I feel like I've been reiterating the same few points over and over of late, so allow me to reiterate a slightly different one today- VR has it's problems! Yeah, somehow the VR scene still really isn't where it needs to be in order to be considered a viable vector for game development despite us having actually reached the point where worthwhile experiences can and have been developed for it's exclusive use. No longer do we just have VR ports of popular titles to go off of- there's Half Life Alyx and Boneworks and Walking Dead Saints and Sinners and probably others, I'm sure... but the conversation around VR never seems to stick around for long and these experiences are flashes in a very tiny pan enjoyed by some small microcosm of the wider gaming community that have access to such tech. So the problem is accessibility? Well then in comes PSVR, right?
PSVR should have been the slam dunk solution to the VR problem and you know what- maybe if the thing wasn't a Playstation exclusive machine it actually might have been. Inexpensive VR tech that can hook up to any piece of hardware- (apart from an Xbox- but that's no surprise. Xbox is never allowed to be part of the cool kids club) I could see that really popping off for the PC crowd. But keeping the machine purely without the Playstation library? That seemed to not really be the best move. It limited the amount of games that were available on it- no third party developer was really encouraged to take the risk with it and with no games, nobody was recommending them and they slowly died. What a shame. Lessons learned. At least they pulled it together for the PSVR 2, right?
PSVR 2 has been rocking around for just over a year now and it's slate of worthwhile software has been a little limited. Resident Evil 4 developed with an exclusive compatibility mode for it, which was nice- there was the Horizion tie in game that probably dropped the same day as a moon landing or something (knowing how those developers work) and... um... Saints and Sinners? Still there's a lack of people developing experiences for the VR scene and that just leads to all the hype around new hardware going wasted when there's nothing badass to try it out on! No Man's Sky VR can only keep you invested for so long until you remember you're playing the largely meh space survival game No Man's Sky- which itself is a fate I'd wish on nobody. (The game isn't that bad, but it's nowhere near as good as people say nowadays, either!)
So what would be the next step from here? Well were I Sony and were I really invested in making this thing last- I would dedicate my first party studios who can spare a project towards making something dedicated to PSVR with one of their flagship IPs. Heck, you could even try and entice some third parties to get in on the fun. Anything to create the impression that there's actual gold down this mine once these exclusives start dropping and attention turns towards this side of the market. Then the ball will roll down hill and pick up momentum from there. But Sony have to at least push it first! For the love of god- someone has to make the effort! But no, I guess gambling your reputation and the next few years of labour of all your studios on a Live Service initiative is a better use of time, huh?
Oh, also the 'affordability' is no longer a factor in play. The PSVR 2 costs about 500 smackaroo's, which makes it more expensive than most medium-end VR headsets out there today- making those the direct competition only- well- they have more options. And to rub salt even further into the wound, because this is a Sony product and they hate you, the PSVR 2's library is not compatible with the PSVR library- so adopters have to rely on ports for PSVR 1 games that they liked, and then buy full price for those ports once again. At this point in time PSVR is eering dangerously close to hilariously destructive 'Stadia' methods of business- it's not quite as bad, of course, but it's on that road- and that is galling. It's also unsustainable.
As of now we've heard perhaps the most embarrassing news one can receive in terms of console manufacturing- that Sony have ceased production of the PSVR 2 whilst still sitting on their huge stock of unsold units. That is just about the kicker in the nuts you want least of all, because if anything you'd expect Sony to at least be pushing an average number of peripheries out, if not the targets they want to hit! This is following a period of scarcity for the PS5 that ran so rampant that they couldn't remain in stock for more than a week at some times- a total polar opposite as if to highlight the absolute absurdity of the player interest divide between core console and the VR add-on. Pile this ontop of massive layoffs that have trickled through Sony, and there's no doubt that the VR team would have lost some of it's operational capacity- right when they're in a crisis mode and need to figure themselves out.
If you'd have asked me a few years ago I would have chuckled and thrown up hands saying 'that's about the way things work out with nowhere tech'; but after witnessing literal nowhere tech rise and fall under the name of 'NFTs'- I've amended the way I look at VR. There is so much potential in VR at it's best to achieve things totally impractical in the traditional space. Fascinating logic puzzles, visceral in-your-face combat encounters, transformative locale transitions- a great artist can paint a fantastic piece on this canvass! The PSVR was a valiant attempt at harnessing that potential and I'm a little scared it's going to fizzle up and go the way of the dodo if nothing drastic changes in the VR marketplace.
Sony had themselves a monopoly on the VR space away from the PC crowd, and they've managed to squander it excessively to the point of parody. If ever that company knows where to spend it's resources, one might wonder why they ever dabbled into something they weren't prepared to fully invest towards. Or even more so, why they did it twice. I wouldn't at all be surprised if this is the last significant update we hear on the PSVR 2 for the rest of it's natural life cycle- and given how things worked out I can't even be sure that such an end would prelude a PSVR 3. Overall- what else can you say other than that Sony dropped the bag on this one- shame as it is to say.
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