Neat Corporation, the team behind Budget Cuts (2018), originally wanted to bring its VR stealth adventure to PSVR back in May. After a delay due to the global slowdown, which pushed that date to July 10th, the studio is again marking a definitive launch date in stone: September 25th.
Update (July 3rd, 2020): Neat Corp has released a PS blogpost outlining its new September 25th release date. Ostensibly as a form of recompense, the studio has also built a new PSVR-exclusive level called ‘Panopticon’.
Update (May 7th, 2020): Neat Corp has announced in a recent tweet that Budget Cuts for PSVR won’t be launching in May 2020 as previously planned. The delay, which is due to the global slowdown, is pushing the release to July 10th. We’re glad to hear that the team is taking the extra time to nail it down, and continue on with their work in these uncertain times.
Update (March 23rd. 2020): – Neat Corporation, Coatsink, and Perp Games today announced that the original Budget Cuts will be coming to PSVR on May 15th with a simultaneous digital and physical release. There’s still no word on whether a Quest version is still in the mix.
Original article (January 20th, 2019): Budget Cuts puts you in the hum-drum world of an endless office complex. Just as you’re about to die of boredom, a fax comes through that warns you of impending doom. All of the humans in the office have been mysteriously replaced by worker drones, and it’s your job to get past the deadly security bots with only throwing knives and your trusty portal-style teleportation gun to figure out what happened.
While we genuinely liked the game, unfortunately it was plagued with performance issues early on which actually forced the team to reschedule launch well after reviews were already out in a bid to smooth over some of the game-breaking bugs that made their way to some reviewers.
That said, Neat Corp has plenty to do to get the physics-based stealth game in shape for the decreased graphical and CPU power of the PS4. Another hurdle to jump over will invariably be the PS Camera’s smaller, front-facing tracking volume that will no doubt require users to make heavy use of snap-turning locomotion in addition to the game’s native teleportation scheme.
Whatever the case may be, we’re hoping it does well enough to bring the game to Oculus Quest, because it’s clear a virtually unlimited tracking volume would be an insane addition to a game that gets you dodging, ducking, and cowering under virtual desks for your life.