Mojang, the Microsoft-owned studio behind Minecraft, announced it’s dropping support for the original PSVR next year, leaving any hope for PSVR 2 support firmly at (bed)rock bottom.

As mentioned in the recent 1.21.30 (Bedrock) release notes, Mojang says that starting March 2025, PSVR users will no longer be able to play Minecraft on PS4. Not online or in single player.

“After you receive the final update, you will still receive updates on your PlayStation and be able to play without PlayStationVR,” the studio says.

PSVR support for Minecraft came as a free update to the PS4 version in September 2020, allowing users to play the full game, albeit with the DualShock controllers and not PS Move.

As the best-selling game in history, PSVR was essentially the only VR headset to boast real first-class support from Mojang; the Meta PC version was delisted after abandoning support in 2021, and the only advisable way to play on PC VR is the Vivecraft Java Edition mod.

What’s more, Minecraft is now in beta on PS5, however Mojang hasn’t mentioned whether PSVR 2 support is on the horizon, further curbing any hopes it may ever come given today’s news.

While Mojang hasn’t said as much—and this is simply my opinion—it’s unlikely PSVR 2 support will ever come primarily due to the headset’s relatively small userbase, and a few other factors at play.

Sony’s wavering confidence in PSVR 2 has also led it to release a tethered PC VR adapter for in August, severing its exclusivity to the PS5 game ecosystem. This happened only a year and a half after PSVR 2’s launch, leading some to believe the company is partially divesting itself of its latest VR headset.

Notably, the company didn’t throw gas behind PSVR 2 like it did with the 2016 original. Sony has released only a handful of exclusives, including Horizon Call of the Mountain, and VR support for Resident Evil Village, Gran Turismo 7 and the Resident Evil 4 remake.

Then, there’s Mojang’s parent company Microsoft, which has been fairly wary of VR gaming in general over the years. In 2023, the company not only pulled the plug on its social VR platform Altspace VR, but also dropped support for its entire WMR platform on Windows.

Granted, Mojang hasn’t outright denied PSVR 2 support, although it simply doesn’t seem like it will ever happen on PS5.

Kayak VR: Mirage (2022) is amazingly immersive, packing in a ton of environments to explore in both single player and asynchronous multiplayer racing modes. You never could paddle through the glaciers or meander around tropical coasts with a friend in real-time though. But now, thanks to today’s update, you can.

Initially released as in beta on Steam in mid-August, developer Better Than Life today announced that real-time multiplayer is finally here for Kayak VR: Mirage on all supported platforms, which includes Steam and PSVR 2.

The real-time multiplayer mode lets you and a friend explore together in free roam, serving up the core of the experience. Notably missing in its initial release is race mode, proximity chat and physics objects like the ball and other inflatables, the studio says. It also doesn’t include cross-play at this time, however the studio tells Road to VR they might add it in the future.

“Development on it started over a year ago and as it turns out, making a VR game with a character, holding a paddle, in a kayak, all physics based, work in multiplayer is no joke,” the studio says in a Steam update. “However we think it’s completely worth it as we’ve had a blast during our testing and can’t wait to hear what you think!”

Kayak VR: Mirage ranked in the top three most-downloaded games in the US, Europe and Japan in 2023, owing to its photorealistic environments such as ice caves in Antarctica, tropical locales in Costa Rica, storm waters in Norway, and the stark canyons of Australia. Its two-handed paddling, physics-based environment, and upper body inverse kinematics (IK) make it especially immersive.

If you’re looking to provide feedback on the multiplayer mode, you can head over to the Kayak VR Discord (invite link), where you can also stay in tuned for upcoming updates.

Human Fall Flat (2016) is getting VR support soon, bringing the whimsical, wobbly physics-based platformer to all major headsets. And you can thank VR modder ‘Raicuparta’ for that.

Raicuparta reveals Human Fall Flat studio No Brakes Games actually bought experimental VR support from the modder after having seen a video of some early control concepts at work. Although the mod was never released, it was enough to get the studio interested in hiring Raicuparta.

“I showed the video to the creators of the game, and they were very excited,” Raicuparta reveals in a Patreon post. “They offered to hire me, but that wouldn’t work for me at the time.”

While Raicuparta wasn’t directly involved in the development of the official VR port as it is today, the studio did implement the third-person control scheme featured in the recently released trailer, seen below.

