New Zealand.
The Valve Index was released in June 2019 and has remained a hard to find headset in stock since then. Not only is the helmet only available in certain countries, it is often out of stock and when it comes back it sells out almost immediately.
Even with the release of Valve’s flagship VR game in March of last year, Half-Life: Alyx, Valve has struggled to keep up with demand for the headset. Speaking to 1 News, Newell explained why.
“We actually have components that are made in Wuhan and when you set up your manufacturing lines it doesn’t occur to you that you are suddenly going to be dependent on that particular transistor that’s sitting on a board that you can’t. not get it, ”Newell said.
“Everyone ended up having the same problem at the same time – you go from ‘Oh, we’re great’ to ‘What do you mean Apple or Microsoft just bought these products for the next two years just to can you make sure they won’t run out? You went from a situation where everything was done just in time to people buying all the supplies available. “
Newell says these constraints also explain why the helmet still doesn’t ship to some markets like New Zealand or Australia. “The only thing stopping us from shipping to New Zealand at this point is making enough – we’re very limited in terms of manufacturing.”
In the same interview, Newell also said that the creation and release of Alyx “ created momentum ” for more single-player Valve games in the future.
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