Some of the first hands-ons with Survios’ upcoming Alien: Rogue Incursion have emerged, revealing a promising look at one of the biggest entries in VR this year.

In case you haven’t been following along, Alien: Rogue Incursion is coming to all major VR headsets this December, letting you take on the role of Zula Hendricks, a resilient former Colonial Marine with a complicated past on a dangerous mission to rescue friend and former squad mate.

Tackling the ship’s Xenomorph infestation, you fight alongside your synthetic companion Davis 01, tasking you to fight your way to the heart of the Gemini Exoplanet Solutions research facility and confront the secrets waiting within. There, we’re promised “deadly horrors” which could spell the end for humankind.

Now, a few outlets have published the first hands-on reports with Rogue Incursion.

In Leanne Butkovic’s preview for IGN, she said it “certainly had classic moments of Alien horror.” There’s no “but” there either. Butkovic goes on to praise the Rogue Incursion’s immersive environment, smart narrative beats, and intuitive weapons and tools.

It’s doesn’t appear to go too hard on wave shooter mechanics either, as Butkovic says the game “wasn’t endlessly frenetic.”

“If anything, it deliberately moves slowly in parts to spatially acclimate, to give people like me who can’t help but touch things that are laying around, a chance to explore and discover the story of this Alien property for myself,” Butkovic said.

Rogue Incursion also doesn’t appear to be the sort of experience that throws a ton of classic ancillary ‘gamer engagement’ mechanics at you. Butkovic calls it a “cinematic experience that isn’t obsessed with leveling up or unlocking map areas.”

Notably, we also learned the Xenomorphs’ pack-style hunting behavior was based on the “clever girl” Velociraptors in Jurassic Park, making for what seems like a more active game of cat and mouse, where roles are constantly switched given the mission at hand.

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UploadVR’s Ian Hamilton also went hands-on with Rogue Incursion, which promises to offer an eight-hour story.

You can find video of Hamilton’s gameplay below, which includes a short interview with Survios Chief Product Officer TQ Jefferson and Writer Alex White, who talk about how Rogue Incursion fits into the franchise’s lineage, and how Xenomorphs work in this “thriller-paced” shooter.

So, while it’s clearly not Alien: Isolation (2014) replicated for the modern age of VR games, which was more about hiding from a near-invisible Xenomorph, gameplay suggests it’s definitely capable of offering up thrills.

White says Rogue Incursion was designed to “hype up the action, hype up sense of empowerment of being a soldier,” which is said to constantly “flip that power dynamic” between you and the Xenomorphs ahead.

Alien: Rogue Incursion comes out December 19th, 2024, launching simultaneously on PSVR 2, PC VR, and Quest 3 and Quest 3S (exclusively). You can pre-order now on Steam, the PlayStation Store and Horizon Store.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Nevets

    It makes little sense if you can just gun them down. In the first action thriller part of the franchise (Aliens, 1986) you had to survive rather than kill them. That's what makes them scarier.

    • ViRGiN

      Maybe they are taking inspiration from Alyx, where the proper way to kill a headcrab is to shoot it down one handed with a pistol rather than use iconic crowbar.

      • kakek

        You dedication to attacking valve in any unrelated subject and on every single thing they ever did is truly impressive.

        • ViRGiN

          Mentioning questionable design choice of one of the highest rated VR games is now attacking valve?

          • ViRGiN

            It's what I stink this place out for!!1!!!11!!

          • Storymode Chronicles

            Admins – FYI this user is impersonating another

          • Viviana Kastenbauer

            Yes he does, so? Even while impersonating, he has not said any lie…

          • Storymode Chronicles

            The impersonation itself is a lie, for one. Other than that it’s just a fundamental violation of human dignity.

            Our name and the story we paint across time with it represent our identity in the world. When we are gone, it is all that is left of us.

          • ViRGiN

            Yes because I'm a silly fat wanker.

          • kakek

            In this context ?
            Yes. Obviously. VERY obviously.

          • ViRGiN

            bread for the hungry

        • ViRGiN

          Because I'm an incel.