“They then offered to buy the mod from me, so that they could eventually use the same “puppet controls” concept on an official VR port,” Raicuparta says. “I don’t think they really needed to pay me at all, so that was really nice of them.”

Raicuparta is known for adding unofficial VR support to number of games over the years, such as The Stanley Parable, Outer Wilds, and Neon White. Raicuparta also served up the game and mod management tool ‘Rai Pal’ to go along with their Universal Unity VR mod currently in development, which, much like Praydog’s Unreal Engine VR (UEVR) tool, makes it possible to inject VR support into flatscreen games running in the Unity game engine.

Working with Flat2VR Studios, an Impact Reality studio dedicated to porting flatscreen games to VR, Raicuparta also had a major hand in porting the soon-to-release Trombone Champ: Unflattened to all major VR headsets, which is slated to come among a rash of official VR ports, including WRATH: Aeon of Ruin VR, Roboquest VR, and Flatout VR.

Launching “soon” on Quest 2/3/Pro, PSVR 2 and SteamVR headsets, Human Fall Flat is coming with all levels from the game’s original release as well as extra content created by community members. There’s no release date yet, but you can now wishlist on Steam and the Horizon Store, with a PlayStation Store listing still pending.

Games inspired by ‘The Backrooms’ Internet lore are usually pretty scary, but PC game POOLS (2024) has a different way of getting under your skin. No monsters. Just pools. And soon, you’ll be able to play in VR.

Developer Tensori is bringing VR support to Pools soon, which is slated to arrive as a free update to the PC game.

The game, which throws you into an eerie, maze-like pool facility, is also heading to PS5, which according to the PlayStation Store listing will also be bundled in for PSVR 2.

Pools “can feel oppressive at times by invoking fears of getting lost, the dark, tight spaces and liminal space architecture,” the studio says, having released the game on Steam earlier this year to overall ‘Very Positive’ user reviews.

There’s no release date yet, however Tensori says in a Steam update they’ll be announcing “all the details on when the update is coming real soon.” The studio said previously while it’s making no promises, “during this year is likely.”

Notably, the studio hasn’t mentioned whether it’s eyeing Quest support at this time, although we hope they do.

Curve Games and No Brakes Games, makers of indie hit Human Fall Flat (2016), today announced an entirely new version of the game targeted at all major VR headsets.

Called Human Fall Flat VR, the puzzle-filled platformer sends you wobbling through whimsical dreamscapes, letting you control your wibbly arms, where you can leap, climb, and swing around by using your VR controllers.

The game is slated to arrive “soon” on Quest 2/3/Pro, PSVR 2 and SteamVR headsets, bringing with it all the levels from the game’s original release, along with a wide selection of Extra Dreams created by some of the most talented community creators, the studio says, noting that it will feature an “intuitive 3rd-person view specially designed for VR headsets.”

Like the original, there will be both solo and online multiplayer, letting you team up with three other friends to navigate the game’s tricky traps and mind-bending physics puzzles.

While there’s no release date on the books yet, and store pages for Meta and PSVR 2 are still coming, Human Fall Flat VR is available to wishlist on Steam, priced at $13/£10/€13.

Beat Saber is getting ‘Shock Drops’, something Meta calls a “new-ish hit single to keep things fresh,” the first of which is Eminem’s Houdini.

Houdini, the chart-topping song from Eminem’s twelfth studio album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), has had over over 138 million views on YouTube and over 340 million listens on Spotify. Meta notes in the annoucement it was a “natural choice for Beat Saber to wrap up brat summer.”

Houdini arrives with an updated version of the environment from the Hip Hop Mixtape, which was launched back in April and included tracks from the likes of Snoop, Dr. Dre, Eminem, The Notorious B.I.G., and 2Pac.

Like all of Beat Saber’s music packs, Shock Drops are coming to all supported headsets, including Quest, PSVR 2, and PC VR headsets. You can find them over in the new game section ‘Shock Drops’, priced at $2 a piece.

Note: like the Hip Hop Mixtape, Houdini is uncensored, which means it won’t show up for people with parent-managed Meta accounts.

Behemoth from Skydance and Alien: Rogue Incursion from Survios are two of the most anticipated VR games coming in 2024, and both are headed for release on Quest, PSVR 2, and PC VR. And now we know when we’ll first be able to get our hands on them.

