Vertigo 2 is arguably one of the best games of 2023, but it’s only available on PC VR headsets. Developer Zach Tsiakalis-Brown said earlier this year that he thought a PSVR 2 port would definitely be a good possibility, and now that Half-Life-style sci-fi shooter is in the wild, PSVR 2 support is apparently still in the cards for the solo dev.
Reacting to Twitter user Timo Schmidt, Tsiakalis-Brown confirmed that PSVR 2 support is still on the horizon, as he recalls an earlier tweet from January saying he “would love to port to psvr in the future. It’s definitely a possibility!”
As many have noted in the recent past, PlayStation 5’s rendering ability is pretty much on par with a mid-range PC, which has allowed for a big bump in graphics over legacy hardware, such as PS4/PS4 Pro.
That bump lets developers create even more immersive and graphically intense games than we’ve ever seen on PS platform, like Horizon Call of the Mountain (2023), or the remastered version of Song in the Smoke, the latter of which rivals even the PC VR version of the game.
Still, developing for PSVR 2 isn’t so cut and dry. Outside of actually getting it to work on Sony’s latest VR headset, which is a much more precise target than creating a PC VR game in general, Tsiakalis-Brown admits he’s never gone through the certification process to publish a game on the PlayStation Store. Up until now, all of the developer’s games have been PC VR only.
Nathan Rowe, the solo dev behind VR art app SculptrVR (2016), had some sage advice to overcoming the process:
It is possible to do solo. It nearly killed me, though. My advice is to ask Sony for help early. File tickets! They get read and responded to!
— Nathan Rowe (@SculptrVR) January 21, 2023
And what good is Vertigo 2 without Vertigo Remastered (2020)? Tsiakalis-Brown says releasing both games for PSVR 2 would be a “great way to expose [the series to] a bigger audience!”
While the solo dev hasn’t published a post-launch release schedule, the order of operations is fairly clear. First the game’s upcoming sandbox DLC, which will allow users to create and share their own content based on Vertigo 2 assets and worlds, then … who knows!
