Six months ago, EVE Online developer CCP Games pulled out of the virtual reality market. The move came as a shock, given how well-suited and devoted CCP seemed to be to the tech, with international studios in the US and UK working on VR titles, and a tech-savvy EVE player base who were more likely to adopt VR early in its development cycle. As recently as last year’s EVE Fanfest, CEO Hilmar Veigar P tursson had been bullish about the technology and the company’s investment in its VR teams, so last week, at this year’s Fanfest, we asked him what had changed and what went wrong.

In short, hardly anyone was playing.

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If you saw our heads-up about the HTC Vive Black Friday deal earlier this week (to recap, you get a Vive, Fallout 4 VR, Doom VFR and a free deluxe audio strap and more for 599 starting from tomorrow), then you’ll be pleased to know that the Oculus Rift is also being discounted for Black Friday – starting TODAY, in fact. It’s almost as if they knew…

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CCP, creators of one of our favourite VR games, EVE Valkyrie, are ceasing all VR development, according to a report on Icelandic business site mbl.is. The Reykjav k-based studio is best-known for its fantastically complex MMO EVE Online but has invested heavily in VR games. Sci-fi dogfighting sim Valkyrie is its flagship goggle-game, but one-on-one ball-lobbing sport Sparc (currently PSVR only) is a bit of a cracker as well. I see this as a blow to the viability of VR as a major gaming platform not only because Valkyrie is one of the few games that makes the tech tempting to me, despite being available in non-VR form as well, but also because CCP have sounded so bullish about the field in the past.

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If you fancied hopping into the cockpit of a spacefighter and shooting spaceships while Starbucks off the telly bosses you around but you didn’t own the cybergoggles necessary to play EVE: Valkyrie, good news: VR is now optional in the EVE Online spin-off. Developers CCP last night launched EVE: Valkyrie – Warzone [official site], a rebranding and update which gave the first-person dogfighter support for regular screens and whacked in new maps and modes too. (more…)

After almost a year strapped to the foreheads of cybergoggleers, EVE: Valkyrie [official site] is coming to regular screens too. The dogfighting spin-off from spacebastard MMO EVE Online will get new maps, ships, and modes with the launch of its free expansion ‘Warzone’ on September 26th, and more importantly will no longer require VR goggles. I’ve quite fancied a go at Valkyrie’s first-person space-dogfighting but am no gogghead so this is splendid news. (more…)

It wasn’t hard to find the VR doubters at EVE Fanfest. One high profile EVE Online player told me he had no interest in CCP s VR games but would rather they have new teams working on VR than moving people from EVE to something like World of Darkness, which was left in the corner like a rotten apple.

Another said he was glad that the VR side of the business will be there to support EVE Online financially. For a while at least, I figure it ll be the other way around. It might seem strange to see a free-to-play MMO as the financial foundation that a studio relies on, but then CCP are a strange company and to some people their dedication to VR might seem like their strangest move yet. I spoke to VR Brand Director Ryan Geddes and CEO Hilmar Veigar P tursson to find out what the future might hold, and why they believe VR is an important part of that future.

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Out at the EVE fanfest, where I’m out talking to the movers, shakers and griefers of EVE Online, CCP have just announced an update that takes the VR multiplayer dogfighting sim from the wide open spaces of…space…to ground-based scenarios. Going by the title Groundrush, it launches April 11th with one new map, Solitude, which I’ve spent some time with today. Solitude is set around a series of structures in a snowy canyon-type environment. There are other changes too, including “weirder and wilder” temporary game modes, as originally introduced in the Wormholes update, and expanded co-op to include the Control and Carrier Assault modes.

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CCP make bloody good trailers, don’t they? This one for EVE: Valkyrie [official site] and its Wormholes update a) reminded me that EVE: Valkyrie is the VR game I definitely enjoyed playing when it was in the preview stage and would like to play more of and b) just makes space look really cool with rainbow trails and explosions and dogfighting extravaganzas. … [visit site to read more]

EVE: Valkyrie [official site], the cybergoggle spin-off from CCP’s spaceship MMO, has warped into another pair of goggs. Having debuted on Oculus Rift back in March then hitting PlayStation V VR in September, it’s now on HTC Vive headwear for your Starbuckin’ satisfaction too. Valkyrie, I’ll explain in case you missed all the boxfaces yelling, is a first-person spaceship dogfighting game. Along with singleplayer, it has co-op missions and competitive multiplayer. And Katee ‘Starbuck off that there television’ Sackhoff as your spaceboss. … [visit site to read more]