doom3-vr — Image courtesy Archiact

Studio Behind ‘DOOM 3’ VR Port Announces Layoffs

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Jan 5, 2024

Archiact, the veteran studio known for a host of VR titles, announced it’s laying off a portion of its staff.

The number of staff affected by the layoff hasn’t been confirmed. The studio says however in an X post that it’s currently looking to help transition staff from a number of positions, including animation, art, audio, engineering, game design, IT, narrative, production and QA—implying the layoff is fairly far-reaching.

“It was not a decision we took lightly,” Archiact says in the post, “and we are working with these individuals to offset this difficult transition as much as possible.”

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Founded in 2013, the Vancouver-based studio has developed a number of recognizable VR games, including the VR port of ID Software’s DOOM 3, Journey to Foundation, Freediver Triton Down, Evasion, and early AR game Marvel Dimension of Heroes, which released on the smartphone-based Lenovo Mirage AR headset.

The studio has billed itself as “one of the largest independent VR developers,” maintaining its Vancouver headquarters alongside a satellite office in Toronto, Ontario. The company’s about page, which hasn’t been recently updated, states it has a team of over 100 people.

Stealth Ico

man
kool

Yikes the heads are rolling in the vr industry for 2024! Sony needs to get hybrid gaming to work ASAP I don’t know how many devs can survive another year off of profits from a small user base. I don’t know what quest store numbers look like but most folks are probably playing a bunch of early access or pc mods.
- Nevets
  
  Sony’s hopeless. They released new hardware and have no plan nor ability to make it popular.
  - kool
    
    I think the plan was for hybrid games to be made but the 60 fps reprojection didn’t work out too well and idk why they just haven’t ported all the psvr1 games to make up for it.
    - VR5
      
      Sony always had flat to VR adaptations, sometimes old ports, sometimes simultaneous releases. But when Ryan used the term hybrid I think he was pressuring internal studios to have their VR titles also be playable without VR. Resulting in London Studios shifting away from VR entirely.
      
      Bringing all you flat games to VR is a dream of experienced enthusiasts but will create wrong expectations from newbies and poisons the well (motion sickness). High cost with negative returns.
      
      They should have gone for a more affordable PSVR2, which puts comfort first. PSVR2 unfortunately isn’t quite as comfortable as the original and that wasn’t perfect either. Still better than standalone headsets out of the box.
      
      With an affordable headset, GT7 would truly be a killer app. And at least other racing games could also be ported to VR then. But when your add-on costs more than the console, that is a pipe dream.
      - kool
        
        The hybrid games term meant porting games to vr with minimal effort. Like re8 and gt7. The problem is most games are already pushing the limits so 60fps reprojection struggles to get decent performance on PS5 the PS5 will be too niche to build a console vr community around. They’ll probably lower the price soon and announce some new games if they haven’t abandoned it.
      - MeowMix
        
        my guess is the last push for PSVR2 will be with the release of the PS5Pro. They’ll do the same marketing as the PS4Pro and say the Pro version is the true hardware needed for VR.
        
        But it’ll come down to cost. Rumors are the PS5Pro will start at $600. $600(PS5Pro) + ~$600(headset) + $100(online fee) = maybe just get a Quest3/Quest3Lite and a decent entry PCVR build.
      - kool
        
        If that’s the case they should drop the price and port over some psvr1 games in the meantime to keep interest up. If nothing comes out in the meantime it’ll need to be able to play gta6 to sell.
      - FrankB
        
        The lack of PSVR1 ports of their big hitters is absolutely criminal. Many didn’t even use motion controls so should’ve been relatively easy to transpose to dualsense controllers.
      - VR5
        
        I never heard the term hybrid in this context before Ryan used it. And all the actual releases of VR modes for flat games are coming from the same sources as on PS4, GT and RE. Only this time we aren’t getting them simultaneously. London Studio not doing another VR game is a negative and we haven’t gotten a high increase in these games that we now retroactively call hybrid games.
      - ApocalypseShadow
        
        How affordable would that be?
        
        No innovation with headset haptics? No eye tracking to get near PS5 graphics in the headset and matching PC level? No innovation with haptics or triggers in the controllers?
        
        I know it would be better to have an inexpensive headset. But that’s like saying Facebook shouldn’t have had pass through or color cameras or better controllers and released Quest 3 at $199.
        
