When Half-Life: Alyx was announced late last year, the majority of the fans of the franchise were upset that, even though a new Half-Life game had finally been announced, it was slated to be a VR-only title. Thus, many fans have come to criticize Valve and Gabe Newell for the decision, though according to the Valve head, Virtual Reality is an inevitability and if game developers aren’t thinking about it now, “they’ll be thinking about it a lot in the future.”

In a recent interview with the folks over at IGN, Gabe Newell spoke about the future of VR and how he and the team at Valve fit into it, at one point likening the looming situation to The Matrix, the film about people that are trapped in a simulated reality. According to Newell, he believes VR is taking us closer to that reality (pun intended) than people realize. The video can be seen below:

This does not by any mean suggest that Newell thinks we’ll soon be trapped like the characters from the film, he simply believes that those not planning ahead with VR in mind will soon be facing the extinction of their companies. “We’re way closer to The Matrix than people realize,” Newell says.

It’s not gonna be The Matrix. The Matrix is a movie and it misses all the interesting, technical subtleties and just how weird the post-brain computer interface world is gonna be. But it’s gonna have a huge impact on the kinds of experiences that we can create for people.”

It’ll be interesting to see if Gabe Newell’s vision for VR ends up becoming a reality. In the meantime, Valve has assured us that Half-Life: Alyx is not the end of the franchise, so here’s hoping those not bought into that whole ‘VR thing’ will get their own Half-Life title sooner rather than later.

So, thoughts on Gabe Newell’s commentary? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, stay tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers for all the latest gaming and entertainment news! Don’t forget to follow DFTG on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!