Epic Video games CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed the hit battle royale shooter Fortnite has “no plans at the moment” to return to Quest, though he hasn’t dominated it out completely.
Right here’s what Sweeney mentioned in response to X consumer ‘TheoryDecrypt’:
No plans at the moment. For it to achieve success we’d want numerous gamers throughout all platforms spending numerous their time on islands whose locomotion mechanics wouldn’t have VR gamers barfing. We’ve gone from 0 to 1 such fashionable mechanics however it’s not a essential mass but.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) June 30, 2024
It’s fairly clear by now Sweeney doesn’t suppose VR would work properly with Fortnite, as he’s mainly echoing a statement he made in 2022 in an interview with The Verge.
“Epic has no plans to construct a VR model of Fortnite. Not out of any grand enterprise technique, however simply because the factor that we do in Fortnite on daily basis as avid gamers is run by an surroundings quickly, and it’s the form of expertise that includes intense movement and doesn’t work as properly in VR,” Sweeney informed The Verge. “And so if we have been to ever do something in VR, it must be one thing that’s actually customized tailor-made for the expertise. And it’s not that we have now any adverse view of that. We simply have 101 issues to do.”
The entire ‘barfing’ a part of his newest assertion although feels just a little outdated in 2024, making it look like Sweeney actually hasn’t checked again into VR not too long ago. In distinction to the early days of VR, trendy video games have a tendency to incorporate quite a lot of consolation choices as customary, similar to variable snap-turn, FOV vignettes, ‘consolation’ cages, and the complete gamut of locomotion choices. Notably, any of those can be utilized to render “intense movement” into one thing stomachable for all, like Meta-owned studio BigBox VR does in its hit battle royale POPULATION: ONE.
Nonetheless, Sweeney could also be proper about VR not being a proper match for Fortnite, and it might be much less about nerfing the sport’s “intense” locomotion to degree the enjoying subject, and extra about how VR gameplay is so totally different from flatscreen within the benefits and downsides it brings to the desk.
For a VR participant, it might be harder to quickly construct your self out of a sticky state of affairs like on flatscreen, however simpler to do a bunch of different actions, like ducking and capturing round corners, going susceptible behind cowl, and doing complicated actions flatscreen customers merely can’t, like bodily catching an additional journal your teammate throws you.
Regardless of the case, we’re hoping Sweeney adjustments his tune on VR consolation, perhaps by studying our handy VR comfort checklist which we use for recreation critiques.