As the years go by, the appeal of virtual reality games has dwindled. It continues to sour gaming conversations due to its audacious price point and how expensive it is to get started. And breaking into the mainstream market seems to be getting harder and harder.
Now, more and more games are dropping support for VR. Just recently, Beat Games’ rhythm VR title Beat Saber won’t be moving on to PSVR2 and has officially ended support for PSVR. This is a major blow for PlayStation 4 and 5 users who already invested in PSVR hardware, which still remains costly to this day.
Beat Saber was a must-play for VR owners. It was simple, accessible, and had a kind of replay value few modern VR games can match, thanks to its rhythm-based gameplay. With Beat Games pulling support, the list of standout VR titles keeps shrinking.
On top of that, People Can Fly, the studio behind Outriders under Square Enix, recently canceled two of their unannounced projects, including a VR game. While we don’t know what that VR title was, it's another sign that things aren’t looking good for the VR scene, especially when projects are getting shelved so frequently.
Even Sony has struggled to market VR titles like Horizon: Call of the Mountain to mainstream audiences. Meanwhile, Xbox seems completely uninterested in VR as they move toward their next major console generation.
But VR isn’t gone yet. Some new games are still in development, like Thief: Legacy of Shadow VR and Shadowgate VR: The Mines of Mythrok. Some older games have also made the leap to VR, like Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 Remake and IO Interactive’s Hitman: World of Assassination.
For now, it just feels like VR isn’t hitting the mark in today’s gaming era. With rising prices for games and consoles, there’s not much incentive for players (especially console gamers) to pick up an expensive VR setup, particularly when digital games are already becoming more expensive compared to their Steam or Epic counterparts.
That said, VR hasn’t been without its highlights. Half-Life: Alyx from Valve is still considered a genre-defining experience. Warner Bros.’ upcoming Batman: Arkham Shadow is a promising entry, and if you're ready for an emotional rollercoaster, Before Your Eyes is a powerful story-driven game that might leave your headset soaked with tears.
There’s still a market for VR games. But as the years go on, it’s becoming harder to imagine it surviving long term. Most players are still more drawn to traditional experiences where they sit back with a controller or keyboard and don’t have to physically move around just to relax and enjoy their games.
VR isn’t dead, but it’s hard to ignore that it might be heading in that direction.
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