Behemoth Release Date on Quest

Starting off with Behemoth, the highly anticipated VR title from Skydance Interactive is set to debut on November 14, 2024, on Quest. Although the game is also planned for release on PSVR 2 and PC VR, release dates for those platforms have not yet been confirmed and may come at a later date.

Skydance, the studio behind the critically acclaimed The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, has shown Behemoth to have a dark fantasy setting with intense combat mechanics.

Alien: Rogue Incursion Release Date

Next up is Alien: Rogue Incursion, which is now set to launch on December 19, 2024, simultaneously on PSVR 2, PC VR, and, among Quest headsets, exclusively on Quest 3.

The game is being developed by Survios, a longtime VR studio known for their work on Creed: Rise to Glory and The Walking Dead Onslaught, and a range of other early VR titles.

Alien: Rogue Incursion promises to immerse players in the terrifying world of the Alien franchise, and the recent pre-order and release date trailer shows us a clear look at the game’s shooting gameplay and Xenomorph enemies.

Bonus – Batman: Arkham Shadows Release Window

One more game on our list of the most anticipated VR games of 2024, Batman: Arkham Shadow, doesn’t have an exact release date yet. But this week we got a pretty specific release window: October 2024.

Batman: Arkham Shadow is a Quest 3 headset and platform exclusive, meaning it will only run on Quest 3 or later, and isn’t planned for release on other VR platforms.

Fresh off of its announcement of joining the A16Z SPEEDRUN accelerator program, Flat2VR Studios has announced four existing flatscreen games that are getting official ports for all major VR headsets.

Flat2VR Studios exists to adapt existing flatscreen games for VR. Today the studio announced the first four titles that are in the works, all planned for release on Quest, PSVR 2, and PC VR. Check out all the trailers below.

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin VR

The original WRATH: Aeon of Ruin (2024) is a “hardcore FPS inspired by the icons of the ’90s, powered by the legendary Quake 1 Tech. Taking place in a realm left to rot, take up arms, unearth long-forgotten secrets and hunt down the Guardians of the Old World.” The game is rated “Mostly Positive” (77% favorable reviews) by Steam users.

The VR port will put players in direct control of their weapons. We’ll be interested to see if the studio builds out a manual reload system or sticks to simple button-based reloading animations. No release date has been announced yet.

Roboquest VR

The original Roboquest (2023) is a “is a fast FPS Roguelite in a scorched futureworld. You’re a rebooted Guardian, ready to kick some metal ass! Fight with your buddy or by yourself and annihilate hordes of deadly bots in ever-changing environments.” The game is rated “Overwhelmingly Positive” (95% favorable reviews) Steam by Steam users.

The original game includes full-featured co-op support for up to two players and we’re hoping that will carry into the Roboquest VR port from Flat2VR Studios. Maybe even with cross-play? Fingers crossed. Roboquest VR does not yet have a release date.

Flatout VR

The original Flatout (2004) is said to “deliver a thrilling combination of high-octane racing, smash-em-up demolition derby action, and death defying stunts propelling the driver through the windshield!” The game is rated “Very Positive” (92% favorable reviews) by Steam users.

The Flatout VR port will put players directly in the driver’s seat as they crash and smash their way around raceways. With the sudden stops of crashing, and the possibility of “propelling the driver through the windshield”, comfort design for the VR port will surely be a high priority. Flatout VR doesn’t have a release date yet.

Trombone Champ: Unflattened 

And last but not least, Trombone Champ, the meme-game of 2022 where even the very best players sound like amateurs. This is a rhythm game where messing up can be just as fun as hitting the perfect notes. The original game is rated “Overwhelmingly Positive” (98% favorable reviews) by Steam users.

The port, titled Trombone Champ: Unflattened, puts the trombone directly into players hands. With motion controls, VR offers a more authentic way to play the instrument by moving your hand the same way you’d move the slide on a real trombone. There’s no release date for Trombone Champ: Unflattened yet.

Veteran VR studio nDreams has made several shooters with innovative mechanics over the years. That experience seems to have guided the studio’s publishing interest as well; the newly announced VENDETTA FOREVER, developed by MeatSpace Interactive and published by nDreams, uses a unique movement mechanic to create fast-paced VR gameplay. We jumped into the Quest demo that’s available to all starting today.

Update (August 15th, 2024, 3:46PM ET): Vendetta Forever is being published nDreams and developed by MeatSpace Interactive, a one-man studio run by Zander Dejah.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that VENDETTA FOREVER was being developed by nDreams itself.

