Would you play No Man's Sky in VR if it supported the option? Well, according to the founder of Hello Games, Sean Murray, he thinks that No Man's Sky and VR are a perfect fit, and that it could be possible for the galactic exploration game could get support for headsets sometime down the road.
Speaking with IGN on an upcoming episode of IGN Unfiltered, Murray explained...
I think VR in general is incredibly exciting, […] there’s this huge opportunity for playing a game normally but then also being able to have those really intense moments within a game,[…] If it was No Man's Sky—if such a thing existed—being able to find a planet if you really loved and then be able to see it in [VR]. I think something like that would be incredibly cool.
Right now VR is talked about a lot but the limited availability of the devices and the high price for the ones on the market have made the headsets a novelty item for a niche crowd, something Murray hopes doesn't happen to the future of the VR market because then it would limit the growth of virtual reality in general.
Both HTC and Facebook's Oculus are the two major players on the market right now and both of them have sold out of their initial stock. We'll see how well both devices fare in June when more orders are shipped out and stock is replenished.
Murray mentioned to IGN that VR could grow out of the niche and hit mainstream success if there's a killer app to help move the hardware, similar to how Wii Sports and Mario Kart Wii both helped move tens of millions of Wii units throughout its lifespan, or how Sonic The Hedgehog helped make the Sega Genesis a legitimate console competitor, or how Halo put the OG Xbox on the map.
It would be something if No Man's Sky happened to be the killer app for VR headsets. With the game being available on PC and PS4, it's not an impossibility assuming that they could get the game to run at 60fps on the PS4 to support the PlayStation VR. On PC things are a lot easier given that anyone who has the hardware to run No Man's Sky above 60fps (or up to 90fps for the best possible VR experience) then the game could easily make waves in the VR HMD space.
Right now most of the apps and games available for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are just not that great, and I think most of the initial sales for the headsets are simply for the hardware and not for the software. However, as Murray points out, if the novelty wears off then the VR headsets will be stuck in limbo, being adopted only by true tech enthusiasts or those with a lot of disposable income.
Sony, however, has an opportunity to break through to the mainstream based on how the basic PS VR unit is priced, and if they can find a decent title out of the 50 games they have lined up for the device to be the killer app that gets people to go out and buy a unit.
Heck, if No Man's Sky has strong initial sales throughout June and July, Sony should definitely consider pumping a little extra into the pockets of Hello Games to get a VR-ready rendition of the game up and out for the PS VR for the headset's launch this October.
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