Virtual reality is an integral part of the DNA of the French studio. From VR arcades to Ragnarock, VR Broadcasting or even the great one Paradise Hotelthe Lyonnais overwhelmed us with quality games. A few days ago the trailer for their next flagship production, Species: Unknown, was released. This is a co-op space shooter heavily inspired by Aliens and its soldiers fighting for their survival in dark passages and pursued by hostile creatures. Imagine our astonishment while watching when we realized that the game would only be played on PC.
A little disappointed despite this promising taste, we decided to contact the studio. We wanted to get explanations for this choice when this type of game is able to give full meaning to VR. Here is the response from Tiffany Hamelin, public relations manager:
Pre-production on Species: Unknown is still underway and the choice to move away from VR on this project is both a strategic and mature choice. This correlates with the constantly evolving wishes of the Studio and the creative direction of the game development also allows us to strengthen the performance sliders. You also have to remember that developing a game in VR and PC is like developing 2 games at the same time…
The studio is indeed known for its VR productions, but we want to show what we’re capable of on more traditional platforms like the PC. We are not stopping VR, we still have hybrid productions in development like Vestiges: Fallen Tribes. VR is never far away…
That said, the game runs under Unreal Engine, there will still be a good chance to be able to enjoy the game in PCVR thanks to UEVR. Here’s what a specialized studio thinks about this type of wear:
As a VR experience studio, we have to take care of the immersion and every interaction (objects, intra-diegetic interfaces, POV, cutscenes) in our VR games so that they are adapted, ergonomic and immersive. Although the UEVR tool offers interesting perspectives to gamers willing to take on the challenge of converting a PC game into a VR game, it is not a substitute (for the time being anyway) for a Game Designer and Developer specializing in VR having the skills and expertise to think about and develop a game specifically for VR.
We will therefore have to ignore a new qualitative immersive experience, at least in an innate way. Let’s bet it’s just a delay and let’s trust that Wannadevstudio will terrorize us again in the future.
Species: Unknown If you like it, you can add it to your wishlist on Steam. If the studio’s other titles tempt you but you don’t have headphones yet, the Meta Quest 3 is available on Amazon for 549.99 Euros.