– Hilmar Veigar Pétursson on his thoughts about the VR marketplace.
CCP Games seemed to be enthusiastic over the promise of virtual reality, with international studios in the US and UK diligently working on VR titles.
EVE Online players were more likely to accept VR early in its development cycle, which prompted the company to invest in its VR teams. However, plans changed.
In an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, CEO of CCP Games Hilmar Veigar Pétursson explains the company’s decision to halt VR production on its titles six months prior.
While CCP did go on to publish VR titles, they were all split into facets that explored different areas of the tech. EVE Valkyrie was aimed at seated play with a regular joypad controller, and Sparc was for motion control VR.
The studio tested each style to try to find the greatest player engagement, but the results were mixed, which would eventually result in the removal of dedicated VR teams at the studio.
“I’m very much a believer in the long term potential of VR, it’s just right now, where it sits, for a mid-sized company it’s a lot of risk to staff new developments,” Pétursson admits. “This is an environment that’s very hard to make a success for a company our size, and we’d be better served doing something else.”
Advancements are being made in VR though, like the removal of cords keeping players tethered to their desktop. But Pétursson isn’t convinced.
“It’s very true, the cord is one of the things that need to be addressed, but there is more to it than that,” he says. “The ceremony of putting on a VR headset; I often liken it to putting on scuba gear to go diving. Scuba diving is an amazing experience, but it’s a lot of gear to put on, and when you have it on it’s isolating, disorienting.”
“Your body is self-aware that something isn’t right, and that small discomfort, we have to find some way to address that,” he adds.
Be sure to check out the entire interview over at Rock Paper Shotgun, which provides more insight into Pétursson’s thoughts about VR’s future in CCP titles.
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2018