Ubisoft’s VR strategy should be the default, not the outlier
As I’m writing these words, there are three mobile VR platforms and four “full” VR platforms worth talking about, with at least one more coming in the new year. I call them platforms because they run their own versions of virtual environments with apps and experiences that are unique to specific headsets. When it comes to hardware, the three mobile platforms are nearly identical. The same can largely be said of “full” VR experiences like Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR, though there are more significant differences here that require a lot more work on behalf of developers.
Across all of these VR headsets, there is a sort of unity in the way things are experienced. Users, particularly new users, step into this new world and are completely in awe of how immersed they feel. When showing a new user an HTC Vive and moving on to an Oculus Rift with Touch controllers, the first question asked is usually how these platforms are different. I could spend the next 20 minutes explaining how Touch controllers give you more subtle
gesture controls while the room-scale nature of nearly every Vive game can be seen as offering a more complete experience, but that’s not what I’m really being asked in these demos. What I’m really being asked is what can be experienced in Rift that can’t be experienced in PlayStation VR and Vive, and right now the answer to that question really sucks. The truth is there should be very little you can do on one of these VR platforms that can’t be done on the others, but because of limited developer resources or pushes from Oculus and Sony and HTC for exclusive titles, many users are left with an incomplete observation of the VR universe no matter which they choose.
And then there’s Ubisoft.
The three games Ubisoft is planning for VR over the next year — the already excellent Eagle Flight, the super hyped Star Trek: Bridge Crew, and the wholly unique Werewolves Within — all have one massively important thing in common. It won’t matter which VR headset you pick these games up for, when you play online you’ll be playing with the entire VR community that has access to this game. Rift players will be joining PSVR and Vive players to pilot starships through dangerous nebulae, screech fearsome blasts at fellow predatory birds, and scour simple Gallowstown together. The same game, with the same features, in the same universe, no matter which headset you’re using.
This is the dream, right? The thing gamers have wanted for ages, but have never been able to have. PC owners have largely been kept separate from console players, who in turn are almost always kept from one another thanks to Microsoft and Sony’s walled gardens of trophies and achievements. When we finally do get games that are genuinely cross platform it’s treated like this massive accomplishment, but it the games themselves are never really considered unique or important in the grand scheme of things. We quickly return to our silos, happy with weird temporary exclusives and a lesser community to enjoy games with.
The relatively new and comparably small VR community has an opportunity to make some noise and permanently change the way we look at online gaming. There’s no good reason to limit online experiences to similar VR headsets, and Ubisoft’s plan to make this standard as we come into 2017 is a great example to set. Building for every VR headset is not an easy thing for small game dev teams to accomplish, but there’s very little downside right now. Each headset has fans hungry for content, ready to dive into new experiences and give more feedback than you could reasonably process. It’s probably too much to ask for a fully unified VR platform where everyone has access to most of the same games and experiences, but a unified online experience can and should be standard for VR.
