Half-Life: Alyx launches on Monday at 10AM PT. Luckily, you can now start pre-loading the game on Steam so that you’re ready to go as soon as it launches.

Update (March 20th, 2020): Valve has announced that Half-Life: Alyx pre-loading has begun. Pre-loading allows players to install the game files on Steam ahead of time to be ready to play as soon as the game launches on Monday at 10AM PT (see release time in your local time zone here). Half-Life: Alyx’s file size is 48GB when downloaded but may reach closer to 67GB when unpacked.

Original Article (March 18th, 2020): Valve today announced that Half-Life: Alyx, its rapidly approaching flagship VR title, will release precisely at 10 AM PT on March 23rd (local time here).

Starting Friday, you’ll also be able to preemptively hit that download button to make the most of your time. Most modern household Internet connections should be able to chew through what promises to be a fairly chunky file size over the course of the weekend.

Did you buy any Valve Index hardware? Then you already have Half-Life: Alyx for free, as Valve has given it away with every Index package, save the single SteamVR 2.0 base stations.

And if you didn’t, well, it’s at least guaranteed to support all SteamVR-compatible headsets, which includes Oculus Rift & Rift S, all flavors of HTC Vive, Pimax headsets, Windows MR, and Vive Cosmos.

If you have an Oculus Quest, don’t forget you can play it too, provided you have a long enough Link cable and a suitable VR-ready PC at your disposal.