VR presents tremendous storytelling potential for the videogame industry. One developer we’d love to see act on that potential is Heavy Rain creator, Quantic Dream. If we’re lucky, we may get our wish.
The Paris-based studio this week confirmed that it is experimenting with VR technology. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, company founder David Cage confirmed that it had “all VR systems” at its offices, and had “downloaded every game on every system” in an attempt to understand what the team “could bring to this medium.”
That said, Cage wouldn’t confirm Quantic would definitely release a VR game, stating that the studio wouldn’t do it for the sake of it. “It’s about saying something on this medium that hasn’t been said already,” he explained.
Quantic Dream is known for its third-person, narrative-driven games that let users makes drastic choices. It first tested the concept with 2005’s Fahrenheit (know as Indigo Prophecy in Europe), and then popularized it with PlayStation 3 exclusive, Heavy Rain. They’re well-known for dramatic sequences, stunning visuals, and creating some of the most lifelike virtual humans every seen. Just watch its Kara tech demo (embedded above) to see what we’re talking about, and that’s just running on a PS3. Currently, the studio is working on a PlayStation 4 exclusive named Detroit: Become Human.
“Now if we project ourselves into the future, VR is going to be an interesting avenue for what we’re doing because if we’re talking about immersion and the fact that you’re in the world with characters, it’s going to be something very very interesting,” Cage added.
“I had a very weird experience in a VR game,” he concluded. “It was during a cutscene where the characters are moving around me and I was very close to one, really looking at it. But I wasn’t paying attention so when he moved forward, he went through my body. And I can’t tell you how weird that felt. It was almost mystical, like someone going through you. You feel it. Your brain is tricked.”
Given Quantic’s strong relationship with Sony, we’d expect any possible VR project to appear on PlayStation VR. With Detroit not set to release until sometime in 2017, don’t expect to see any news any time soon on this front.