    • kakek

      That only applies to the first alien movie. Sequels had plenty guns. The rifle they use in alien 2 is quite iconic in itself.
      Most video games ( isolation being the exception ) showed a more classic gameplay also works with the alien franchise.

    • mirak

      No they kill dozens in Aliens, with guns.

  • Gonzax

    Pretty short but it looks very well done, I'm sure it will be really good.

  • Michael Speth

    Compare the graphics to Alien: Fireteam Elite and you will see that Mobile Headsets have retarded VR. It is a shame developers continue to target garbage mobile headsets like the Quest because VR could be so much better otherwise.

    A lot of people cope and say graphics don't matter, but in VR graphics matter the most. Why do we put on a VR headset instead of playing on console, PC, switch or even mobile phones?

    The reason is immersion. And there is nothing more imersion breaking than mobile headset graphics. When a developer targets a mobile phone and then minimally ports their game to real VR systems (PSVR2 and PC), than you get the basic game with very minor graphical tweaks. The game still looks like a garbage mobile port.

    There are some exceptions to this rule but it requires a massive development studio with hundreds of people working on the game. Star Wars Tales from the Galaxy's Edge is one such game. Most of the close environments have been updated to take advantage of the superior hardware and some of the models look fantastic. There are still a few mobile hang overs like distant environmental effects but overall, the devs of Tales of the Galaxys edge really did a great job porting the game.

    The dev for Rogue Incursion is simply too small of a studio to put any real effort into their port which is obvious by this PC footage. So we are left with another mobile game that masqurades as a VR game. Most of the fanbois are too blind to see through this.

    • Runesr2

      Fully agree – and it's very hard to see dynamic shadows in anything but the prerendered trailer. Launching with no proper lighting and shadows would totally kill immersion. But let's see how it goes at launch.
      I find it humiliating feeding my RTX 3090 with games made for phone gpus, like the ultra-slow Adreno 740 in the Quest 3. And the more garbage Quest ports we buy, the more we get.

    • Storymode Chronicles

      You've got it backwards. It would be impossible for VR to have developed this far by solely relying on the tiny install base of hardcore gamers who can justify spending $4000 on a PCVR rig.

      The fact Meta was able to leverage mobile hardware at a juncture when essentially the only real compromise was graphics rather than scope and gameplay is the only thing keeping VR moving forward at the moment.

      There's nothing stopping VR developers from targeting the elite few hardcore PCVR gamers, there's simply no market there. Valve made a great product to show off its potential, but it's simply not enough to entice most people to spend that kind of cash.

      I think the best we can hope for is Meta finally separates the hardware and battery from the headset and optimizes for wireless streaming from whatever puck they can manufacture for purpose-built mobile VR, which would allow two separate hardware streams for investment/upgrades, each with a similar price to current hardware.

      At some point the convergence of capabilities will outstrip the tradeoffs. Most console gamers stopped caring about graphics upgrades around the PS4/XB1 generation, and in handhelds the Steam Deck can run almost everything fine. Mobile VR will get there in not too long.

      • Michael Speth

        Storymode Chronicles, you have it backwards. Look at Quest 1 era games like Lone Eco or Asguard's Wraith 1 and then compare them to the trash that was developed for mobile headsets (quest 2 and quest 3) like Asguard's Wraith 2. Meta has single handildy retarded the entire VR industry with their garbage hardware.

        Comparing VR to mobile gaming like the steam deck is nonsense. Because playing on the steamdeck isn't about immersion, it is about convience and playing on the go. So of course, graphics are not AS important on mobile platforms.

        VR is about immersion. If you don't care about Immersion, than why are you playing in VR to begin with? Just have a better experience with flat screen games where the platform is designed to be more comfortable than strapping on the meta garbage with horrible erognomics to your face. Steamdeck and Nintendo switch battery life is superior to quest anyways.

        Sony is one of the few still keeping real VR gaming alive. There are amazing real VR games on PSVR2 and with the PC adapter the rare good PC experience can be had as well.

        But it is difficult getting developers to target real VR because they see the Meta Install base and falsely think their game can make it there. But the vast majority of Quest 2 headsets lay idle in the closet because most people realize Quest 2 was garbage. Meta doesn't have the forced lockdowns to aid their sales with their Quest 3S so the install base will continue to decline.

