Development

Marvel’s Iron Man VR was first unveiled by Sony in March 2019 during their first State of Play stream. The developers confirmed upon announcement that the game would feature an original story that would be unrelated to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

When Marvel Games were initially looking for suitable studios to develop a AAA game based on the Iron Man property, they told Camouflaj, who were interested in the project, that it would probably go to a bigger studio, and that studios would have to make exceptional pitches to land the project. Camouflaj worked on a VR-exclusive prototype for the game to get the controls of flight and combat right, and that prototype led to Camouflaj being chosen to make an Iron Man game.

The developers’ focus during development was to deliver an authentic and original Iron Man story that would also focus on Tony Stark’s personal side of things, which meant including popular characters from the Marvel universe and making them an important part of the story. For the gameplay, the developers chose to fully utilize the PlayStation Move’s motion controls and the PSVR headset to completely immerse players in the experience. The developers considered VR the best possible way to deliver an Iron Man game. They also wanted to ensure that the experience was as seamless as possible within the limitations of VR technology.

In October 2019, Sony announced that Marvel’s Iron Man VR would release on February 28, 2020. In January, however, Sony pushed the release back by three months to May 15. In April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sony delayed the releases of two of their upcoming games – The Last of Us Part 2 and Marvel’s Iron Man VR – indefinitely. A final release date was announced a month afterward as July 3, 2020.

On May 21, a free demo of the game was released on the PlayStation Store, while a PlayStation VR bundle for the game was also announced. Marvel’s Iron Man VR went gold on May 28.

In Marvel’s Iron Man VR, developers Camouflaj have introduced a new Iron Man suit created for the game from scratch, called thee Impulse Armour. The suit was designed by Adi Granov, who has been heavily involved in Iron Man comics for years, as well as some of the films. Granov also designed the game’s box art.

The game’s voice cast includes Josh Keaton as Tony Stark / Iron Man, Chantelle Barry as Ghost / Ava Starr, Leila Birch as FRIDAY, Ike Amadi as Nick Fury, and Jennifer Hale. Others, including Matt Mercer, Dwight Schultz, and  Leonardo Nam are also part of the main cast.

Story

Having retired from the market of manufacturing weapons, Tony Stark now creates technology that he can use with his Iron Man suit to fight evil. As the game begins, a mysterious hacker and anti-corporate activist named Ghost with unknown motivations attacks Stark Industries and repurposes their old weapons. Tony must now don the suit of Iron Man and attempt to put a stop to Ghost’s plans.

Gameplay

Marvel’s Iron Man VR is a virtual reality-exclusive game that is played from a first person perspective. During combat and flight, players see Iron Man’s HUD on their screens. Meanwhile, all actions through the game are done through physical controls, with the developers having wanted to capture the feel of using and flying around in the Iron Man Suit with authentic controls. For instance, players use Iron Man’s repulsors with the PlayStation Move sticks and aim manually.

Combat allows players to use various abilities and manoeuvres, including use boost to speed up; Rocket Punch, which starts with a hit combo and ends with a finishing Repulsor Blast; ground pound, in which players descend toward enemies at high speeds for a strong attack; and Unibeam, which can be charged up and shot out of Iron Man’s chest, but has to be properly timed. Players can also use Iron Man’s auxiliary weapons, which are fired out of his gauntlets as projectiles, but have to be unlocked with Research Points.

Various locations are included in a game, including a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier, the city of Shanghai, and a decommissioned Stark Industries plant. During development. Camouflaj were targeting a length of 4-5 hours for the game, but after playtesting, they realized that the game’s length was twice that estimate at 8-10 hours.

Another location included in the game is Tony Stark’s garage in his Malibu mansion. Players can freely explore the garage to undertake several leisurely activities. Additionally, players can also spend time in the garage to tinker with Tony’s Iron Man suit, with several customization and upgrade options available. This is done through a 3D UI, which the developers created to approximate the feel of physically using Tony’s technology to upgrade the suit.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Marvel’s Iron Man VR is out in just a few days, and there’s plenty of reasons to be excited about the game, given how it’s promising to be a full-fledged and authentic VR-exclusive Iron Man experience. Developers Camouflaj recently revealed some new details on the customization and upgrade mechanics of the game in a video, and now in a new update on the official PlayStation blog, director Ryan Payton has dropped many more details, including the game’s estimated length, its combat, the locations included in the game, and more.

What’s most pleasing to read is that the game’s supposedly going to hit a pretty sweat spot in terms of length. Wanting to deliver a “a robust PlayStation VR-exclusive Iron Man action game with a deeply meaningful Tony Stark story,” the developers were initially aiming for a 4-5 hour length, but after recent playtests, it’s looking like the game is twice as long, which would be 8-10 hours.

Payton also talks about the game’s environments, which he describes as big and open spaces that will allow players to “fly around at top speed.” Some of the locations you’ll be able to do that in are a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier, the city of Shanghai – the game’s “most ambitious environment” and one that will “craft a storyline that puts Stark Tower in the thick of the action and drama” – and a decommissioned Stark Industries facility, which Payton says is a compact space, but one good for combat challenges.

