All of Insomniac’s VR Games Have Been Delisted

In a quiet move that has largely gone unnoticed, all of Insomniac Games’ high-budget PC VR titles have been removed from the Oculus store. This was the only digital marketplace where they were available for purchase.

The affected titles include Stormland, Edge of Nowhere, Feral Rites, and The Unspoken. The delisting likely occurred some time ago, but only Insomniac and Sony could say exactly when it happened. According to reports from Blueksy user Dominic Tarason, store pages for these games still exist on the Oculus platform, but they no longer display purchase buttons or any indication that the titles are unavailable. This is likely why not many people knew about their removal.

When Tarason contacted the stores about the delistings, Oculus store representatives reportedly told him, “Ask Insomniac.” Sony and Insomniac typically do not respond to these kinds of questions anyway, so it is unlikely that we’ll get a response or acknowledgement unless the companies want to say something.

Insomniac Games released these VR games several years ago, even before Sony bought it. While it is now a high-profile AAA studio, the VR games don’t reflect the company’s current trends of making Marvel games. Stormland, Insonmiac’s most recent and best-known VR title, launched in November 2019. Edge of Nowhere was released in June 2016, while both Feral Rites and The Unspoken went for sale in September 2016.

Those who previously purchased these titles can still access them despite being removed from sale. However, the complete disappearance of these games from official channels has made preservation concerning. Some of these titles have become so thoroughly unavailable that they cannot be found even on unofficial channels like pirate and torrent sites. However, Stormland appears to be an exception (we won’t give any links).

It’s worth noting that while these games were Oculus store exclusives, they weren’t necessarily restricted to Oculus hardware. Players using other VR headsets could reportedly access these titles through workarounds like Virtual Desktop software, which allows games from the Oculus store and other platforms to be played on alternative headsets like the Pico 4.

It is possible that if Insomniac retains the intellectual property rights to these games, they might eventually be ported to PlayStation VR2 (PSVR2), Sony’s virtual reality platform for PlayStation 5. However, recent developments in Sony’s VR strategy seems to downplay this possibility.

Sony recently announced a significant price cut for the PSVR2 headset, reducing it from its original $549 launch price to $399.99. This price reduction follows reports from March 2023 that Sony had paused PSVR2 production to clear excess inventory, suggesting that sales of the VR platform have not met expectations.

The substantial price cut nearly a year after launch indicates that Sony may be struggling to gain traction in the VR market. This is despite having exclusive VR experiences tied to popular franchises like Horizon and Gran Turismo. Adding more games to that library would cost a lot of money, even as a port, so that is not likely the current strategy.

The lack of financial benefit is the most likely reason for the delisting. The technical effort needed to maintain older VR games for modern headsets can be substantial. It’s not just the cost of keeping it on the store but also updating it so it can be played with every new update for the devices and stores. This is especially true for titles released in 2016 when VR technology was still in its early commercial stages.

It’s unlikely these games will come back to storefronts. The best that players could hope for is a collection or something similar, but it is difficult to imagine them coming back as individual purchases again. The cost to maintain them is likely much higher than the profit they were making.

Source: Dominic Tarason