        • Storymode Chronicles

          Asgard’s Wrath 2 got better reviews than the first, and Lone Echo never released for Quest but there’s nothing gameplay-wise that couldn’t be ported.

          I’ve been playing VR games since the Oculus kickstarter, and graphics have never been nearly as important as quality of optics and tracking for immersion. There are plenty of cartoony games I’ve lost myself in, to say nothing of purely arcade experiences like Beat Saber and Tetris.

          The biggest game at the moment is Gorilla Tag. Think about that. A game that’s success rests solely on innovative locomotion mechanics and social interaction, using about 25 polygons to vaguely approximate an environment to play with those mechanics and socialize in.

          I also can’t think of a single killer app for the PSVR2. I bought the first and enjoyed it, Quest-level graphics and all, and I might have bought this one instead of a PC if they had ported Alyx to it, but there’s simply not much to recommend it and Sony has all but completely abandoned development for it.

          Cost is the number one barrier. Mass adoption only occurs at impulse purchase prices. The experience of VR simply is not that attractive to demand premium prices. I know people that have been to high end VR arcades and said “meh”. It’s just not for everyone, even at the state of the art.

          There’s also the real issue of cords, and ease of use. A discrete wireless unit is just a much more attractive proposition. Any barrier to entry strips off massive numbers of users, and these are very real barriers. PCVR is not a turn-key experience, it’s for advanced users. Targeting mobile hardware will continue to be the norm for these reasons, that’s just the way it is. Market-wise it’s far more important that something runs on the Quest than on PC right now.

          I get some of your criticisms in terms of ambition, but I do think they’ll be mitigated in the near-term, 5 to 10 years. The Quest 3 and 3S are by all accounts selling quite well, and much better than PSVR2. That form factor is the future, it just is. Hopefully they do separate the processing and battery from the headset as I said, that should significantly boost performance, usability and upgradability.

          But we are at the mercy of the convergence rate between PC and mobile experiences regardless. There already aren’t any major constrictions in gameplay or scale/scope. I just don’t think most people find graphics to be as major a hold up for immersion as you do.

          Handing people a Gear VR looking at a simply rendered brontosaurus got just as many oohs and ahs as handing them RTX Alyx on pancake lenses for me. The fundamental experience itself is just so immersive to begin with. Intuitive mechanics and comfort remain the biggest hurdles by far.

          • Michael Speth

            Why do you think Asguard's Wraith 2 reviewed better than Asguard's Wraith 1? That is because reviewers expectations for VR games has sunk based on the years between those games being innodated with Meta Quest garbage.

            According to steam charts, Gorilla tag only has about 1k concurrent players. That isn't by far the 'biggest VR game'.

            Gran Turismo 7 is by far a much better VR game and will certainly have more players racing daily than the 1k Gorilla tag.

            You cannot think of a single killer app on the PSVR2 b/c you don't own one so obviously wouldn't know.

            A few Killer Apps on PSVR2 off the top of my head:

            * Horizon Call of the Mountain
            * GT7
            * Resident Evil 4 & 7 (if you are into RE games)
            * Star Wars Tales from the Galaxy's Edge
            * Synapse

            Sony did not stop development of the PSVR2. That is a blatent Meta Quest Subservisive Propaganda lie!

            It is trivial to defeat this anti-sony subserve propaganda by simply looking at the PSVR2 blog posts. Sony didn't aboden anything. How do people like yourself believe these stupid lies?

            Ease of use is certainly a factor when buying a headset. No wire, means you need to remember to charge your headset and controllers. No wires also means your headset can easily fall flat within a few hours of play. This will only get worse over time if they attempt to cram in more CPU/GPU power (unless you start straping massive batteries to your body – which again is not convient).

            Having batteries on your head increase weight and having the CPU/GPU on the headset generates unwanted heat.

            There are so many technical issues with the Meta Quest Garbage headsets that will put off people. That is why the vast majority of Quest 2's simply sit in the closet. It is garbage ware.

            Handing people a Gear VR is fine for 5 minutes. If you try to get them to use it for 30 minutes, they will feel sick due to only having 3dof tracking. That was the major failure with google cardboard around that time.