Vendetta Forever is an arcade shooter through and through. Though it has the ‘auto-aim’ vibes and bullet trails of Pistol Whip and the slow motion bullet dodging of SUPERHOT VR (and shares aesthetics of both), Vendetta Forever is far from being a clone. It brings something new and interesting to the table: a movement mechanic where you can teleport to any gun you can see, whether sitting on the ground or still falling from a dispatched enemy’s hands.

And this isn’t just an occasional thing, the game is built around your ability to rapidly move from one gun to the next, not just to get around, but to avoid all the bullets that were headed right for your face. And because there are almost always bullets headed for your face, rapidly the game sets a frenetic pace of jumping from gun to gun.

Even on the base ‘Normal’ setting, you’ll almost certainly find yourself dying a few times when you start a new level. But the fun part is knowing what to expect the next time around… after a few tries you’ll be moving with the speed of a superhero and shooting like a sharpshooter that can see the future.

Though this pace can definitely make you feel like a badass superhero, it never really lets up. If you aren’t moving, you’re dead. That means not only jumping from gun-to-gun, but also physically moving your body to dodge incoming bullets, similar to Pistol Whip.

There was at least one part in my hands-on with the game where things slowed down for a minute—I was shooting a big machine gun out of a helicopter—which was a nice change of pace, but it only lasted briefly. I hope the game will include more moments like this to break up the pace. I also wouldn’t mind an outright ‘freeze’ ability to freeze the action and give myself a few seconds to think about what my next move should be. Perhaps this would be an ability with a long cooldown to give players that breather moment when they need it, but not reduce the challenge too greatly.

Levels in the game are largely deterministic. The same enemy will round the same corner at the same moment. As mentioned, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it turns you into a future-seeing gun-god. But levels also have some alternative paths which you can take depending upon which gun you decide to teleport to.

Ultimately this didn’t change very much about the level, but it might add a little replayability for those aiming for high scores on the leaderboards. Hunting for new and potentially faster paths through a level could be an interesting aspect of the game.

The levels that I played in Vendetta Forever are, so far, quite short. If you know the path they might take you 30-60 seconds to complete. But those first few times dying while exploring the level expands that time a bit. But if you aren’t interested in optimizing your score or completion time, you’ll be blasting through levels pretty quickly, so it remains to be seen if the developer can create enough to feel like there’s really some meat to the experience for those not interested in improving their leaderboard rank.

And a final note that didn’t really fit anywhere else… I’m fine with the game’s stylized look, but was very surprised at the significant amount of aliasing. Given the low-poly aesthetic, this really feels like a game that should be running at maximum resolution and native 90Hz or 120Hz on a Quest 3. It’s possible the build I played has yet to be optimized for Quest 3, or perhaps a significant optimization pass will land before the game launches.

I’m sold on the underlying mechanics of Vendetta Forever. Moving by teleporting from one gun to the next, combined with some generous auto-aim to make you feel like you’ve got action-movie aim, definitely works.

The success of Vendetta Forever is likely to hinge on the quality of the levels if there’s enough (and enough variety) among them to keep the game interesting. I’m hopeful the developer can pull it off!

The demo for Vendetta Forever on Quest is available today, and the game will launch on Quest 2, Quest Pro, Quest 3, and PSVR 2 this October.

VR veteran developer nDreams today unveiled at the VR Games Showcase a new shooter called Vendetta Forever, which seems to be taking a few cues from SUPERHOT.

Vendetta Forever is said to fuse rapid-fire tactical gunplay with acrobatic style in an unapologetic love letter to classic action cinema.

Coming to Quest 2/3/Pro and PSVR 2, nDreams says the game takes “everything you love about top-tier VR action, remove the fluff and cut to the good bit for 100% gunplay purity.”

Here’s how the studio describes it:

Powered by the all-new LO-KILL-MOTION mechanic. Shoot to kill. Kill to move.  Dispatch foes and seize their weapon in mid-air to propel yourself forward. Strategically plot your next move with each takedown in a frantic fight to the bitter end.

Vendetta Forever is slated to release on Quest and PSVR 2 in October 2024. The studio says a demo will also be available on Quest.

Store pages for Quest and PSVR 2 are already live so you can wishlist today.