Payton also writes about the game’s combat mechanics. “Throughout our story-driven campaign, we layer on core mechanics in hopes that, by the final cinematic, you feel so in tune with the controls that you feel like you’ve fused together with the Impulse Armor,” he says, before going on to describe various mechanics.

These include a boost to increase your speed, the Rocket Punch – which will hit enemies “with a one-two-three hit combo” and then finish them off with a Repulsor Blast – auxiliary weapons – which are projectiles that you can shoot our of your gauntlets once you unlock them – the ground pound, and the Unibeam, which can be charged up and shot out of Iron Man’s chest, but has to be properly timed.

Payton spends some time discussing the game’s story, saying that the game tells “a personal story about Tony Stark that leverages the unique storytelling strengths of PlayStation VR.” Payton says it will “put players in the shoes of Tony and bring them up-close-and-personal with classic Marvel characters such as Pepper Potts, Nick Fury and FRIDAY (as well as a host of other characters we have yet to reveal).” You will also be able to “physically interact and form a stronger bond” with these characters during specific points in the campaign.

Finally, Payton also briefly discusses what the prospect of VR interactivity has added to the game in terms of immersion, which is something the developers have emphasized several times in the past. “During the development of Marvel’s Iron Man VR, we were amazed at how much VR-powered interactions added to the sense of immersion — moments such as extinguishing an engine fire or rescuing Pepper from a burning jet,” Payton writes. “Although building these moments require lots of time and resources, we had a blast sprinkling them throughout the main campaign.”

Marvel’s Iron Man VR is out exclusively for PlayStation VR on July 3.

Marvel’s Iron Man VR developers Camouflaj have a great opportunity to deliver an authentic, engaging Iron Man video game- and as a virtual reality-exclusive experience no less. They’ve talked quite a bit about why they felt the game was perfect for VR, and the work that goes on behind the scenes in the game to keep players fully immersed, and in a new developer video, they go behind the scenes with its development a bit more.

From the process of pitching a VR-exclusive Iron Man game to Marvel, to planning out how to create an authentic and enjoyable story-focused game based on the property, to executing those plans while ensuring that it’s all done with properly leveraging the unique capabilities of virtual reality hardware, the developers talk about plenty of interesting stuff in the video. Take a look at it below.

Marvel’s Iron Man VR recently wrapped up development, and will be releasing exclusively for PS4 – more specifically, for PSVR – on July 3. If you want to dip your toes into the water before then and get a taste of what the game will be like, you can try out its demo, which is currently available on the PlayStation Store.

Camouflaj and Sony’s upcoming Marvel’s Iron Man VR is going to be a game to look out for, not only because it attempts to capture the power fantasy of literally flying around like Iron Man, or because it’s promising to deliver a full-featured story-driven adventure, but because it’s going to try and do all that while being a VR exclusive game.

And though there were a few bumps along the way that led to a couple of delays, it seems the game has now entered the final stretch before launch. Developers Camouflaj recently took to Twitter to announce that Marvel’s Iron Man VR has gone gold- which means primary development has wrapped up and the game is ready to be shipped out. Any work done on the game from this point forth will come via post-launch (or day one) patches.

Marvel’s Iron Man VR is out for PlayStation VR on July 3. A demo of the game is also currently available on the PS Store, in case you want to try it out.

After years of hard work, we are proud to announce that MARVEL’S IRON MAN VR has officially gone gold! We can’t wait for everyone to #SuitUp when the game releases exclusively for PlayStation VR on July 3. pic.twitter.com/NZnsG12Pgy

— Camouflaj (@Camouflaj) May 28, 2020

The Last of Us Part 2 and Marvel’s Iron Man VR have both been delayed, Sony recently announced on Twitter. No new release dates have been provided for the game, with Sony simply saying that they have been pushed back from launch “until further notice.” The publisher says the ongoing global crisis is “preventing us from providing the launch experience our players deserve.”

In another tweet, they also said that for now, they have no more delays to upcoming releases to announce. Presumably, they are referring to Ghost of Tsushima, which is due out on June 26, though if the situation does not improve globally, it’s highly possible that that might suffer a delay as well.

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, development of several upcoming titles has already been impacted, while games have also been facing the possibility of retail shortages. Not too long ago, Sony said that they were “carefully monitoring” the possibility of delays for their upcoming games.

This is not the first time both of these games have been delayed. The Last of Us Part 2 and Marvel’s Iron Man VR were both pushed back into May from their initial release dates.

Update: SIE has made the difficult decision to delay the launch of The Last of Us Part II and Marvel's Iron Man VR until further notice. Logistically, the global crisis is preventing us from providing the launch experience our players deserve.

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) April 2, 2020

Currently, there are no other delays to report, but we'll keep you updated.

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) April 2, 2020