            Graphics is an important factor to keep people in the headset. Comfort is also important and the Quest 2, 3 and 3S stock are really garbage headstraps. Meta simply doesn't care about their customers health or money.

            Anyone wanting to use the Quest line for more than a few hours will be spending heaps of money on comfort and battery. Why do that when you could have spent on a superior headset like the PSVR2 … probably because they don't understand the fundamental issues with the Quest 2,3 and 3S line.

          • Storymode Chronicles

            Gorilla Tag has over a million active daily users, the vast majority on Quest. It is probably the biggest game with the most active users, bigger than Beat Saber. And both of those games could run perfectly fine on a potato. What makes them popular is the gameplay, not the texture detail and polygon count.

            Asgard's Wrath 2 got good reviews because of it's improved gameplay and larger scale and scope than the first game. By all accounts it's just a great game, and the graphics that accompany its mechanics are more than sufficient for immersion. People clearly received the game well, it achieved nearly universal acclaim, and reached far more gamers in the process.

            I've actually been trying to justify purchasing a PSVR2 since it was announced. PSVR1 was my preferred VR platform. It would be great if all of my purchases, something like $1000 in games and DLC, would actually transfer over to it. I can't even play Astro Bot on PSVR2, and to me that's the only game close to a killer app for Sony's VR platform.

            I'm more than well aware of all the PSVR2 has to offer. I love the headset itself, despite not having pancake lenses. Other than that it's probably the best headset to me though. OLED at a fixed 120hz is game-changing, just as the weight and comfort are market-leading, with all the power and processing offloaded to the PS5. There just isn't any software to entice me personally to invest. Horizon is really cool but basically a demo, and I'm not into Gran Turismo, or any racing or flight sims for that matter. They really needed to port Alyx.

            Instead I got a PC and Quest 3. Definitely not a perfect solution, and has real tradeoffs from the PS5 that I wish I didn't need to make. Although I can get access to the improved graphics which are definitely a plus with PC, the ergonomics of Quest 3 are not what I'm used to from PSVR. To get even close you need to buy a 3rd party strap and external battery, adding $50 – $100, but even then PSVR remains the high point for comfort. Quest 3 is acceptable with 3rd party accessories though.

            However, the Quest's flexibility and cost really set it apart. Being able to use it anywhere, anytime cannot be overstated as a feature, particularly when evangelizing. I have a gaming laptop as well, so I'm fully mobile. AR and hand-tracking are fun to tinker with too, although awaiting more accomplished design to capitalize. Mostly I'm interested in software design, so this setup gives me the broadest range of experience with access to the PC library as well as mobile.

            My experience on Quest-native software continues to confirm for me personally that it is the fundamental experience of VR itself which primarily provides immersion, the optics and tracking, followed by software design, and then graphics.

            So that is my approach to design. There are so many unsolved design parameters for locomotion, comfort and interaction which need to be designed before VR reaches true mass adoption that are so much more important than raytracing or particle effects. VR is just not "there" as an experience yet, even at the premium level.

            My dream hardware would be a wireless unit that houses processing, and batteries offloaded from the headset to the strap like Pico 4, but hot-swappable. I'm sure this is where we'll end up at some point, although the existence of a wireless puck will probably also cause a cascade effect where a family of mobile devices arises to interact with it, so it's something the industry will need to rally around in a comprehensive way. Eventually this puck might even turn into a card which can insert into a further extended family of mobile devices and use cases which will require industry standardization as well.

            Either way mobile form factor is undoubtedly the future of VR from my perspective on design and market constraints, although I would agree there should be a much more integrated design approach as you suggest. PSVR2 for instance should work natively with all PS5 games to provide at least a conversion like VorpX or UEVR. That would be a day one purchase for me, for Ratchet and Clank, Astro Bot, and Returnal alone, to say nothing of God of War, Last of Us, Uncharted, etc. Sony first party is amazing.

            Similarly, I'd agree that it would be ideal for mobile VR software to be designed from the ground up to scale to more powerful hardware. Asgard's Wrath 2 should work natively on PC, and look better than Asgard's Wrath 1 in doing so. These types of integrated design approaches will be critical to mass adoption, just as transferring libraries from generation to generation will be, as Sony failed to accomplish with the move to PSVR2.

