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Game Studio CCP Scales Back Virtual Reality Development (bbc.com)
Developer CCP Games has significantly cut the time and money it is investing in virtual-reality based games. From a report: The Iceland-based studio is best known for sci-fi title Eve Online but has also created several VR-centred games. Spaceship dog-fighting simulator Eve Valkyrie helped launch the Oculus Rift headset and CCP also made the Sparc VR ball-tossing game for the PlayStation. CCP boss Hilmar Petursson said the company would re-invest in VR when market conditions improved. The move was a "blow to the viability of VR as a major gaming platform," said Adam Smith on the Rock, Paper Shotgun gaming news website, adding that Valkyrie was one of the few games that tempted him to try VR. The changes come just over a month after CCP overhauled Valkyrie in a bid to get more people playing it. CCP has cut its investment in VR as part of a broader restructuring effort. The structural changes mean more focus on PC and mobile games, it said in a statement. It is closing its Atlanta, US, office and selling off the development studio it maintains in Newcastle. The VR development work done at both locations will move to London.
that REQUIRED the use of the Xbox controller. IIRC, the controller was needed to push a single button in the beginning of the game and then the players could use the touch controllers. I had to connect the controller to push that button to get past the introduction scene. Even then, the game was unplayable with the touch controller.
So CCP, make a decent game that actually uses the touch controllers and you'll make money.
Not Newcastle, Co. Down.
I think the big issue is that VR is a lot like the Uncanny Valley, any nearly imperfection, no matter how small will annoy the user. For VR, there really isn't much room for good enough, it really has to be perfect. Also the problem with games we have had for a long time, with full movement games, it requires a space where our hands are free and are safe to move around. Thus forcing you to clean your room before you play video games. Which may sound good to parents however it would mean not playing that game.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
*I didn't get nauseous until I hit a wall in a racing game and my brain expected sudden deceleration but there was none...
VR should be fringe right now no matter how much big business wants it to be a big thing so quickly. It needs to slow cook (rather than pressure cook) with developer time. VR games are different than what has come before. There is a difference between the way people want it to work and how it has to work. The killer app will eventually come which will be 4k/8k goggles. Problem is producing it when the majority of cell phones (where the scale of economy exists) will not see 8k screen phones. When we get 8k for VR that will open up business apps otherwise it's like 3D on a Nintendo64.
Considering how badly they've let EVE go straight down the crapper, I'd say this is a good thing.
....let's be clear: CCP does EVE.
Everything else it tries to do, it fucks up supremely.
(shrug)
-Styopa
All successful platforms were *driven* by the killer app. The killer app existed before the platform was ready -- PC, networking, gaming consoles, smartphones, anything. The only thing VR delivers is a novel physical sensation, at a huge inconvenience, and sensations diminish with repetition.
That said, I wish I were wrong on VR. If there's a successful platform for which the killer app came after, I'd like to know. No I don't think porn qualifies.
Who doesn't enjoy playing an immersive experience like VR? Sure, you need $1500 worth of hardware, an empty room for roomscale, and be a shut-in, because nobody wants to come over and watch someone wearing the equivalent of a bucket over their head gesticulate for hours on end. When they come up for air from the "amazing experience" will their children, friends, girlfriends, or wives still be there? Probably not.
Like buying White Wolf wholesale, rather than just licensing rights to make a game. Then starting up that CCP Atlanta studio they ended up closing and burying.
They've had like a half dozen projects that could have been gamechangers that they completed fucked up. What about Dust? If they had just not made it a PS3 exclusive they could still be selling subscriptions to it, and using it as a secondary facet to EVE Online today. Now that they have interior support fo the stations, adding interior support for the ships and have space marines that can perform raid or capture operations on enemy capital ships while you are in the middle of battle. It would be a literal gamechanger, especially if ships could change sides as a result of capture. All of a sudden simply being a captain isn't enough, you need to be a captain with a heavily armed crew of defensive mercenaries onboard to repel the attack.
Add to that Valkyrie with say a real flight themed set of joystick controls, plus a VR headset for looking around and things could be even better.
Each of these games should have been building on the layer before them, expanding the game world, offering a new game type, and providing incentive for a new and different group of people to have a place in the EVE Online universe. But instead they have been spinning their wheels, or making shitty deals for 'exclusives' that don't help them extend the life expectancy of their main game.
Size and bulkiness of headgear.
Display resolution in the headset.
Reading text is nigh impossible.
Horsepower required to run it.
Price of both headunit and PC hardware.
Roomspace requirements.
Motion sickness for some.
Niche community thus, low user base.
No AAA titles to push it.
Platform exclusive titles.
Prescription eyewear sucks with this.
These are the ones off the top of my head.
Some you can fix with better design, hardware and vendor collaboration, some ( like motion sickness ) probably not.
Too much fighting over who will be the standard platform will likely be the final nail in the coffin for the tech.
I have an HTC vive, and the only reason I stopped using it after the first couple of months is because the lack of content. All the games are exactly the same (shooter / rollercoaster / golf / some variation thereof). You play one, you've played them all.
Game developers have not yet adapted their game design to fit the hardware. It was the same when first smartphones became a thing. The whole gameplay / UI design had to be adapted for games that relied exclusively on touch, rather then controllers. This has not yet been done successfully in VR.
That being said, the only game I've seen for VR that actually takes advantage of the technology is "The Gallery" Episodes 1 and 2. It's immersive and it doesn't feel like VR is getting in the way.
what this vr is only a fad that has quickly died off like it has every time sense the frigging 80s im so shocked kinda like 3d movies and tvs it quickly dies off again.
What about Dust? If they had just not made it a PS3 exclusive they could still be selling subscriptions to it, and using it as a secondary facet to EVE Online today.
It was PS3 exclusive because Sony was/is very open to PC-Playstation interaction. As you know, Dust players could actually communicate with PC players of EVE in game. While Sony may not be friendly to PS4/Xbox One cross play they are VERY open to PC/PS4 cross play.
IIRC a CCP dev once mentioned going to Microsoft and they were interested in the shooter, but not interested in it connecting to Eve. They also didn't want the game to have the mouse/keyboard support it does. Microsoft has little interest in supporting multiple control options.
Sony has always supported devs if they want to offer multiple control options but leave it up to the dev to make the decision on whether to do so. This is why Half-Life on the PS2 has mouse and keyboard support but the Orange box on the PS3 doesn't.
It's also why War Thunder is on the PS4 but not the Xbox and why Elite Dangerous on PS4 has HOTAS support, but the Xbox One version doesn't.
Add to that Valkyrie with say a real flight themed set of joystick controls, plus a VR headset for looking around and things could be even better.
The PSVR version of Valkyrie has HOTAS support.