‘UNDERDOGS’ PSVR 2 Port Won’t Get Multiplayer Due to Low Player Numbers

By
Scott Hayden
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6

UNDERDOGS (2024) landed on PSVR 2 back in March 2025, making the popular physics-based mech brawler available across all major VR headsets. While the game is slated to get full multiplayer support on Quest and SteamVR, PSVR 2 owners won’t be so lucky.

The News

Developer One Hamsa released the news via an Instagram reel this week that Underdogs won’t be getting multiplayer content on PSVR 2.

“Porting to PlayStation is a ton of work. It took months to port Underdogs,” said Game Director Dave Levy. “We are a really small team. We have a pretty small budget to work with and we really need to make every work hour count, so we were hoping to reach a lot of new players with this port, but that didn’t happen. It really bums me to say it, but the truth is that without more of you we simply can’t afford to add whole new parts of the game like multiplayer.”

While full multiplayer support is still in the works for Quest and PC VR versions, both platforms recently received an update last month that brought a multiplayer mini-game, called ‘BALLTAG’, which the studio maintains is “the first stop on the way to multiplayer.”

The single player roguelike is highly rated across PC VR and Quest, garnering both an ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ overall user score on Steam and a [4.8/5] user score on Quest.

Underdogs was also awarded our Excellence in Locomotion and Excellence in Indie Development in in 2024’s Road to VR Game of the Year Awards.

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My Take

Here I go again, rehashing the same points I made in my recent piece on why Capcom isn’t bringing a VR adaptation of Resident Evil Requiem to PSVR 2. Every time I hear a veteran developer essentially say “PSVR 2 isn’t worth it,” it bears mentioning: Sony basically gave up on PSVR 2 right after its 2023 launch.

And honestly, I’m surprised developer interest in PSVR 2 hadn’t waned earlier. Not only has Sony not invested in its second-gen VR platform to nearly the same degree it did with the original 2016 PSVR for PS4, it has also entirely cut PSVR 2 loose from the PS5 console ecosystem with the addition of an optional wired adapter that allows users to play SteamVR games via a VR-capable computer. It’s contrary to the entire ethos of the closed console ecosystem.

If you own a PSVR 2, you might still be getting new games in the coming month/years—some developers have large enough teams and enough console know-how to make porting relatively straight forward. Still, I’d expect to hear a lot more developer stories like One Hamsa’s, as the player pool will only continue shrinking without strong support from Sony.

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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 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • PloverNutter

    Yeah Sony does not care about PSVR2 and there is simply not enough people who use one for them or any developer to really care to put their games on the platform. This isn't even the first time a developer has cancelled updating the PSVR2 version of their game because there is not enough people playing them on the headset. Vertigo 2 cancelled the dlc and level editor for the PSVR2 port for this specific reason. I also agree the pc adapter was Sony admitting defeat as that would be like if they made the PS5 play Steam since they aren't making new games for the system natively anymore.

    • NL_VR

      But this is verry onesided take.
      idk why underdogs underperform on PSVR2 but maybe because it was just released at the wrong time. There are also devs their games sells best on PSVR2.
      This and that are dead are so stupid. People wouldnt buy PSVR2 if it was dead. New games were not going to be released on the system if it was dead.

  • Octogod

    The issue here is not that PSVR2 has been abandoned. The issue is that the developer waited until after they sold thousands of holiday season copies to PSVR2 users last month on the spoken promise that multiplayer was coming.

    I don't care about PSVR2. I do care about developers flat out lying to get holiday sales, while they already have plans to not fulfill those promises.

    One issue here is that they used a porting partner: Perp Games. They're known for their VR ports, but often also for their dubious quality and never releasing updates. A solid example would be Madison VR, which has been unplayable on Quest since launch and where the creators redirect complaints to Perp Games. Every update on their end meant more costs from Perp.

    And I should say that I do feel for the developers. They likely thought they would sell more. They likely hoped the holidays would be the big selling season. But you can't make software promises on hopes.

    From the developer Mashunaut's reddit account:

    Those stats are wrong, but regardless, have you considered that our team averages 10 people, that is took us 3 years to make the game and that it released 18 months ago? Do the math. I'm not proud to say I'm living hand to mouth.

    REMINDER: Road to VR ignores that Meta reviews are available for purchase. Store rating means nothing when they can be bought and Meta can remove the bad ones for you. To imply it means quality is ignorant of an openly manipulated market.

    • Benjamin Räder

      I mean you are not wrong, but there are different takes on this.

      Yes, they broke their "promise", but i hardly feel sorry for the players. If you buy an incomplete game (same with EA titles or on Release purchases), than you are mostly a beta tester nowadays, especially with lots of content still missing. I mostly wait always a year, because then those games are often complete or atleast less buggy and also much cheaper.

      And after all, those developers have every right to act like this, because people dont really care. Most people dont have any patience to wait. They NEED the game NOW…

      Also a shame that the game didnt performed well enough. in my opinion one of the best VR Games out there.

    • PloverNutter

      They didn’t sell thousands of copies during the holiday sale. It didn’t even crack the top 50 in the psvr2 games while it was 60% off. If it did sell well it would be getting the multiplayer mode. The devs have been up front about the game selling extremely poorly on the platform. They aren’t even the first devs to say how little games tend to sell on psvr2

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    I still consider Sony offering the PSVR2 PC adapter mostly a smart move, because it incentivised more people overall to buy the HMD, thereby also increasing the chance they might also buy a PS5 and games for it while spreading the development costs. But it also showed that the PSVR2 was way overpriced from the beginning despite the hardware being cheap to produce.

    Without the adapter someone might argue that the HCotM PSVR2 bundle being offered multiple times on sale for USD 350 was a loss leader for Sony, hoping to make back the money with more sales of PSVR2 games instead. But with large amounts of PSVR2 sold to PC gamers and the adapter temporarily out of stock, it is apparent that Sony still makes at least a small amount of profit at that price, and the extra USD 200 they initially asked for with the USD 550 launch price were a mix of greed and "how to shoot your own platform in the foot" idiocy.