            So, I generally look at things more long-term. The market is still a bit of a fractured, evolving mess moving towards a stable form, at this stage mostly waiting for the inherent design constraints of VR itself to be solved. Everything is a compromise right now. I foresee that market coalescing around upgradable and scalable experiences primarily accessed through mobile hardware, but similar to Steam Deck, scalable natively to home console hardware.

            The question then is only the rate at which mobile hardware converges with home consoles in the capability to produce more and more convincing VR experiences, to the degree that it no longer matters to most consumers. With any luck, that will arrive around the same time VR's inherent design constraints have been sufficiently solved, but it will remain true that most people will never be willing to spend more than $500 on a VR device, which means that mobile will remain the nexus point for the market.

          • Michael Speth

            Why do you believe that Gorilla Tag has over 1 million active users per day? PlayTracker dot net indicates that there is only 121k active and only an estimated 1million players. Play Tracker sounds about right compared to what the developer allegedly said in June. Of course the dev has an incindentive to inflate their numbers when they are trying to get funding for their next garbage project.

            Gorilla Tag is clearly a children's game and the reason for the player base is that many of the quest 2's got passed onto the children. Tag is a popular children's game. Children don't know what good VR is and simply are playing tag. The player count doesn't indicate it being a good VR game – it is just a FREE game that has an appeal to children.

            Regarding 'universal acclaim' for Asguard's Wraith 2 – the VR Industry professional Reviewers are certainly biased when it comes to Meta. I wouldn't be suprised that some of the billions Meta loses every month on VR is spent on marketing which empowers their positive review scores. Especially when most of these reviewers don't even mention Asguard's Wraith 1 nor even would venture to do any comparisons what so ever. I don't belive these reviewers or review scores. Asguar'ds Wraith 2 graphics are simply terrible.

            Killer Apps are very subjective. I personally don't believe there should be exclusive killer apps – that is in general bad for VR players. However, if a game is targeted on mobile, than developers already admit the game design is heavily constrained. So I am willing for games to be exclusive to real VR systems (PSVR2 & PC).

            The one way to mitigate the retardation of game design is simply for developers to target the superior PSVR2 & PC platforms (without consideration for mobile). Then contractors can port down to mobile garbage like Quest.

            A great example of this in the flat screen gaming world is Hogwarts Legacy. Hogwarts Legacy is a great game with fantastic graphics. The devs highed a contractor to port to Nintendo Switch. It isn't exactly the same game as there are more loading screens, graphics got a major downscale and there isn't as much open world. But overall, the port does the job and Hogwarts can be played on the Nintendo Switch.

            This is how VR games SHOULD be developed. But unfortuantly, devs target the garbage mobile systems and then port UP which is signifantly less time and money. For right now, many games are ported upwards like Alien Rogue garbage.

            Have you played Horizon? There is literally a demo you can download for free. Are you referring to this when you say Horizon is just a demo?

            Halfllife Alyx is owned by Valve. What is the incentive for Valve to port their flagship game to Playstation 5? Sony isn't willing to lose billions of dollars per month like Meta is on VR so I highly doubt Sony could afford to pay Valve to port.

            I disagree that mobile hardware is "undoubtably" the future of VR. Any more than Mobile Phones are "undoubtably" the future of flat screen gaming.

            Regardless of how good the mobile processors get, there will always be physical limitations that prevent mobile from being as good as console/pc.

            My predictions of Mobile VR is much different than you. The goal of Meta isn't VR, it is AR. That is obvious with their pass through cameras and hand tracking. VR is just a temporary gimmic to get people into Meta's AR world. This is what people don't understand about Meta. Meta does NOT care about VR. Meta Cares about filtering what you see in the future. So for Meta, they will eventually abandon VR and move purely into AR. Their hope is that as soon as you wake up in the morning, you put on your Meta glasses, read their propaganda news, do some AR games or Real Life activities as a game. Pay them a monthly fee for removing ads in the real world or simply accept injected ads. That is the future you are buying when you buy a meta quest garbage headset.