Metal: Hellsinger VR, a port of the unique flatscreen rhythm shooter, is getting a VR version, bringing its frenetic action and metal-heavy soundtrack to all major VR headsets.

Funcom today announced that Metal: Hellsinger VR will launch on Quest 2, Quest Pro, and Quest 3 on September 26th, while the PSVR 2 and PC VR version will launch a few days later on October 3rd.

The game will launch with a $30 price tag, though anyone that pre-orders is promised to get the ‘Dream of the Beast’ for free, which adds two songs to the soundtrack, a new weapon, and three outfits with passive effects.

We tried an early version of Metal: Hellsinger VR earlier this Summer and found a game that felt like it nearly hit the mark in porting its unique gameplay to VR, but still needed some tuning to get right on key. We’re hopeful the time between the early demo and next month’s launch will have given the developers time to make those improvements.

There are a ton of VR games coming this year, although there are a few big names we’re really holding out hope for.

Many of them are targeting all major VR headsets (thankfully), with only one actual Quest 3 exclusive listed below. More importantly, they’re all slated to arrive in 2024. Check out the this year’s most anticipated VR games below:

Aces of Thunder (PSVR 2, PC VR)

Created by War Thunder (2012) studio Gaijin Games, Aces of Thunder promises to bring a host of WWII combat airplanes across 15 maps representing three key theaters: Western, Eastern and Pacific Fronts. It’s said to include War Thunder’s physically accurate flight and damage models, so we’re hoping for some intense and realistic dogfights.

There’s no precise launch date yet, although Gaijin says it’s coming sometime in Q4 2024 on Steam and PSVR 2.

Alien: Rogue Incursion (Quest 3, PSVR 2, PC VR)

Alien: Rogue Incursion pits you against a stealthy swarm of Xenomorphs, although you won’t be creeping around and hiding in lockers the entire time. Developer Survios is tossing in a few tools to keep aliens at bay: motion-tracking radar and a few guns too, including a pulse rifle, revolver, and pump shotgun.

Alien: Rogue Incursion is releasing sometime around Holiday 2024, coming to PSVR 2, PC VR, and Meta Quest 3—not Quest Pro or Quest 2.

Batman: Arkham Shadow (Quest 3)

Batman: Arkham Shadow has big shoes to fill. Not only is this the first fully-fledged Batman game for VR, but we think developer Camouflaj’s last game Iron Man VR was “VR’s first great superhero game”.

Facing off against ‘The Rat King’, Batman: Arkham Shadow promises a heavy dose of exploration, stealth, and free-flowing combat across Gotham. That includes Batman’s Grappling Gun, Batarang, smoke bombs, and even working cape that lets you glide from the city heights.

Batman: Arkham Shadow is due out sometime in Fall 2024, coming exclusively to Quest 3.

Hitman 3 VR Reloaded (Quest 3)

Hitman 3 came along with VR support for the original PSVR at launch in 2021, later bringing PC VR support a few months later. Now IO Interactive is working with XR Games to bring Hitman 3 exclusively to Quest 3. Notably, the game is said to be “rebuilt from the ground up” for VR, which may smooth over some of retrofitt-y woes of the PSVR and PC VR supported versions.

We don’t know when it will launch specifically, although it’s slated to arrive sometime in Summer 2024. In the meantime, you can wishlist it over on the Horizon Store for Quest 3.

Metro Awakening (Quest, PSVR 2, PC VR)

Coming from VR veteran Vertigo Games in partnership with 4A Games, Metro Awakening throws you back into the Moscow metro with plenty of guns and a mission to protect your home station from mutant threats. One of the biggest concerns, we learned last month, would be scrounging for ammo, making thorough exploration essential.

There’s no release date yet beyond the “2024” window, however you can wishlist the game now on PSVR 2, PC VR, and Quest 2/3/Pro.

Skydance’s Behemoth (Quest, PSVR 2, PC VR)

Skydance Games, the studio behind The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners franchise, is getting the hype train fueled for its next big single-player VR game, Skydance’s BEHEMOTH, which promises to bring a bevy of immersive melee combat and epic adventuring to all major VR headsets later this year.

Promising a 12-hour single-player campaign, you’ll face off against blighted soldiers and, of course, the game’s namesake: hulking beasts taller than skyscrapers, aka Behemoths.

Skydance’s Behemoth is slated to launch sometime in Fall 2024 on all major VR headsets, including PC VR, PSVR 2, and Quest 2/3/Pro.

