Rec Room "can't justify" the costs for a PSVR 2 port, according to its co-founder.
While Rec Room is available on most platforms, including flatscreen on PS5 and the original PSVR, it's been notably absent from Sony's latest headset. In a Reddit AMA, Rec Room's CCO and co-founder, Cameron Brown, confirmed there are "no current plans" for a PSVR 2 port, explaining they "would love" to port it but "haven't found a way to make it make economic sense."
Here's the full response:
No current plans to bring [Rec Room] into PSVR 2. We've looked into it, it's a non-trivial port, and we haven't found a way to make it make economic sense. In an ideal world, we would love to bring [Rec Room] to PSVR 2, but we can't justify the cost based on the numbers. Sucks I know, but that's the truth.
UploadVR reached out to Rec Room over email for further comment and we received the following statement:
“Cam is correct. We’re not working on a PSVR2 port right now. Would we in the future? Sure, if it makes sense for the business. We’ve worked with Sony for years and have had a lot of successful collaborations there. We’re always looking to broaden the number of platforms Rec Room is available on and plan to keep expanding the number this year.“
It's a concerning sign for PSVR 2 that Rec Room, a social app that reported over three million active monthly VR users in 2022, doesn't see the headset as a justifiable cost. Though we've seen several big PSVR 2 launches recently like Resident Evil 4 and Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted 2, most VR developers are continuing to prioritize Quest and PC VR.
Despite arriving last February with big VR exclusives like Horizon Call of the Mountain, Gran Turismo 7 and Resident Evil Village, there's been increasing concern around Sony's long-term plans for PSVR 2. Presently, no upcoming first-party PSVR 2 games are confirmed, while concerns were amplified when First Contact Entertainment, which developed the Sony-published Firewall Ultra, closed four months after launch.
We reached out to Sony for comment and will update this with any response.
As for Rec Room, we've had a few glimpses into the studio's upcoming plans. Full-body avatars are planned for March as an optional alternative to the current avatars that only display a head, torso, and hands. It's also one of the few AR/VR games confirmed for Apple Vision Pro and will support hand-tracking controls, though a release date remains unknown.
David Heaney