        As for the London Studios speculation, that’s all it is. Speculation without any facts. Saying Jim Ryan did this or that. You say London shifted away. But that doesn’t explain Guerilla Games collaborating to make Call of the Mountain who never made a VR game before on PSVR.
        
        Sony making PS VR 2 the way it is doesn’t stop companies like EA from porting their racing games. They just don’t want to unless there’s a huge market for their games. Then they act all like they were always supportive. EA hasn’t ported those same racing games to Quest that supposedly sold 20 million headsets. So what does that say truly?
        
        It says that they aren’t that interested in VR until they can make huge profits for their investors. They did port Grid Legends to the platform. But that was a trashy cash grab. They haven’t even updated that game too take advantage of Quest 3 either.
        
        Sony’s headset isn’t the problem.
      - Leisure Suit Barry
        
        There is nothing expensive about PSVR2, it has a much lower manufacture cost than Quest 3 and yet is more expensive. The only high end tech it has is eye tracked foveated rendering, everything else is already dated. And the motors they use in the headset and controllers are just mostly plastic, probably a couple of dollars manufacture cost
      - VR5
        
        Problem is that nice features are moot if they price out the mainstream market. Quest 2 had a great price at $300, with better features than predecessors. PS5 alone costs more than a Quest 2. Quest 3, although expensive, still doesn’t cost more than a PS5.
        
        Horizon definitely is a good effort and the reaction from the mainstream market is unfair. But again, Horizon would be killing it if the headset were affordable. Should not cost more than the Quest 2.
        
        Without a sizable market, there is simply no point bringing your games to the platform. GT7 is there because Sony wants to push their hardware. EA has no such obligations.
    - MeowMix
      
      >>I think the plan was for hybrid games to be made but the 60 fps reprojection didn’t work out too well and idk why they just haven’t ported all the psvr1 games to make up for it.<<
      
      Ya… doesn't help that their Reprojection tech is rotational only; which is equivalent to reprojection tech from 2016. Pretty sad state if their plan was to leverage reprojection tech for these flatscreen first titles; knowing all along their reprojection tech is old as hell and would produce for a less than desirable experience
  - ApocalypseShadow
    
    Yeah. A tech giant has no plans and no ability compared to like say, a social media company.
    
    Same nonsense like when some gamers say Sony has no games coming beyond Spider-Man 2. Even though each in-house developer they have has multiple projects they’re working on.
    
    Just because they’re not talking doesn’t mean they aren’t planning.
    - Nevets
      
      Facebook certainly isn’t hopeless whether you approve of them or not. Their hardware sales are clearly doing very well. Sony on the other hand needs to show what it plans to do to keep VR alive on its console. Your brand of wishful thinking will not endure forever.
      - ApocalypseShadow
        
        They have good hardware sales. Well, Quest 2 anyway. Quest 3 is selling slower than Quest 2. That $500+ price put them in the same boat as Sony.
        
        Facebook also has no player retention that even Facebook has said themselves. Sony is also not willing to lose 50 billion, yes, 50 billion like Facebook has in R&D and subsidizing Quest to be so low priced. Yeah. Facebook has that money to squander. But it’s only resulted in only one big game that came years later that doesn’t even take advantage of Quest 3 power. Kinect also had plenty of sales. Don’t see it hanging around. All those sales aren’t bringing AAA developer either in stand alone. I wouldn’t be so cocky.
        
        PS 1, PS2, PS3, PS4 and PS5 have sold way more than Quest. Get back to me when Facebook have sold over 100 million Quest units.
    - Hussain X
      
      But if it has created a huge player base (through previous investments in content, affordability, promotion), then the number of in house exclusives doesn’t matter as much, as 3rd party developers have a market to develop really good games for. The in house exclusives can focus on really high quality AAA over quantity and 3rd parties filling the gap.
      
      The PSVR2 which costs more than the PS5 console is starting its PSVR2 player base from scratch (which also can only run on a PS5), so needed to fund a lot of in house or 3rd party exclusives/content to build the player base (not necessarily all really high quality AAA for now). Or port over PSVR1 titles and/or come out with a cheap PSVR2 to build the PSVR2 player base, before it can go onto focusing on lower quantity but really high quality AAA in house exclusives and letting 3rd parties fill the gap.
      - ApocalypseShadow
        
        I’d rather they started from scratch to show a difference than dragging PSVR along for the ride that would have hindered game development. Sometimes it’s necessary to start over. I’m not saying it wouldn’t have been nice to have those games on PS VR 2. But that’s on the developers to port. But you can still play all PSVR games on PS5 with PSVR. Yeah. It’s two headsets. So what.
        
