While most companies are mucking around with providing smaller, unimpressive VR demos or proofs of concept, or just vertical slices cynically named ‘experiences’, Bethesda are jumping into the VR waters headfirst, porting no less than the entirety of Fallout 4 to the format. And in recent interview with Glixel, Bethesda’s Todd Howard confirmed that yes, fans can expect all of Fallout 4 to be VR, not just some small part of it.
“That’s the promise of VR, being in a big virtual world,” he said. “The core experience, meaning you put on the headset and you’re standing in the world of Fallout and can go where you want, just that little bit is every bit as cool as you hope it would be. Once we did that, we were like, “OK, we gotta see where this goes.” We’re not so worried about how many we’re going to sell or what the market is. That will all sort itself out. We have an opportunity to make something really unique. We’d rather do that than make some other tiny experience. I don’t think that’s what people want from us.”
Howard also talked about what he feels Skyrim, which was recently remastered and re-released, lacks in, and how he would look into improving that. “I think if you look at our worlds and our environments, they’re really rewarding. I think on the character side, how the NPCs react to you is still not quite where we want it to be. There really isn’t a part of the game where we can’t say, ‘That could be better,'” he said.
It’s good to know that Howard and his team aren’t just content to rest on their laurels, but that they in fact want to push the envelope, while also learning from their past mistakes. I can’t wait to see what these guys come up with next.