Astro Bot's upcoming PS5 sequel was "never designed" for VR, and a future PSVR 2 update seems unlikely.
Revealed in May's State of Play presentation, it's no secret that many PlayStation VR2 owners were disappointed that the upcoming Astro Bot sequel would be flatscreen only after 2018's VR-only Astro Bot Rescue Mission, which hasn't been ported to PSVR 2. Addressing this in a new interview, creative director Nicolas Doucet told Push Square the sequel was "never designed" for PSVR 2. Instead, Team Asobi always intended to simply make a bigger version of 2020's Astro's Playroom - which was also flatscreen only.
Elaborating further, Doucet states that a VR game "has to be fully designed for that medium." He claims that while certain games like first-person titles "can afford to be hybrid," the design philosophy for both are very different. In a separate interview, Doucet also told Digital Trends that a post-launch VR mode update is unlikely.
While Doucet's reasons are understandable, it's hardly encouraging that PSVR 2 support was never considered after Astro Bot Rescue Mission - a frankly excellent platformer we previously ranked #1 on our best PSVR games list. Though State of Play offered gameplay trailers for two major third-party titles - Skydance's Behemoth and Alien: Rogue Incursion, it remains unknown if any first-party PSVR 2 games are in development.
That said, it's not been all doom and gloom for PSVR 2 fans lately. Recent weeks have seen Sony push its VR headset considerably by offering a temporary $100 discount and adding multiple PSVR 2 games to its PlayStation Plus Premium subscription catalog - which will soon include Kayak VR: Mirage on June 18. The headset is also getting a PC VR adapter in August.