Zombie Army VR (Quest, PSVR 2, PC VR)

Rebellion, developer behind cult horror shooter series Zombie Army, is getting ready to release the franchise’s first VR game on all major headsets this year. The co-op campaign takes place during the events of the Zombie Army series, letting you take to the field as one of the Deadhunters, an elite squad that is hunting down zombie war criminals.

Developed in partnership with XR Games, Zombie Army VR is slated to launch sometime this year on PC VR, PSVR 2, and Quest 2/3/Pro.

What VR games are you looking forward to this year? Let us know in the comments below!

PSVR 2 got its first big sale the other week which resulted in a large lift in sales volume for the headset in the US.

At $550 MSRP, PSVR 2 is actually more expensive than the PS5 console that powers it, at $500. That’s made it a tough sell for some, especially with Quest 3, its nearest  competitor, priced at $500 and not requiring a tethered console.

Demand for Sony’s VR headset may be greater than it appears however, with many seemingly willing to buy once the price is right.

Sony discovered this after its first big sale on PSVR 2 the other week, which dropped the price of the headset alone to $350 (37% discount), and the price of the Horizon bundle to $400 (a 33% discount).

In just the week or so that the sale was active, we can see that sales volume for headset more than doubled on Amazon US compared to the prior months.

PSVR 2’s short-lived Summer sale may tell us something about the forthcoming holiday period, the time of year when the most VR headsets are sold and the biggest sales are generally seen. Sony now has a clear idea of how much its headset sales could ramp up if it offers the same deal during the holiday, or perhaps an even better one.

While the discount appears to have resulted in a nice boost in unit sales for PSVR 2, to put things into perspective we can see that it’s still a far cry from the number of Quest 2 and Quest 3 units Meta has been selling.

Sony released its long-awaited PC VR adapter for PSVR 2 this week, however early reports maintain some user don’t even need the company’s $60 adapter to start playing PC VR games like Half-Life: Alyx (2020).

A number of early user reviews of the adapter are echoing many of the same points right now: some graphics cards with USB-C ports allow PSVR 2 users to directly hook into their GPUs and play SteamVR games. All you need to do is download the PlayStation VR 2 App on Steam, no adapter required.

It’s not just any old USB-C port though, but rather a bit of an oddball that has been deprecated in more modern GPUs: VirtualLink.

Announced back in 2018 with the backing of both Nvidia and AMD, VirtualLink was meant to simplify PC VR connections by providing both power and data transmission through a single cable.

At the time, it promised to deliver a massive improvement over having to wrangle multiple connectors (USB, video, and sometimes additional power) and breakout boxes. Sadly, it was abandoned in later GPUs as the market largely moved away from PC VR in favor of standalone VR headsets such as Meta Quest.

The user reports you’ll see on Steam claiming they don’t need the PC VR adapter likely have one of several 2018-ish GPUs: Nvidia GeForce RTX 20 Series cards (Founders Editions) and AMD AMD 6000 or 7000 series reference design cards, as partner cards didn’t include VirtualLink.

While the list below contains possible candidates for VirtualLink support, the easiest way to check is to download the PSVR 2 app from Steam and see if you’re one of the lucky few who fits into that specific Venn diagram.

NVIDIA GPUs

• GeForce RTX 2060
• GeForce RTX 2070
• GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER
• GeForce RTX 2080
• GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER
• GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
• Quadro RTX 4000
• Quadro RTX 5000
• Quadro RTX 6000
• Quadro RTX 8000

AMD GPUs

• Radeon VII
• Radeon RX 6000
• Radeon RX 7000

Provided you have one of those, some users are reporting right now some very frustrating issues with connecting PSVR 2’s Sense Controllers to Bluetooth.

Another caveat is PC support doesn’t include a number of features unique to PSVR 2, including HDR, headset feedback, eye-tracking, adaptive triggers, and haptic feedback other than rumble.

Roguelite shooter COMPOUND is finally coming to PSVR 2, bringing its retro pixel art style and arsenal of fun weapons to the platform starting this month.

Originally hoping to launch on PSVR 2 sometime in early 2024, Compound has done a bit of a back and forth with Sony’s quality assurance (QA) over the past few months, resulting in what notdead games described back in June as “an obscene number of dramas and delays.”

