Stormland Developer Insomniac Games Joins PlayStation Worldwide Studios
Insomniac Games has been a long-time supporter of virtual reality (VR), having created the likes of Edge of Nowhere, Feral Rights and The Unspoken with Stormland still in development. All of these have been exclusive to Oculus Rift but that relationship could well be at an end, it has just been announced that Insomniac Games has joined PlayStation Worldwide Studios.
We’re proud to announce we’re joining the @playstation WWS family! https://t.co/tKdZ69AVPF
— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) August 19, 2019
Making the announcement via Twitter, Insomniac Games has long been affiliated with Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and the PlayStation brand, having recently released Marvel’s Spider-Man as an exclusive on PlayStation 4. “We’ve collaborated with Sony for more than 20 years — spanning all four PlayStation consoles, 20 total games and six franchises,” notes Ted Price, Insomniac Games’ Founder in a blog posting.
As a member of PlayStation Worldwide Studios, however, this will mean all of its videogames will now be exclusive to the platform, which would also include VR titles. As mentioned, the studio is currently developing Stromland in conjunction with Oculus Studios so there (hopefully) shouldn’t be an issue with the experience coming to Oculus Rift. But this may mean a PlayStation VR version could eventually arrive, and most importantly any further VR projects will be PlayStation VR exclusive.
Companies like SIE and Microsoft Studios division have always snapped up smaller developers, yet that trend seems to be growing as they look to secure evermore exclusive content for their respective platforms.
Stormland is still scheduled for a 2019 launch window for Oculus Rift, putting players in the role of a robot who just happens to be a gardener on a lush alien planet. That was until The Tempest shattered your android body, so you must head out across the planet to augment yourself and save your friends. Featuring both single-player and multiplayer gameplay modes, players will have complete freedom to run, climb and fly across the expansive terrain. When VRFocus previewed the title we said that: “Stormland is undoubtedly Insomniac Games’ most ambitious VR project to date.”
When VRFocus learns more about Insomniac Games’ future VR plans, including how or if development of Stormland is affected we’ll let you know as soon as possible.
https://www.vrfocus.com/2019/08/stormland-developer-insomniac-games-joins-playstation-worldwide-studios/