CCP, the Icelandic game development studio mainly known as the developer of EVE Online and recently acquired by Pearl Abyss, jumped on the VR bandwagon a couple years ago. They had a dedicated Newcastle team working on EVE: Valkyrie. The game launched exclusively on VR platforms (Oculus Rift and HTC Vive on PC, PlayStation VR on PlayStation 4) but clearly, that wasn't enough to hit the expected goal. In September 2017 the game was made available for non-VR users as well with the Warzone update, but a few months later the whole CCP Newcastle was sold to Sumo Digital.
During last weekend's EVE Vegas fanfest, Destructoid chatted with CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson on the topic. He candidly admitted the company had overestimated the VR market.
We expected VR to be two to three times as big as it was, period. You can't build a business on that.
If it does take off, and I mean if, we'll re-assess. 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.
May of last year (2017) is when we started to figure it out. Was it a surprise? Maybe. But the picture was filling in that there would not be a way to continue with VR as heavily as we were.
No regrets. It was right to stop, and it was right to start. I remain a long-term believer of VR.
Pétursson did say the Oculus Quest standalone and wireless VR system could help grow the market, though. It's due in Spring 2019 and priced $399, though it won't be that powerful.
In related CCP news, their upcoming Project Nova multiplayer FPS will enter Closed Alpha next month.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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