Persistent online worlds are not new, and have been around since text-based multi-user dungeons (MUD) were set up in early 1980s computer networks, later seeing a meteoric rise in prominence in the 2000s with games such as EverQuest, EVE Online, and World of Warcraft, as well as the more daily-life oriented Second Life.
After acquiring VR pioneering company Oculus in 2014, Facebook has struggled to help shepherd the technology towards mass adoption, with the overall growth of the VR market falling short of expectations and even experiencing a dip in 2020 due to decreased interest in the usage of shared or public equipment amidst the pandemic. More recently, Ready Player One capitalized on that idea and brought it back to prominence with a bestselling novel and subsequent film adaptation.Īmid rebranding efforts and seeking a new way forward, Mark Zuckerberg has made it Facebook’s (now Meta Platforms) priority to build a platform that could enable the metaverse to become a mainstream technology with the sort of reach that their social networks and WhatsApp have. These are just a few horror games that could benefit from getting ported to virtual reality headsets, but there are many more games out there that could also be great picks as well.Neal Stephenson’s foundational cyberpunk novel Snow Crash brought to the public the concept of a metaverse, a virtual reality in which people interact using avatars in a manufactured ecosystem, eschewing the limitations of human existence. Fans will have to wait and see if the upcoming horror game includes this feature, but at the moment it doesn't seem terribly unlikely. Given the fact that Resident Evil 8 is running on what appears to be the same engine as Resident Evil 7, a VR mode will likely be very easy for Capcom to implement. Whether or not it will remain exclusively for PlayStation or will be available for all VR platforms, any sort of VR support would be welcome for the new game. Though it technically hasn't been released yet (and has not yet been de-confirmed to be coming to VR), many fans are hoping that Resident Evil 8 will get the same treatment as its predecessor by receiving an optional VR mode.
RELATED: Phasmophobia is a Positive Byproduct of 2020 Like Among Us and Fall GuysĢ017's release of Resident Evil 7 showed fans that the Resident Evil series fits perfectly into the VR world, and more of its titles would greatly benefit from getting released for virtual reality headsets. In celebration of the Halloween season, it seems only appropriate to discuss a few other horror games that would be perfect to play in virtual reality. The horror genre is one facet of virtual reality that has seen a particularly large amount of support from game developers, with the recent online horror title Phasmophobia being VR-supported from day one, and other horror games like Layers of Fear and Blair Witch getting VR ports.
Some AAA titles, like the recently released Star Wars Squadrons, have been developed with virtual reality in mind from the start, and it's fantastic to see more love and care getting devoted to the new medium of gaming.
Some traditional video games that were originally intended for regular screens have even made the jump to VR, with titles such as Superhot and Skyrim getting their own virtual reality versions. In recent years, virtual reality has exploded within the mainstream, with more and more games becoming readily available for gamers to play in their shiny new VR headsets.