Playstation VR 2: Sony reportedly making deep cuts to VR game development
According to new rumors, Sony is cutting back on VR game development. However, two first-party PSVR 2 titles are still said to be in the works.
The rumors come from Nicolas Sutrich of Android Central:
"Sources close to Android Central have revealed that Sony is making deep cuts to funding for VR games. While I'll paraphrase for anonymity, my source was told that there will be very few opportunities for VR game development at Sony going forward," Sutrich writes.
"To back that up, another source informed me that only two PSVR 2 games are in development at Sony."
The fact that Sony is working on two first-party games would actually be good news, and I wonder why Sutrich uses the word "only" in this context. So far, only one first-party title has been released for Playstation VR 2, and that was Horizon Call of the Mountain.
The report suggests that Sony has pretty much given up on the VR headset and will no longer invest in VR games. I wonder whether VR projects from third-party studios are also affected by these measures. Sony usually offers financial incentives for the development of exclusive VR games for Playstation VR 2, and occasionally for porting titles from other platforms. If these incentives are removed, fewer VR titles may be released for the system in the future.
A troubled Playstation VR 2
The negative headlines surrounding Playstation VR 2 have been piling up since the end of 2023:
- In December, a Sony exec described the headset as a "challenging category". Shortly thereafter, the Sony-backed studio First Contact Entertainment shut down.
- In February, Sony closed its London Studio and laid off staff from Firesprite, both studios with significant VR expertise. In the same month, PC VR support for the VR headset was announced, which some industry observers took as a sign that Sony was moving away from the platform.
- In March, a report claimed that Sony had halted production of the PSVR 2 due to unsold units piling up in warehouses.
- In May, Sony announced a new Astro Bot game that, to the disappointment of many fans of the PSVR mascot, is only coming to the PS5. A VR version was never planned, the game director later confirmed.
- In June, Sony announced a PC adapter for PSVR 2. It turned out that many of the VR headset's outstanding features will not work on PC.
With this in mind, recent rumors of deep cuts to VR game development are not surprising.
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