            The real future of VR is still teathered to console/pc. I agree it would be great for Sony and even Valve to develop an automated way to play flat games to VR. It would certainly help with market adoption.

            Valve has helped tramendously with something similar allowing windows games to be played on Linux (Wine + Proton). There is precedence for Valve but I am unsure about Sony. Valve is invested in their SteamOS/Steamdeck ecosystem which they started a 'revolution' in hand held gaming. And thankfully, Linux users have benefited greatly due to Valve's smart business decision to NOT be enslaved by M$. Right now, Valve doesn't have any business incentive to create an automated Flat 2 VR layer because they don't have any hardware to sell. Possibly in the future once their SteamDeck business is more mature, they might once again venture into VR.

            Sony consistantly demonstrates they care about their VR business (despite the subversive propaganda that spews out of Meta losing Billions per month on VR). The PSVR2 Hardware is amazing:

            * OLED Panels w/ HDR
            * Headset Haptics
            * Eye tracking (with DFR)
            * Halo strap (which is best in industry)
            * 3d audio
            * Adaptive Triggers on Dual Sense

            The only objective downside is the Fresnel lenses when compared to pancake. Of course, you cannot use OLED panels with pancake which requires the much more expensive mOLEDs and even then brightness is still an issue.

            The wire is a subjective issue. I have a home setup for VR including KiwiDesign pully system. I like having a wire because it is simple to use and I don't worry about power, headset heat or any possibility of a battery exploding on my head! I don't worry at all when using my headset if I have enough battery power.

            I hear many of you like wireless and that is great for you. If you are willing to put up with the negatives like:

            * Weight
            * Limited Play Time
            * Heat
            * Risk

            I am unwilling to accept those limitations and for me, a wire is superior.

            In summary, I reject your OPINION that mobile vr is the future. Meta doesn't care about VR and instead is focused on AR in order to control their 'slave customers' information.

          • Storymode Chronicles

            Playtracker only tracks Gorilla Tag on Steam, and that's still a huge number. There are way more on Quest. Gorilla Tag is very likely the biggest VR game or app of any kind at the moment, due to fun locomotion and social interaction, not graphics.

            Nothing you're even trying to say changes that. Claiming it's just kids is like claiming the NES was just successful because of kids. Ok, sure, kids are mostly who plays video games I guess? Do you even have data on that or why it would even be significant to the point? What are you trying to say? Lots of people enjoy Gorilla Tag, it's not that complicated, or at all controversial. The point is a lack photorealistic gorillas clearly hasn't held it back.

            Killer apps are not subjective, they're based on purchase and attach rates. It's not about intent, but results. You can plan to make an exclusive and hope it's a killer app all you want, but the proof is only ever in the pudding. Beat Saber and Gorilla Tag are both killer apps for VR across the board, and they are not even platform-specific. PSVR2 just doesn't have anything that interesting that has proven to drive adoption. Sales are simply put quite horrible. That's just how it is.

            Game design is not being held back by mobile at this point. Asgard's Wrath 2 had a way bigger scope and scale, and more developed mechanics than Asgard's Wrath 1. The only downgrade was graphics. That's what the whole conversation is about. You think that's holding back VR, meanwhile the number one selling platform by far is mobile VR because even with the tradeoffs it's price point and usability makes it preferable to most consumers. Unfortunately it's much more difficult to port from PC to mobile than vice versa, that's true but if it doesn't hinder actual gameplay I personally don't care since there are far bigger and more fundamental issues with VR to solve in order to achieve mass adoption.

            Valve has ported most of their games to home consoles. The benefit is they sell a bunch of games, and get a bunch of gamers familiar with their brand. It's pretty straightforward. Sony even started putting PS games on Steam for the same reason, and unlocked PSVR2 for PC. They have a mutually beneficial relationship, I'm not sure what the hold up is but I'd bet they're working on it. Perhaps Valve is holding it back until Deckard or something.

            Mobile phones may not be the future of flat screen gaming, but only due to their screen size and lack of inputs. The Nintendo Switch is by far the biggest selling console of this generation though, and the Steam Deck has continued that ethos encouraging developers to target those mobile platforms for mass adoption of their products. Landing on Switch and being properly optimized for Steam Deck are huge goal posts for developers now. Flexibility and portability in use is a massive feature for users.

