The developer of quite a few upcoming digital actuality titles together with Sony’s Starship Troopers VR sport has suffered a big spherical of layoffs amid what it referred to as a “difficult VR gaming market.”
XR Video games, developer of the poorly acquired Hitman 3: VR Reloaded in addition to the upcoming Zombie Military VR for Rise up and Starship Troopers: Continuum for Sony, suffered layoffs one former member of employees described as “past restructuring.”
72 employees had been reportedly let go, retaining solely 12 out of round 84. The downsizing solid doubt on the launch and assist of each Zombie Military VR and Starship Troopers: Continuum, however in a press release issued to IGN, XR Video games insisted each would nonetheless launch later in 2024.
Right here’s the assertion, from Bobby Thandi, Founder and CEO of XR Video games:
“I’m heartbroken that we’re going to be dropping a few of our extremely devoted, proficient and valued colleagues. We’ve spent many months rigorously exploring different options within the face of a difficult VR gaming market and a troublesome broader gaming panorama, and this is without doubt one of the hardest enterprise selections we’ve confronted.
“Our precedence throughout and after this session course of is to deal with all staff members with the utmost respect and care. We’re dedicated to serving to these affected by this via outplacement assist, equivalent to CV clinics, portfolio recommendation, interview preparation and apply, and signposting accessible jobs within the business. We even have psychological well being assist accessible for our employees.
“I’m so very pleased with our groups for his or her onerous work on Hitman 3: VR Reloaded, which can proceed to obtain patch assist, in addition to Zombie Military VR and Starship Troopers: Continuum, each of that are due for launch this yr. We would like to have the ability to develop revolutionary titles for a few years to come back, and we’ll work to navigate this transition and form the way forward for XR Video games.”
Hitman 3: VR Reloaded, developed by XR Video games in partnership with Hitman proprietor IO Interactive, is a standalone port of Hitman VR for the Meta Quest 3 that was supposed to handle among the largest criticisms of the PC sport, like the dearth of twin wielding. But it surely launched to damaging evaluations from gamers in addition to press, with Eurogamer calling it “about as grim as VR video games can get.”
The VR market has struggled. The PSVR2, for instance, misplaced momentum quickly after launch regardless of its technical prowess, although Sony hasn’t shared figures since revealing it offered 600,000 inside six weeks of its February 2023 launch.
Sony Interactive Leisure’s head of world enterprise Eric Lempel advised the Financial Times in December 2023 that VR was “a little bit of a difficult class proper now.” In March, Bloomberg reported that Sony had allegedly paused the manufacturing of the PSVR2 to clear the backlog of unsold items it had.
Starship Troopers: Continuum, in the meantime, is due out on Meta Quest 2 and three on October 17, 2024, and PSVR2 on October 31, 2024. Zombie Military VR is ready for launch on PSVR2, Meta Quest 2, 3, and Professional, Oculus Rift, and PC headsets by way of Steam later in 2024.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You’ll be able to attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.