Now the studio, which has taken on an additional programmer to port to PSVR 2, says Compound is coming to the platform on August 13th.

Originally created by one-man indie developer Bevan “NotDead” McKechnie, Compound has celebrated its fair share of success since it initially launched in early access on SteamVR headsets in 2018, later arriving on Quest headsets in 2022.

At the time of this writing, Compound sits at the 6th best-rated VR game according to Steam and the 9th best-rated according to Steam250. On Quest, it sports a nearly five-star user rating.

If you want to know more about Compound, check out our full review of the SteamVR version. In it, we highlighted Compound’s overt love for the classics while taking on the single-player shooter genre with its own pixel art flair. Its focus on slowing down the action by making default gun handling a very deliberate experience felt clever, making the drip of progressive weapon unlocks really feel well-earned. We liked it so much, we gave it a resounding [9/10].

While you wait for the big day, you can also wishlist Compound on PSVR 2 here ahead of its August 13th release.

In this edition of XR News Bits we see a newly released Walkabout Mini Golf DLC course, a big update to Contractors Showdown, game director Hideo Kojima exploring Vision Pro, the release of VR action-arcade game Thrasher, and signs of life from cooperative WWII VR bomber game The Mighty Eighth.

XR News Bits

An incredible amount of exciting XR news comes our way every day. Very often we see news come across our desk that’s worth highlighting, but we don’t always have the bandwidth for a full article on every one of them. XR News Bits is our occasional roundup of stories we think are worth a shout-out, even if we can’t take you in-depth.

Walkabout Mini Golf Gets New ‘Wallace & Gromit’ Course

Walkabout Mini Golf has maintained an impressive cadence with the release of interesting courses to give players something new to come back to. The latest course is based the perennial stop-motion franchise Wallace & Gromit, which first premiered in 1989.

The new course is said to be packed full of locations and references that long standing fans of the show will appreciate. The new course is paid DLC which can be bought inside of the game for $4. Thoughtfully, Walkabout Mini Golf includes a ‘Guest Pass’ feature which means only one person in the room needs to own the course for the whole party to play.

Battle Royale Contractors Showdown Gets Big ‘Season 1’ Update

Hot of its release in April, VR battle royale Contractors Showdown is already dropping its first big update, borrowing the ‘season-based’ format that’s become the norm for live-service games.

The ‘Season 1’ update includes new vehicles, weapons, map locations, and dynamic weather. There’s also a new game mode called ‘Reborn’: a 30-player brawl where players get an immediate second chance after their first elimination. The original mode also now adapts the ‘Gulag’ feature from Call of Duty: Warzone where eliminated players duke it out in a quick 1v1 battle, with the winner earning the right to respawn into the battle royale match and the loser being fully eliminated.

Thrasher Launches on Quest and Apple Vision Pro

Thrasher, a unique action-arcade game from one of the creators of the cult action-arcade hit Thumper, has launched on Quest and Vision Pro.

The game sees players guiding a “magnificent space eel” through and around obstacles which grow in difficulty as time goes on. The creators call it a “mind-melting arcade action odyssey and visceral audiovisual experience.”

Thrasher is available now for $20 on Quest and Vision Pro, and the game will on launch on PC VR via Steam in December.

Metal Gear Solid Creator Hideo Kojima Checks out Vision Pro

Legendary videogame director Hideo Kojima posted several photos of himself unboxing and trying out Apple Vision Pro.

Kojima is best known as a creative force behind the Metal Gear Solid series and his newer venture, Death Stranding.

Kojima has demonstrated a clear interest in VR tech over the years, having been spotted checking out the latest developments here and there. So far he hasn’t released or announced any VR projects, but perhaps Vision Pro will inspire new interest in the tech.

Cooperative VR Bomber Game The Mighty Eighth VR Shows Signs of Life

Cooperative WWII VR bomber game The Mighty Eighth was announced way back in 2020, but we hadn’t heard much from the project in the intervening years.

Earlier this year the game’s Steam page sprung to life with some updates on its development. The latest update includes early footage showing some of the game’s core systems.

Planned for eventual launch on PC VR, The Mighty Eighth VR has no release date for now, but the developer is promising more progress updates to come.

Thanks to Daniel Fearon for the tip on this one.

Alien: Rogue Incursion just got its first gameplay trailer, showing off its first real look at the game’s Xenomorph enemies, weapons, setting and more.