            I agree that Meta, like Apple and I would say every other big AR/VR developer, is hoping to reach to ultimate goal of an AR device which can be comfortably worn without causing "Glasshole" side glances from passersby. But, that's hardly exclusive from the VR ecosystem, and it is also clearly the far bigger potential market. AR can basically replace every screen in your life after all, in theory at least.

            All you need to turn an AR device into a VR device is to turn the lights off, or put some blinders on. Otherwise, aviators have a fine enough FOV for VR and there's no reason to segment that market, it would be like trying to sell both a smart phone and a calculator still. There's no point. But, I really don't think the AR dystopia you fear is particularly imminent anyway. I'm certainly not putting up with ads on my glasses anyway, who knows maybe some people would but I assume it would be like a smartphone with notification settings. The data they pull from your life would be far more valuable than that annoyance is worth, again just like a smartphone.

            I do like the Sony hardware, aside from the cord which I would say is a real immersion breaker actually, but I really don't see this support you're talking about. Where are the AAA first party games? Where are their marquis franchises on the platform? Where is the backwards compatibility with PSVR?

            Even something as simple as a custom VorpX would be simply for a developer as big and capable as Sony. They just don't seem to be putting any real resources or attention into at this point. Who knows, perhaps there will be a burst of energy at some point when everything is revealed but I don't see it yet.

            I think you might have misunderstood on the end point for VR and how I see mobile looping into that. I see mobile as the nexus of the VR ecosystem, not the pinnacle. To be successful in the long-term it will need to offload processing to other devices, and have hot-swappable batteries.

            That means from a system design standpoint a mobile "puck" that can communicate wirelessly with a headset, and manage communication with a more powerful processing device such as a home console. It's the convergence point, and will likely become an all-purpose device that both wirelessly, corded, and probably eventually inserted like a cartridge depending on the use case, connects with a whole family of devices including replacing current discrete smartphones. Not replacing home consoles, but converging with them at the system design level to allow extended functionality such as VR and AR.

          • Michael Speth

            "Playtracker only tracks Gorilla Tag on Steam, and that's still a huge number."

            No, Playstracker does not only use Steam. Steamdb and steamcharts both report 2k all time high and about 1k current players. It is obvious that Playtracker is using some other method like tracking Meta Store stats.

            I won't be continuing to converse with you because you are dishonest and wrong about alot about what you write. The Playtracker quote is just one of many.

            Good luck with your meta fantasy.

          • Storymode Chronicles

            I mean, it says right on Playtracker’s page for Gorilla tag that they only track it for Steam.

            As to their accuracy, yeah of course it’s suspect only the developer really knows the actual numbers, everyone else is guessing.

            Anyway, I suspect you’re on your way because it’s clear your whole argument is just fundamentally incorrect, so I suppose good luck to you then growing past pointlessly and hopelessly trying to defend a single platform when they’re all flawed parts of an evolving ecosystem that will look very, very different in a few years.

          • Michael Speth

            "As to their accuracy, yeah of course it's suspect only the developer really knows the actual numbers, everyone else is guessing."

            I will correct you once more because this statement is 100% wrong.

            Steam has an API that anyone can use to find the stats about games on steam including historical and current player counts. This is how steamdb and steamcharts works. It is accurate using steam's provided data. This is what makes steam 1 of a kind.

            Both Steamdb and SteamCharts have the same numbers – 2k all time peak and 1k concurrent players.

            If you read how_insight_works works on PlayTracker you will learn that they use all sorts of social engineering in order to create their estimations.

            Steamdb and Steamcharts are hard numbers because valve says so. Since PlayTracker is picking up data from sources outside of steam, they will most likely be picking up Meta Quest players.

            I am ceasing responding to your comments because you are factually incorrect. So there is no point in further discusion unless you are willing to correct your obvious mistakes.

          • Storymode Chronicles

            Yeah, if I were making your argument I would duck out about now too. Many of the biggest VR games could run on an N64 and still be just as involving. Beat Saber, Superhot, VR Chat, Job Simulator, Rec Room, Gorilla Tag, these games could all have PS1 era graphics and no one would care. Your argument just falls flat to begin with.

