There have been loads of indicators that Sony hasn’t been investing loads of sources into VR, particularly its PlayStation VR2 headset, and in response to a brand new report, the state of affairs is perhaps worse than beforehand believed.
In an Android Central article revealed Thursday, sources stated that Sony was slashing budgets associated to VR and that there can be “only a few alternatives for VR recreation growth” sooner or later. One other supply talked about that there have been solely two PSVR2 video games in growth on the firm.
Whereas Sony didn’t reply to any of the claims within the report, followers have observed the dearth of consideration being paid to VR. At PlayStation’s most up-to-date State of Play, there wasn’t a single first-party VR recreation introduced or highlighted. Whereas we received appears at Alien: Rogue Incursion and Behemoth, due out this yr, each are from exterior studios.
It appeared doable there might be a first-party recreation incoming from the Astro collection, which has all the time utilized PlayStation {hardware} in methods different video games don’t,and was used as a tech demo for the PlayStation 5 at launch. Plus, Astro Bot: Rescue Mission was a wonderful VR title for the unique PlayStation VR. Nonetheless, following up on the Astrobot reveal through the presentation, Nicolas Doucet, Group Asobi studio head, instructed Digital Tendencies {that a} VR mode was unlikely.
“We’re focusing 100% on PS5,” Doucet stated. “Rescue Mission was nice enjoyable to make. Each medium has its robust factors. Within the case of a third-person recreation, whether or not you’re employed on TV or VR is radically completely different. This concept that we might add a VR mode shouldn’t be relevant to this type of recreation. It’s relevant to some first-person video games like racing, however not for this type of recreation. So our alternative was to go 100% for TV to essentially have as many individuals as doable taking part in this recreation.”
Sony hasn’t stated lots about VR publicly, but it surely hasn’t ignored it utterly. Government Eric Lempel instructed Barron’s (through VGC) in October 2023 that VR was an essential class for the corporate, however that it had loads of room to develop, saying it was a “nascent enterprise.” It’s additionally been engaged on increasing who can use the headset, just lately asserting an adapter for $60 that might let customers join it to their PCs. Sadly, lots of the headset’s options received’t work when linked to PC.
