026
OPINION
Jordan Oloman
Sony’s inspired VRoutletneeds morethana cult following
PS VR’S EXCLUSIVES
DESERVE SO MUCH PRAISE.
WE SHOULD KEEP UP THE
SUPPORT OR RISK WATCHING
IT DIE OUT LIKE PS VITA.
T
he PS VR party had
already started by the
time I arrived, once it got
relatively cheap in the
dying throes of the decade.
I’d been fascinated by it
ever since I donned the plastic cowl
to play Arkham VR at Gamescom
2016 (I still use the T-shirt I was
given as pyjamas), so unwrapping it
years later felt like the start of a
momentous virtual pilgrimage.
It was my Achilles heel,
Psychonauts, that eventually unravelled
my fiscal sensibilities. After nearly
losing the plot waiting for the pennies
to turn into pounds, I picked up a
PS VR on Black Friday in 2018 and
investigated every vertex of the
Rhombus Of Ruin, never looking back.
At the time, I simply would not shut
up about the system when talking to
my mates. From the blood-pumping
grit of Blood & Truth to the
synaesthetic soul food that is Tetris
Effect, PS VR, above all other VR
platforms, has a growing roster of
games that feel especially curated, like
a console launch lineup.
Where else have we seen
such a breadth of
unique
experiences- weird,
experimental
oddities like
Déraciné and
Bound that defy
the conventional
gimmicky VR format
in favour of unbridled
creativity? Who could have
predicted that one of the
finest platforming games
in recent years, Astro Bot: Rescue
Mission, would be delivered via virtual
reality and serviced by the most
underpowered headset on the market?
PS VR has constantly proved its haters
wrong by doing so much with so little.
It’s never mattered that the headset
has a low resolution and the
peripherals are ancient PS3 technology.
When the games are that
impressive, the medium
barely gets in the way.
This is why I’m so
excited for the future
of PS VR. With
PS5 compatibility
confirmed and five
million units sold,
I’m hopeful that
a new generation of
developers will be
inspired by the
likes of TetrisEffect and drawn to the platform by its
creative potential. With inspired
games like Eric Chahi’s Paper Beast
and Media Molecule’s Dreams on the
way in 2020, it clearly won’t be
gathering too much dust. Yet, this
excitement arrives with a gigantic
millstone of concern.HEAD IN THE CLOUDS
Much like the rest of the virtual reality
headsets that have arrived in the last
five years, PS VR has yet to achieve
true mainstream success despite its
low price point, and its exclusives are
starting to run thin as they’re ported
to other VR platforms. I’m not in the
business of vapid gatekeeping; the
more people who get to experience
these excellent games, the better. I
just hope the collective subconscious
doesn’t forget about the provenance.
These games debuted on and were
nurtured by PS VR, and that’s
something to be celebrated.
We mustn’t forget the cautionary
tale of PS Vita either. I’m sure we’re
all still hurt by the soul-crushing
demise of the handheld, which fell
to the wayside despite a serious cult
following and some clever exclusives.
I’m desperate that PS VR doesn’t
suffer the same fate and find itself
dissociated from the PlayStation
ecosystem in the next generation.
Sony should take its somewhat
successful streak seriously and
continue delivering exciting games for
the players – and in turn, we should
do our best to voice our support for
the platform, and make sure this
special gateway to emotion and action
doesn’t end up in the tat bin with the
rest of the misfit toys.WRITER BIO
Jordan Oloman has steamed up his gamer
goggles far too many times playing through
Tetris Effect’s tear-jerking Journey mode, and
is in constant fear of losing his beloved PS VR
to the eldritch maw of wires and plastic
lurking tangled underneath his bed.