When it was revealed back in April, Veteran VR studio Survios said the upcoming action-horror game was set to include an “all-new storyline full of heart-pounding action, exploration, and terrifying Xenomorphs.”

Now, the studio released a first look at gameplay centered on protagonist Zula Hendricks, a fearless ex-Colonial Marine turned ultimate Xenomorph hunter. As the game’s main protagonist, the studio reveals Zula Hendricks is on her way to the uncharted planet Purdan, accompanied by her sentient AI companion, Davis-01.

“Zula must fight her way to the heart of the infested Gemini Exoplanet Solutions black-site facility. There she will need to survive deadly attacks from the most cunning Xenomorphs ever encountered and discover new horrors and threats that once unleashed could spell the end for humankind,” Survios says.

We also get a look at the motion-tracking radar and a number of weapons, including the series’ iconic pulse rifle, revolver, and pump shotgun.

Alien: Rogue Incursion is releasing sometime around Holiday 2024, coming to PSVR 2, Meta Quest 3, and PC VR. Notably, the studio says its Meta release will only include Quest 3, but not Quest 2 or Quest Pro—making it one of the first big titles to drop the older Quest headsets.

PSVR 2 has landed its biggest sale yet, dropping the price by a solid 37%, less than two weeks ahead of its forthcoming PC VR adapter.

PSVR 2 launched in early 2023 with a $550 baseline pricetage. While the headset saw a sale that dropped it to $450 earlier this year, now there’s an even better deal.

PSVR 2 is now on sale at Amazon US (and several other Amazon regions) for $350, a full 37% discount from the MSRP.

The Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle, which includes the headset and the best games made for it so far, is also on sale for $400, a 33% discount.

The sale is described as a “Limited Time Deal,” so there’s really no telling how it will last.

The headset’s biggest sale yet comes less than two weeks before Sony launches a PC VR adapter which will let PSVR 2 play games directly from the huge library of SteamVR content—provided you’ve got a beefy gaming PC.

The adapter launches on August 7th, priced at $60 / €60 / £50 and will be available through select retailers and direct.playstation.com.

For years Sony resisted requests for a PC VR adapter for its original PSVR headset, and so it was quite the surprise when the company announced plans earlier this year for a PC VR adapter for PSVR 2. At the sale price of $350, PSVR 2 looks like an attractive PC VR headset considering its build quality, resolution, inside-out tracking, and quality controllers.

Granted, there’s a number of caveats which limit the headset when used with PC compared to its native home on PS5. Sony says when playing on PC, the adapter won’t serve up HDR, headset haptics, eye-tracking, adaptive triggers, or haptic feedback other than basic rumble. It will however display its native 2,000 × 2,040 per-eye resolution, 110-degree field of view, finger touch detection, and passthrough view.

Thanks to @alexplaysvg for the tip!

Arken Age, the upcoming single-player sci-fi shooter from Shadow Legend VR (2019) studio VitruviusVR, is almost here.

The team announce it’s completed the first large beta test with SteamVR users, and are currently sending out a second batch of codes, noting that a release date will be revealed in the “next couple weeks.”

With it, the studio also teased a new bit of gameplay, seen below:

Arken Age Update – For the past week we’ve been beta testing with a larger group of players on Steam VR and everything is looking great so far! We’re sending out the second round of keys today and hope to have a release date for you guys in the next couple weeks! #VR #PSVR… pic.twitter.com/MsPu3YaG1e

— Arken Age (@ArkenAgeVR) July 23, 2024

Slated to arrive on PSVR 2 and PC VR headsets, the single-player VR adventure isn’t just a sci-fi shooter; the studio says it will include fully customizable melee and ranged weapons, physics-based combat, boss fights, over two dozen unique areas, and a 10-15 hour campaign.

Here’s how VitruviusVR describes the story:

Your journey begins in Celestial Custodian’s Tower on the shores of the Bio-Chasm, a terraformed realm created to harvest Arkenite Energy. Its divine founder, the Grand Arborist, has ceased cultivation of your planet and every transmission sent to him has been met with abject silence. Uncover the truth behind the disappearance of the Grand Arborist, forge alliance with the Nara alien race, and take up arms against the usurper Hyperion & his legion of corrupted soldiers.

While we’re still waiting on an official release date, you can wishlist the game over on Steam and PSVR 2. Check out the announce trailer below, which includes a good bit of gameplay: