BLOOD AND TRUTH

SIE London Studio’s Blood and Truth was an unexpected surprise earlier this years. Promising and delivering on the allure of high-octane action and a story you could actually invest in, it was a better game than most expected. Another area where it impressed quite a bit was the visuals, with crisp technical work across the board, excellent animations, and truly impressive facial and performance capture.

VR has probably never been more appealing to the mass market than it is currently, thanks to cheaper mass market VR hardware finally being available, and the release of some VR killer apps such as Astro Bot for the PlayStation VR. And yet, amidst this new surge of enthusiasm for the VR market comes the gloomy pronouncement regarding its current prospects by a company that has previously jumped headfirst into supporting VR game development.

The CEO of CCP Games, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, talked about the state of the VR market in an interview with Destructoid. CCP Games, you will remember, were gearing up to release EVE Valkyrie on the PlayStation VR, a project that was then ultimately cancelled following low sales, accompanied by the shuttering of two studios, and the cancellation of all further VR games from the company.

“We expected VR to be two to three times as big as it was, period. You can’t build a business on that,” he said, speaking of where the market currently stands.

He also says that sales of VR hardware, such as the 3 million units sold by PlayStation VR, might not necessarily be indicative of the VR market as a whole—since a lot of people buy a headset for the novelty, and then proceed to never actually use it afterwards.

“The important thing is we need to see the metrics for active users of VR. A lot of people bought headsets just to try it out. How many of those people are active? We found that in terms of our data, a lot of users weren’t.”

That said, he cited the upcoming Oculus Quest, a low cost standalone VR headset from Oculus, as something that could maybe turn things around for the market, and make the company reassess its stance on VR. For now, however, it looks like he’s not too hot on the segment, and given the losses his company suffered, who can blame him?

CCP Games’ EVE: Valkyrie, an off-shot of EVE Online which focuses on dogfighting in space, is undergoing changes. Originally meant to be played on VR headsets, the new Warzone expansion will allow for playing it on standard screens as well. The entire game will be playable and cross-platform multiplayer will be possible between PC and PS4 players, both VR and non-VR.

Other changes include all ships being available early with more specific roles for each; new weapons and abilities with Ultra abilities being available; the new Extraction Mode; two new maps called Fleet and Outpost; and so on.

Even rewards have been changed with Gold being removed, Silver being less of a factor and XP now serving as the only currency necessary for mods. Salvaging is now used for unlocking Ultra abilities while Spoils of War will provide different Reward Capsules (think of them as Loot Boxes for customization items).

EVE: Valkyrie’s Warzone expansion will arrive on September 26th and will be free for all current owners of the game. Everyone else can purchase it for $30.

Oculus Rift is now out and about and its accompanied by CCP Newcastle’s long-awaited space sim EVE: Valkyrie. If you want a peek at the gameplay and how it could possibly look in virtual reality, check out the launch trailer below. We have to admit – it’s fairly pretty.

CCP Games CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson stated that, “This is just the beginning of our plans for virtual reality. Our goal has always been to create the most immersive virtual worlds, and VR now gives us a powerful new tool to achieve that.”

Along with EVE: Valkyrie, CCP Games has a bunch of other VR games in development with $30 million in investments recently received for the same. The developer also announced the release of Gunjack for Oculus Rift, which debuted on Gear VR in November 2015. You can look forward to both titles heading to other VR headsets like HTC Vive and PlayStation VR in the future.

The VR headset Oculus Rift will be releasing this April and will cost $599. This is according to the headset’s pre-order page which recently went live and limits each pre-order to one per customer. Interestingly, those who pre-order in the United States won’t have to pay any money until the actual headset ships. This isn’t the case for UK consumers though – you’ll need to pay £499 when pre-ordering.

Oculus Rift will ship with the headset, a sensor, an Xbox One controller, the Oculus remote and two games – EVE: Valkyrie and Lucky’s Tale. You can check how compatible your system is for Rift by downloading the compatibility check application on the pre-order page.

What are your thoughts on the prices for Oculus Rift, especially considering it’s more expensive than either current gen console? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned for more information on the headset en route to its release.

CCP Games’ EVE: Valkyrie, which forgoes the RPG mechanics of the MMO for some dogfighting action, will now be exclusive to the upcoming Oculus Rift VR headset. Oculus VR announced the decision today and revealed that they would be co-publishing the game. EVE: Valkyrie will now be one of the launch titles for Rift.

Oculus VR described it as “one of the first AAA games designed exclusively for the Rift” and “hands-down one of our favourite Rift games.”

CCP’s Robert Clarke and Sigurður Gunnarsson stated that, “We strongly believe the best VR experiences are going to be the ones built from the ground up for VR, and we’ve kept that in mind whilst developing Valkyrie.

“We wanted people to really feel like they were there – to sense the vastness of space, feel the confined area of the cockpit and get that adrenaline rush as you see an exploding fighter whizz past your head.”