VR gaming is dead - CCP, makers of EVE: Valkyrie, ditches virtual reality development

[ramjb]

Valkyrie was like the only really fully-fledged, new IP VR game out there (yes I know there are a whole bunch of "party game" style VR games out there and VR hacks to existing games like Elite Dangerous, Doom, Skyrim).

This bodes very ill for the future of VR gaming.

Who else here has tried VR gaming, and it's shit isn't it?

Eve Online dev CCP ditches virtual reality development

Atlanta studio closed, Newcastle studio up for sale.

Eve Online developer CCP has pulled out of virtual reality development, a move that affects some 100 or so staff.

The Icelandic company had invested heavily in VR games, with Eve Online spin-off Valkyrie, Gunjack and PSVR exclusive Sparc betting big on the tech. But CCP has now decided to halt VR production to concentrate on Eve Online.

Icelandic business publication mbl.is reports 100 of CCP's 370 staff are affected by the move. The Atlanta office, which worked on Sparc, is closed. The Newcastle office, which worked on Eve Valkyrie, is up for sale.

"It's always hard to do such actions but they are important and if we want the company to reach 30 years, we sometimes need to make policy and organisational changes," CCP boss Hilmar Veigar Pétursson is quoted as saying.

The surprise announcement comes after CCP staff expressed much enthusiasm for the future of their virtual reality games at the recent Eve Fanfest event in Las Vegas. There developers spoke passionately about the future of Eve Valkyrie, which has been retooled to work without its virtual reality component. At the event, CCP confirmed Eve Online-inspired multiplayer shooter Project Nova was still in development, and Eve-related mobile game Project Aurora was in the works.

Also fun Eurogamer comment:

If you look at the Steam statistics for EVE Valkyrie it's averaging 30 players a day on the PC. It's a complete financial disaster.

[Jtbrig7390]

Valkyrie was like the only really fully-fledged, new IP VR game out there (yes I know there are a whole bunch of "party game" style VR games out there and VR hacks to existing games like Elite Dangerous, Doom, Skyrim).

This bodes very ill for the future of VR gaming.

VR gaming on the Playstation end seems to be doing fine and they even just announced a huge amount of games for it.

Maybe its cause VR gaming on PC cost a lot and Eve Valkyrie just isn't a appealing game? I can see why many would avoid it due to motion sickness.

[unholytestament]

I wasn't aware the future of VR gaming hinged on the success of a game no one heard about from a company known solely for making one of the most epic spreadsheet simulators ever made.

[Worgar]

i've tried the vive, its pretty neat, i'll need to wait for some more games to come out to justify the price of buying it though.

[Tech614]

VR gaming on the Playstation end seems to be doing fine and they even just announced a huge amount of games for it.

Maybe its cause VR gaming on PC cost a lot and Eve Valkyrie just isn't a appealing game? I can see why many would avoid it due to motion sickness.

Even the Vita got support from sony for a good 3 years, that doesn't mean anything.

Just as the failed PSMove support moved to Vita and the failed Vita support moved to PSVR the failed PSVR support will move to another side project in the future.

[Argarock]

I tried the Vive, built a new computer to be able to handle VR, and now own a Vive.
VR is abso-fucking-lutely amazing. It is THE coolest thing ever. We have Actual holodecks now and people STILL manage to spell doom on it cause of the infancy-issues it has been having.

[Surfd]

I wasn't aware the future of VR gaming hinged on the success of a game no one heard about from a company known solely for making one of the most epic spreadsheet simulators ever made.

^ so much this

[Deleted]

Oh look, another idiot who doesn't understand the concept of tech development throughout time.

[Super Kami Dende]

You mean banking on a genre that requires Tech that is not only expensive but entirely niche is a bad financial decision?

Colour me shocked.

[Xeranath]

I wasn't aware the future of VR gaming hinged on the success of a game no one heard about from a company known solely for making one of the most epic spreadsheet simulators ever made.

Was trying to think of a better comment but this one takes the cake.

VR is in its infancy. It's really really early. Given that participation requires a solid financial output when there are few games out there that are trying to exeriement with the technology, and of course theres going to be significant hurdles to jump. Once VR sets become are less outlandish appliance and are used in other setting, such as web searching, VR tourism and, lets face it, porn, then people will be more willing to give a VR game a try. Right now we should simply have patience.

