Polish video game developer People Can Fly — known for their own developed titles like Gears of War: Judgment and Bulletstorm — has had a small but notable run publishing virtual reality titles based on both new and old properties. Last year, the studio put out Bulletstorm VR developed by a subsidiary named Incuvo to mixed reviews. But those reviews aren’t what the studio cites as it packs up its VR plans, according to its latest financial disclosure.
In the statement, titled “PCF Group S.A.’s decision to phase out its VR game publishing business,” People Can Fly advises that the studio’s management board has conducted an analysis of their investments in VR platforms and has identified a change “consisting in a significant reduction in investments in the production of new VR games by VR platform holders.”
In other words, platform holders like PlayStation, Meta, and Valve are not investing the money for new games from their VR platforms in the amounts that they previously did. As such, it no longer makes sense for studios like People Can Fly to make VR titles at the opportunity cost of making games for a larger flat screen market without subsidies to mitigate the risk.
In the past year, Meta has shut down internal VR gaming studio Ready at Dawn, signaling that VR gaming is no longer a major priority compared to the multi-billion dollar boondoggle that has become their Horizon Worlds initiative. Other VR studios, such as Sanzaru Games, realized critical success last year with Asgard’s Wrath II, but Meta has been mum about their sales numbers.
While the VR market tends to ebb and flow, there’s a lot of cause for cynicism if the companies funding ongoing software are backing away from it. Subsidized investment as a means to create a foundation and audience for VR as the technology grows was the only way to build it up long term. It becomes an untenable risk for VR companies with multiple employees and major projects to rely solely on how well the end result does in the market because the audience is simply not big enough yet to pay that off consistently.
For studios like People Can Fly, the choice is clear. It’s currently too risky to go it alone.