            Yes, graphics do increase immersion but not more than optics, tracking, fun mechanics and engrossing design. This is an argument that has been going on since the Sega does what Nintendon’t days. It’s pointless partisan religiosity. These are not real concerns. What’s holding VR back primarily are a whole host of fundamental VR design problems which need to be solved, not shiny graphics.

            More than anything, it just seems like you are religiously opposed to Meta. Which, I get it. I hate them too. Along with other social media run amok unregulated at the hands of billionaire elite aimed at manipulating the general public to their own ends, they are causing actual social degradation threatening societal collapse if it continues unchecked. Add in AI as a tool and if we don’t get a handle on it with common sense legislation like requiring AI to identify itself and not pose as real people, we could be headed for global disaster.

            I even use a burner account to login to my Quest, and turn off all optional data aggregation. If it weren’t for all the reasons I already laid out, any Meta device would be last on my list to purchase. But, it is what it is. I hate Microsoft too, and my choices of smartphone are Apple or Google, two of the biggest companies on earth along with Meta steering the future of humanity towards possible oblivion. My only hope is that regulation actually reigns things in as more people become aware of the dangers they pose, especially adding AI into the mix.

            For VR specifically I do think it will eventually become a standardized, manufacturer agnostic device like any current 2D display, using internationally regulated protocols for communication. With any luck, it will center on a Steam-type ecosystem with a Steamdeck-like base unit as its nexus for design, and more powerful home consoles that scale to more realistic experiences which . But, that’s just my personal projection based on my own design philosophies, that’s what I aim at for my designs though.

            On the Playtracker/Steamdb thing, I really think you’re reading too much into it. For one, Playtracker does not track Meta platforms, so the fact that their numbers disagree with Steamdb is something you need to take up with them not me, or reconcile with the fact that all of these services are estimates, because Steam allows data to be hidden from them in the API, and they don’t track Meta or many other platforms, or even just plain old launching from desktop. To get so personally worked up over the accuracy of different 3rd party trackers just seems to point back to your religious-type marriage to your platform of choice. It seems like basically part of your personal identity at this point, which means you are taking criticism of these platforms as a personal attack . It’s just not that serious.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      It's a shame developers target a garbage PSVR2 headset, waste of money due to too few players…

      you really need to get your head out of your ass if you think mobile headsets are immersion breaking. That freaking cable of the PSVR2 is much more immersion breaking.

      • ApocalypseShadow

        Really sad post. Especially when owning a losing headset that's the Pico. The want to be Quest headset with no games. The PS VR 2 pretty much craps all over that purchase you made. At least Sony made GT7 and Horizon. What quality game did Byte dance make for Pico? Nothing. PC has a high quality exclusive game. PS VR 2 has a high quality VR game. Quest has one its own like Batman. Then, there's Pico. Receiving scraps with no quality exclusive. No big in house developer. You basically have to use it for PC to have anything.

        See? Anyone can trash a headset. You say a thin cable can break immersion. Having no games really breaks immersion to even buy trash like the Pico. PS VR 2 spits all over that nonsense and it has sold less hardware but has better games. And no. I don't own it. I just wanted to give you a taste of the nonsense you're spewing.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          You do know why I said what I said about PSVR2, he just LOVES his PSVR2 and he keeps saying everything else is crap (so I didn't mean that really, but was just mirroring his remark, just like you did to the pico). but I meant the remark with the cable of the PSVR2 being more immersion breaking then a lesser graphical mobile version of a game.

          I do own the Pico 4, and I don't mind it not having exclusives (that's actually one thing I really hate about Meta), I do enjoy the games on it very much, but I also still use the HTC Vive Pro/wireless module/vive wants/index controllers with my PC, but more because I don't think my PC is up to driving the Pico 4 wireless, as it's an old PC (core i7 4770 from 2013 with a RTX2060super from 2019) and my Wifi router is also an oldie barely supporting wifi 5. But new PC will be built after release of the RTX50.. series in januari/febuary and I'll also upgrade my router to a new one that will fully support wifi7.

  • NL_VR

    I think this game looks better than I first expected. I think it will be good