Icelandic developer CCP Games have been one of the biggest names creating virtual reality (VR) titles, producing ground-breaking titles such as EVE: Valkyrie and Gunjack and the new VR e-sports contender Sparc. Now the company is shrinking its footprint and refocussing away from VR.
Despite receiving significant investments specifically for VR development, the studio is changing its policy away from VR titles and towards PC and mobile videogames. This announcement will come as a surprise to many experts and analysts who have seen CCP as a leader in the field of VR development.
Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP, says “Most of the games are on top sets where they are defined,” he says, referred to titles such as Gunjack, EVE: Valkyrie and Sparc, “This has been a good deal, but now we see some credit in this market for the next 2-3 years. We are going to focus more on PC games and mobile phone games.”
CCP are also planning on shutting its Atlanta office and selling off the Newcastle office, a move which will affect roughly 100 employees. Where possible, employees in the affected studios will be offered positions in other offices. CCP employees received the notifications of the changes earlier today.
Despite the announcements and change in policy, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson is still optimistic about the continued future of VR: “We have faith in the virtual reality in the long run,” he says, though he does not believe that CCP will be in a hurry to return to VR development, nonetheless he thinks it still has considerable potential, “The virtual reality will eventually change the world.”
The exact reason for the change in direction and the studio closures has yet to be confirmed, but Pétursson thinks the changes were and important measure to keep CCP going: “It’s always hard to do such actions but they are important and if we want the company to reach 30 years, we sometimes need to make policy and organizational changes,” he says.
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via Mint VR