        Quest 3 plays Quest 2 games but they don’t take advantage of the hardware. Asgard’s Wrath 2 and Creed don’t even take advantage of Quest 3. They are hindered by Quest 2 still being on the market. So, the only thing you see is minor upgrades but not an evolution of game graphics and development. That’s a disadvantage as well. Quest 3 launched with no new games. That wasn’t good. They launched with no mixed reality killer app. That wasn’t good. The battery only lasting barely 2 hours isn’t a good thing.
        
        It’s not all roses everywhere else my man.
  - kool
    
    They have the ability just not the plan.
- Andrew Jakobs
  
  It’s VR only, it’s the whole gaming industry that have large layoffs.
  - XRC
    
    Unofficial figures put video game industry losses at 9,000 for 2023
- Leisure Suit Barry
  
  The new PS management have no interest in VR, it’s all about GAAS, PC ports, mobile expansion etc
  
  PSVR2 was greenlit before they got into power so instead of wasting all the R&D they just released it on their own direct store at an extortionate price knowing the hardcore will still buy it and will just let 3rd party release games for it.
Octogod

Hope those let go can find a new home quickly.

Looking at their LinkedIn page, they seem to be under 50 active employees.
Nevets

VR seems to be in danger. I think it will take off ultimately, but the cumbersome, hefty, uncomfortable, expensive hardware isn’t ready for mainstream craniums. I love VR, but just as I read somewhere recently, the physical feeling of removing a Quest HMD from the head is one of relief.
- ThinkB4USpeak
  
  This is very much true. It’s a catch 22 issue. No one wants it if it’s a large, cumbersome thing, yet sales are what’s needed to afford the development costs to bring out the form factor that would appeal to mass market.
  
  But then there’s the software…..
  
  There are no killer apps, or even a necessity to the devices or software. Up to this point VR has mostly been the desire for escape from a niche portion of the world, and the desire to own what a few big players were hoping was the next big form of compute platform to establish power and monopoly over it before anyone else.
  
  The question I have is……. does anyone really want this?
  
  Are you genuinely going to stop using your smartphone, and replace it with glasses on your face 24/7? Not me. I HATE wearing glasses, no matter how light. “Hold on guys, I just need to put my glasses on to check my, uh, phone for messages.”
  
  We are fast approaching a series of fundamental changes in technology, and how those technologies will intertwine with human biology.
  
  This isn’t about the next “device” anymore. This is about the next “human”. It’s about revealing what humans truly want and will be, as technology awards us with god like intelligence and capacity.
  
  The increases in cognitive function and processing will be exponential from this iteration of tech going forward. The desires and needs if humans will change to a point of being unrecognizable as they merge with the technology.
  
  Brain computer interfaces will make proms, mortgage and car payments, 8 hour work days so you can buy “products” to give you meaning and purpose obsolete.
  
  We ARE transitioning to a post human intelligence. We’ve been on that path for the last 50,000 years, and the rate at which it approaches increases exponentially with each year.
  
  This is waaay bigger than a pair of glasses you stick on your head. And almost no one sees it coming.
  - ameba#23234 mdrea
    
    We are already in this scenario. The Smartphone and Internet already did this.
    At least for gen z. Our needs and problems are unrecognizable to these from 50 years ago.
    
    On the other hand you have incoming Great Climate Population Decline mass dying
  - Dragon Marble
    
    You are getting too ahead of yourself. The brain computer interface isn’t able to generate a single pixel yet as far as I know.
    
    Before then, AR glasses is a huge step forward. You don’t feel it now because currently the digital world is designed to be viewed from a flat rectangle, and it exists separately from the real world. In the future, not wearing AR glasses could essentially make you blind to most of the stuff going on around you.
    - nicki gentry
      
      What about lucid dreaming technology, I like to think of lucid dreaming as basically a real matrix style vr, no headsets, everything feels real, and you can actually touch and taste stuff. The hard part though is that it can be hard to fall asleep. And dreaming requires sleeping.
- Till Eulenspiegel
  
  By February we will know if Apple’s Vision Pro will sell – or not.
  