[Mercane]

CCP has a pretty huge track record for making shit decisions.

I doubt they'll ever shake that 'those EVE guys' reputation.

Also worth noting- in their execution of the Atlanta office, they pretty much gutted their community team (again).

[ANeM]

I don't think the success of VR as a whole hinged on a studio that has repeatedly failed to make even a single successful game after their first release.

I don't recall sci-fi first person shooters dying completely after DUST failed.

[Jtbrig7390]

CCP has a pretty huge track record for making shit decisions.

Yep one of those shit decisions is called Dust 514.

[Lollis]

Eve Valkyrie is simply a bad game. Elite dangerous is just miles ahead of it, and is currently my go to VR game.

Valkyrie was announced and came out with the rift at a time where Elite and Star Citizen were already on people's lists, and Valkyrie doesn't do anything to make people want to play it rather than those two. I've put more time in Elite dangerous in the last week than I have total in Eve Valkyrie, and I got my Oculus during the second preorder rollout.

Also, as others have said VR is still very early. Lets be honest here, the HMD displays are fucking awful in image quality. We still don't have a proper movement system that has a public release, and when it is available it is probably going to cost more than the HMD devices.

To be blunt, we just haven't experienced true enough VR yet for it to have failed just because a crappy game didn't do well.

[Schattenlied]

From my point of view, VR is mostly being used "wrong".

Roomspace walking around games are weird because, well, you only have a room... the only way to move around beyond that is teleporting or standard movement controls, which are disorienting when standing and moving in the game world, but not moving IRL.

IMO VR is best right now for cockpit style games, sit down, acknowledge you are sitting down, and play the game as you normally would, with your preferred control method(M+KB, gamepad, HOTAS, etc.)just with a VR headset. Mechwarrior, for example, was basically conceptually built for VR before VR was even a thing... If Mechwarrior 5 ships with VR support it will be frekin amazing.


This is how I use VR for all the games I use VR for, I act as if I'm in a cockpit controlling my character. Whether it's a single player game like Skyrim, or Doom, or multiplayer like Battlefield or Planetside, I sit, and I play with mouse and keyboard (I can even accurately type while wearing the headset, for multiplayer communication, took a lot of practice to get down though), because it's what feels best to me right now.

Once omnidirectional movement machines are better perfected, and not absurdly expensive, so that moving around the virtual space isn't limited to the size of your room, I'll start using those for my first person games, but for now, sitting in a chair and using a mouse is the best VR experience for me.


Eve valk failed because it was just not a good game.

[Jtbrig7390]

but for now, sitting in a chair and using a mouse is the best VR experience for me.

For me personally that's the only VR experience for me (controller or Mouse/Keyboard).

I hurt just standing for a couple mins due to health issues, So there is no way I am going to stand for hours to play a game lol.

VR will take off as soon as more porn uses it. Porn is the reason most tech sky rockets.

[Serenity91]

Who else here has tried VR gaming, and it's shit isn't it?

You imply that you tried VR, which you obviously did not.

[Mercane]

Eve valk failed because it was just not a good game.

EVE Valk never really had a chance to be 'a good game', since it was produced by the studio that once glorified greed in a leaked memo by planning to sell in-game $1,000 space barbie jeans. CCP has always been really shit at any sort of marketing or advertisement, and the only time you ever see their ads is if you're already playing their only game to begin with.

VR isn't dead, but there's a number of things that need to happen before it's mainstream breakthrough.

[Heathy]

theres a pretty high barrier for entry, i've always been pretty sceptical on how successful the current generation of VR can be.

I mean watching robbaz play VR wedding reception is fucking hilarious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcdhqUq_GHE

but for me I don't have the cash to buy a VR headset or the gpu to run it. theres a lot you can do with say 300-600£/$/e that isn't related to VR. it seems kinda niche to me, at least until full body VR is a thing, which will probably only cost more. my main issue is the potential for motion sickness and nausea from the screens being so close to your eyeballs.

its unfortunate for ccp because Eve is a great unique mmo, but everything else they try seems to fail. Dust may have faired better if it were a pc game. still might not have saved the game but it made little sense to release a companion game on consoles when your entire playerbase is pc.

[Deleted]

Literally no one wanted Valkyrie, that's the reason its a failure not because its VR.

It's the same story as Dust514, CCPs ambition outweighs there common sense.