The team here at VRFocus have repeatedly made clear our enthusiasm for surreal trance-shooter Polybius, which came out last year for the PlayStation VR. Despite its brilliance, however, it seems the title is yet to make any money for its developer, Llamasoft.
Llamasoft is the brainchild of veteran developer and magnificent madman Jeff Minter, who has been producing videogames since the 8-bit era and took the name of the virtual reality (VR) shooter from an urban legend of that time period.
Polybius has been available on the PlayStation Store for over a year, receiving positive reviews from pretty much every VR outlet, including VRFocus, where we said: “Polybius is an excellent shooter that takes inspiration from the 80s arcade scene in the best of ways. It is a finely crafted experience that only benefits from being on the PlayStation VR. Owners of PlayStation VR should definitely look to add this to their library, as it is one of the best VR titles on the PlayStation at present. Jeff Minter and Llamasoft have got another winner.”
The title even got attention from the music world, appearing as a prominent part of a music video for Nine Inch Nails single Less Than, with the lyrics to the song appearing on the screen in a similar way to how in-game announcements do.
Despite this positive coverage, it seems that the title is yet to earn any money for Llamasoft, as Jeff Minter confirmed in a recent tweet. Though there can be multiple reasons for this, its doubtful that Llamasoft blew the budget, so it seems likely that simple not enough copies have been sold. Such lacklustre sales figures are something of a tragedy for such a high-quality title.
Though this is something of a setback, Minter remains enthusiastic about VR as a medium for new experiences, and other tweets suggest that Llamasoft is working on another VR-capable title, though details remain scarce.
Polybius is available through the PlayStation Store, priced at $15.49 (USD)/£13.99 (GBP). It can be played with or without the PlayStation VR headset and supports up to 4K resolution with the PlayStation 4 Pro. VRFocus will bring you further news on VR projects from Llamasoft as they become available.
via Mint VR