  If a company like Apple can’t sell VR to the consumers, then VR will forever remained a niche product.
  - Nevets
    
    AVP isn’t being sold to the mass market and will only appeal to a very small number of niche and wealthy consumers. It is therefore not a litmus test of the demand for such a product among Apple’s user base.
    - Till Eulenspiegel
      
      You underestimated how deep the pocket Apple users have.
      
      When iPhone came out in 2007, it costs $500 – $600, the phones in 2007 cost an average $100. When you made something that is desirable, people will sell their kidney to buy it.
      reuters dot com/article/idUSL3E8F6153
      
      The Airpod Max debut at $550, it was sold out immediately. The Vision Pro is produced at very limited number, if it’s not sold out – there no chance for a cheaper model.
      - Mikael Korpinen
        
        There is no need for apple consumers to buy the glasses. Therefore you can’t really use it as a measurement.
        
        Cell phone you need.
        Airpods you need for music outside
        Expensive Apple AR ???
        
        If apple manages to sell them I’ll give them a hat.
TonyVT SkarredGhost

That’s so sad. Best wishes to find a new job soon for every one that has been laid off
ViRGiN

> and early AR game Marvel Dimension of Heroes, which released on the smartphone-based Lenovo Mirage AR headset.

Yeah, sounds like a studio only doing work when they are paid to do so.
So no loss. They made the Doom for PSVR1 right?
I guess in that regard it’s cool to see them joining the likes of Onward developers.
- BlueScreenJunky
  
  I don’t really care for those promo games (I see they also made a Foundation game produced by Skydance so it was probably to get the hype going for the TV Show), but doing that kind of contracted work is definitely a valid strategy for a small studio.
  
  I guess everyone in the industry is hoping to make the next Baldur’s Gate 3, but unless you’re a one or two man operation making an indie game, you have to pay your developers, artists, designers and almost no company has the means to finance a multi year project by themselves without getting paid. Before making Divinity Original Sin, Larian was already an established company, they founded the game through a kickstarter, and they still almost went bankrupt while making DOS, and then again at the end of DOS2.
  
  So I’m not going to blame a company for only doing contracted work if that keeps them afloat.
  
  Also even if you don’t care about that particular studio, it goes to show that the interest for VR has died down. If they’d had a steady stream of random media company asking them to make licensed VR games they wouldn’t be closing shop. I think this is a symptom of a larger issue, which is that the time when VR was the next big thing is behind us.
  - ViRGiN
    
    You are partly right, but looking at their VR portfolio, they only worked on Doom port from work that is actually relevant to VR as a whole rather than just keeping the company alive.
    Their growth got hindered by their platform choice – PSVR – or whatever licensing deal they got themselves into.
    
    Doom 3 works really great as a VR title, and if it was to release officially on Quest 1 back then, the bet would pay off really well I believe.
    - kakek
      
      Freediver and foundation are both quest titles, and apparently failed to keep them afloat as well.
      I wouldn’t say the plateform is the problem.
      
      Also, Doom 3 can’t run on quest 1 and 2 without serious concessions. The DrBeef port proves it. I mean, I tried it both on PC and quest, and the the lack of dynamic lighting on quest really change the feeling of the game.
      
      Pretty sure releasing a version without the dynamic light on quest wouldn’t have changed anything.
Andrew Jakobs

There is an official Doom 3 VR?
- Hussain X
  
  Yes on PSVR. It can even be bought on disc.
Leisure Suit Barry

I would of bought Doom 3 on PSVR but the guns always had a laser pointer which makes shooting games into more of a point and click game rather than an aiming gun game, and AFAIK you couldn’t turn it off, so I didn’t buy it.

Why would you have a gun game with a permanent laser pointer? Did they not play Farpoint?
namekuseijin

Journey to Foundation had obviously bad sales. A very hard sell to a couple Sony fanbois and the large monkeboi army on Quest who don’t really play games, let alone narrative ones like this
nicki gentry

I’ve actually found that flatscreen gaming can actually be even more immersive then vr if they are made right, like battlezone gold it no longer requires vr but it still feels like your in the tank and it’s cool, a regular video game can feel like a vr game if done right.
nicki gentry

it sounds like we in some kind of VR crash, just like atari before nintendo saved the day, I know the home consoles where having bad sales and home gaming almost died out but then nintendo came out home gaming exploded, maybe nintendo or apple will end up saving the day with a good VR product.
Ender772

oh man…doom vfr is of my favorite games of all time.. i really hope this doom 3 doesnt get cancelled