Are VR games dying?

Boy wearing VR headset (Source: Unsplash)

By Ross Cassidy

Believe it or not, but Virtual Reality (VR) has been around longer than you may think. VR headsets were invented in 1956 by Morton Heilig – the Sensorama, which was originally created as another way to be immersed in cinema.

Gaming giant SEGA tried to bring VR to gamers in the 1990s in arcades and SEGA’s VR-1, but these failed due to technical limitations and commercial failures, leading to it being cancelled and never being sold to the public. Decades later, they have been heavily refined and redesigned. They had a massive breakout year in 2016 with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. These devices were praised for their immersive experiences with advanced technology and body tracking, as well as the ease of it being set up as well as the games you could play on them.

Games such as Job Simulator and Superhot VR were highly praised and successful which later saw other companies such as Apple and PlayStation begin developing VR headsets of their own. PlayStation released their VR headset in the PS4 era, PSVR and had a great list of titles to experience with it. The headset had games such as Surgeon Simulator, Batman Arkham VR, and LA Noire: The VR Case Files and many more.

Facebook parent company Meta have released various models of their headset, which changed from Oculus to Meta Quest later down the line, and PlayStation released their next VR headset during the PS5 generation – PSVR 2.

Meta Quest VR set (Source: Getty Images)

However, in recent years VR games have taken a hit due to layoffs and sales of VR Headsets to play them. Meta, who are one of the driving forces in Virtual Reality, let go of 10% of their staff in their VR department, with 15,000 people losing their jobs. This sparked outrage from fans as one the teams, Camoflaj, were shut down.

According to reports, Sony has scaled back funding for game development for their headset, with only two games reportedly in development for it. Sony sold only 325,000 units in the fourth quarter of 2023, whilst PSVR sold five million units during its cycle. PSVR2 has sold only 600,000 since its launch in February 2023. Reasons for low sales come from the small library of games on offer, its price, and how it was exclusive to the PS5 console. Sony have recently released an adapter that allows use for it on PC.

Meta co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg, announced a partnership with Rockstar Games in October 2021 that would see the iconic GTA: San Andreas brought to Oculus Quest 2. This project has been put on hold indefinitely as reported in late 2024 as Meta looked at other projects. No footage or screenshots have ever been released, nor was there an announcement made by Rockstar Games saying if it has been cancelled or not. Meta have stated they look forward to working with Rockstar in the future.

Rockstar Games logo (Source: Getty Images)

Overall, VR headsets are selling very well. Unit sales were predicted to increase from $16 billion in 2024 to $18 billion in 2025, but it does look like VR games studios are on the hot seat as company higher ups pull funding on titles, alongside the closure of studios.