Sony’s London Studio, the team behind trailblazing PSVR content PlayStation VR Worlds (2016) and Blood & Truth (2019), are making a new online co-op combat game that the studio calls its “most ambitious title to date,” but it doesn’t feature VR support.

Co-studio head Tara Saunders describes London Studio’s next project in an SIE blogpost:

Our next project is an online co-op combat game, which as you can see here, is set in a modern fantasy London. The key thing about this is that it’s a PlayStation 5 title—it’s not a VR game like our last title was. And it’s our most ambitious project to date.

There are some important aspects communicated in this image. It’s a modern fantasy London, it’s cooperative action. And what we really love about this project is that it’s giving us an opportunity to showcase a lot of wonder and magic. So we’re really excited.

Here’s the image Saunders was referring to:

Image courtesy Sony London Studio

As the principal studio behind some of PSVR’s most imaginative and leading content, we were certainly hoping for something similar to come to the next-gen follow-up, PSVR 2, which is due out sometime early next year.

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It’s not entirely clear why London Studio wasn’t tapped to again take the lead on VR content, however co-studio head Stuart Whyte says their market research guided the decision:

We reached out to some sister studios for their input, and finally, we actually did some proper market research. We polled hundreds of gamers in the UK and the US for their feedback as well—and all of these different inputs and perspectives all culminated in the project we’re working on now.

In the meantime, there’s a growing list of studios pledging to support PSVR 2, although Sony has thus far only trumpeted eight games publicly: Horizon Call of the Mountain, Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge, Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4, Demeo, No Man’s Sky, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Chapter 2, and Firewall Ultra.

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Scott Hayden
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 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • impurekind

    What a total and utter disappointment.

  • Tommy

    No VR, no buy.

    • sfmike

      I feel the same way, but they have made the decision that there isn’t enough money in it for them.

  • kool

    I don’t see why this can’t be both.

    • ViRGiN

      Because I am a Meta fanatic.
      I love N64 graphics from quest and you are a moron if you have a pc.

      • ViRGiN

        no i love valve and everything they do for vr
        that is primarily file hosting. this is such an essential part of any platform.

        • Cless

          It actually is quite essential, just like brick and morter stores were back in the day.
          They do offer an invaluable service that most clients, not developers, seem quite oblivious to.
          I pay them without too much issue their fair share of the sale.

          They have an incredibly highspeed and convenient service worldwide and a myriad of options at developers fingertips to customize how they want to sell their game in the platform that literally no other store matches.

          Sure it isn’t perfect, but far from non-essential and disposable like you would like it to be..

  • sfmike

    Really sad news. VR is slowly losing ground instead of hopefully growing.

    • Zack71

      Meta is losing ground and money, not VR.
      Wait for Pico 4 sales.

      • ViRGiN

        nah i’m waiting for arpara and pimax

        • Zack71

          too much expensive, they will never have or create a market.

      • Tommy

        I just read that their stock just fell 25% in just a couple days and has fallen 61% since the beginning of the year. They have also lost $9 billion in revenue in the last 3 quarters alone. Things are not looking very sunny for Meta right now.

  • Kenny Thompson

    Not to surprising. I don’t think VR games can support larger teams and still be profitable…. yet. Looks like games will be coming from smaller teams for the foreseeable future.

    • ViRGiN

      Yes. Why make Skyrim-sized games, when you can just put out Job Simulator, Superhot or Pistol Whip with team of 5 and sell it for years?

      Superhot still remains among best sellers on all platforms, despite literally never getting a single real update. The company completly pivoted back to flat games.

      • Cless

        To be fair, VR is getting quite close to the numbers that AA studios might be working on profitable projects atm to release in a couple years, so that’s a good thing to look forward to.

      • Sven

        There was the endless mode update, and that’s not even mentioning the update that forcibly removed content because we “deserve better”.

        • ViRGiN

          So, not a real update.
          And like I said, still the very top of the top of best sellers, despite removing suicide ability, rumoured to be caused by suicide in one of the main devs family.

  • ViRGiN

    You misspelled mobile virtual reality.
    Sony still has to prove itself with it’s launch lineup and how much VR there is in PSVR2 games.

    • Cless

      Fair enough! I think you will be positively surprised after seeing all the games that they will have total over the first year though! :)

      • ViRGiN

        Oh, I’m pumped for PSVR2, but PCVR was nothing but a disappointment. It’s next to impossible for Playstation to phuck this up.
        But I do want to know when to order the whole set. Right now, there is nothing convincing to order it day 1. And as long as it’s completly wired, my needs are extra-high. I’m not interested in playing rumoured launch titles like Pavlov and Alvo.

        • Cless

          Yeah, the usual suspects will be there for sure, after all, its a new platform that has its own library of games, but Sony is pushing quite hard for it. I wouldn’t mind using the PSVR2 headset on a PC to be honest, decent resolution, great quality display, decent optics, okay FOV… If a mod is able to get the eyetracking to work, it would be a 100% assured buy for, even without the PS5 lol
          Well, that is if the Shitfall… I mean.. Shiftall isn’t a bust in the end, since it looks like it miiiiight be interesting, specially since its a localy grown headset lol

          • ViRGiN

            shiftall is obviously a complete failure and nothing more than a concept art. seems like a perfect headset to stare right in front of you like in a cinema with minimal neck movement. sony did that a decade ago with it’s hmz series. pretty disgusting how dare you to even mention it here. the form/look factor is something i think would be even underisable among customers. it’s kinda steampunkish; and will be proven to be next to impossible to really use with actual content like games. this thing ain’t holding on your head in fps games lol.

          • Cless

            Oh! So you have tried it! Damn, lucky you. Where did you get the chance? I live in Japan and didn’t get to try it!

  • ApocalypseShadow

    Not worried in the slightest. Sony’s developers always have multiple teams working on one release title and one future title. From Uncharted and TLofU from Naughty Dog. Spider-Man and Ratchet from Insomniac and then working on Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine. Housemarque releasing with Returnal and they already announced a new IP. Bend made Days Gone and also have a new IP coming. It’s what Sony does. Developers working on more than one game. Announced and or released game. Then, future game.

    Example already is that Guerrilla Games was working on Forbidden West while it looks like they will be taking the lead as launch developer for PS VR 2 with Call to the Mountain. No one expected GG was making a VR game. Other Sony studios are probably doing the same. Just not announced yet.

    London Studios is making this game. But I’d bet that they have a future game coming later that might be a new IP in VR or a sequel to Blood and Truth. London has the next 5-10 years to make a VR game. And the developer never stated that they have stopped making VR games forever. They’re just not the lead this time. Team Asobi made the pack in Astrobot game for PS5. How much you want to bet that they are making a game right now that’s coming for PS VR 2 that’s not announced? Try not to read into the headlines.

  • ViRGiN

    What?
    Get educated about competietive to valve products.
    They sure as hell pose no threat to even Oculus GO.

  • Carsten

    Wrong decision!
    How many combat games are there in non VR? Too many!