Ninja Theory, the studio behind award-winning VR-supported game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (2017), says there are currently no plans to bring its upcoming sequel to VR.

Unlike the first game, which brought PC VR support in a free update in 2018, it doesn’t appear we should hold out hope for a similar release for the upcoming sequel Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.

According to a PCGamesN interview with Ninja Theory, studio head Dom Matthews was asked directly if such a VR update was in the cards, which was met with an unambiguous “no.”

Coming to PC and Xbox consoles on May 21st, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II promises a fateful return of protagonist Senua as she continues her brutal journey of survival, this time taking her to Viking-era Iceland where she battles demons from both within and without.

Hearing we shouldn’t expect official VR support anytime soon (or at all) is a shame, since the first was such an amazing way to experience the game. But all is not lost.

Notably, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is built in Unreal Engine 5, which will likely allow would-be modders to inject UEVR, which brings retroactive VR support to games like Palworld among many other UE4 and UE5-based titles not initially built for VR.

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There’s also the more remote possibility the studio decides to follow suit and release VR support sometime later like it did with Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, releasing it as a free update one year after the game’s initial launch—although that seems somewhat doubtful.

Much has changed since 2018—back when PC VR was essentially the only way to experience high-quality VR. Generally speaking, development on PC VR titles has taken a back seat as the glut of consumers has since moved on to standalone platforms such as Quest 2 and 3. Those platforms typically require developers to rebuild games entirely to fit mobile chipsets, which is a time (and money) consuming process.

Justifying those billing hours to bring its new and shiny sequel even to PC VR may simply not be in the budget for now, as the studio is undoubtedly focused on making sure its sequel makes a bigger splash with its core audience than the BAFTA award-winning original.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • impurekind

    Well, that’s a fail. I only gave a crap about the original because it had a VR mode. Without that, I just do not care about this game.

  • ViRGiN

    With the all time peak of 169 players back in 2018, currently 1, and 8 in the past 24 hours, only pcvr elitists could be surprised.

    • kakek

      It’s okay, I’m sure there will be a great Quest port.

      • ViRGiN

        With sequel lining up, any vr isn’t worth their effort

  • XRC

    Amazing to experience the first game in VR. I’m currently revisiting it with a high resolution headset (35ppd) and it’s a real visual treat. It’s quite a disturbing game with the excellent audio and whispering creating an unsettling atmosphere.

  • Dragon Marble

    Why would they? If there is any potential boost to sales at all, modders are doing it for them for free. That’s why a flat-to-VR studio is the right way to go. If you want to show them there is money to be made, make money yourself first.

    • ViRGiN

      That’s super healthy approach. But I’m pretty convinced the flat2vr isn’t working on anything actually desirable.

      GTA5, Cyberpunk mods have done nothing for VR.

      • VR5

        UEVR has high compatibility.

        And it solves the software problem some users have with VR. It doesn’t need to boost the medium, just validate the hardware the enthusiast already owns.

      • kakek

        The 2 exemple you give are specially not well done. They use AER, wich creates a lot of artifact, unless running at 200+FPS. Wich, in the case of cyberpunk, is simply impossible. Neither of those mods was enjoyable, unless you have 4090

        The RE7/re8 mods on the other hand provided a really playable version of the game, even on reasonable GPUs. ( let’s say 3070 and above )

        I don’t think it’s really in the cards for hellblade 2 though, just because of performances. The VR version of the first game was not a straight up port. Additional work of optimisation had been done, and even then it required a beefy rig when it released one year later. Even if UEVR turns out to work perfectly with the game, it won’t magically re-optimise it.

        • ViRGiN

          Okay, the entire RE series modded for VR also did not move the needle.
          And yet the flat2vr guy is parading around claiming UEVR was downloaded over a million times lmao.

    • Mattphoto

      Or, simply, they tried it the first time and it didn’t sell enough to make it worth it.

      Having purchased several VR flat games, where VR was an afterthought, I agree. The detail isn’t there for me to be in the head of these characters. Things were designed with the camera meant to be up and stay up. Moving into the character’s perspective reveals a lot of trickery used to make things look great. It ends up looking pretty awful in spots. Hellblade kinda lost its charm in VR.

  • NL_VR

    Not buying this game thats for sure.
    No VR no game

    • VR5

      The article mentions the UEVR mod as well but it is likely that Hellblade 2 will work in VR at launch with that mod. If you want to make sure, you can wait for people to test the game and they will report their findings on the UEVR Discord. They have a searchable section for all games tested (a lot) and most work well or better.

      The biggest hurdle in this game’s case is that since it is so demanding it might not run well enough on your hardware. But generally UE4/5 games have great VR compatibility now thanks to the mod.

      I will get the game and play in VR, or cinematic mode if my PC isn’t up to it. Latter case would suck but still better than on a monitor.

      • NL_VR

        Good point, didnt read everything

    • Holger Fischer

      I did the same with Subnautica Below Zero. I bought it only after the VR mod was out at a sales price. Would have paid full price in early access otherwise. Its the publishers loss if they omit VR in a sequel after they had it already in its predecessor.

  • Hussain X

    Buy it on a heavy discounted sale. Then use some of the savings to contribute to the flat to vr modders. Then in the game review, say you played the game in VR using UEVR (assuming it works and is the only way to play it in VR).

    • ViRGiN

      assuming it works and is the only way to play it in VR; nobody cares.

      This isn’t GTA, COD, Battlefield, Witcher, Cyberpunk, or anything anything close to desirable title to play in VR. Even more so when it’s the usual crappy UEVR experience, with no real interactivity, just button presses.

      • VR5

        For a third person game like this, why would you want anything but button presses? The official first game was the same.

        For first person games it is easy in UEVR to decouple view and weapon aiming, 3dof or even 6dof with some minor fiddling (which other users will do for you in most cases). That improves the experience immediately.

  • Mike

    it would literally take next to no work at all to port it to pcvr. so why not. is it an unreal engine game? maybe uevr support. I hate stand alone. it really has ruined high quality vr. Metas stand alone strategy will ultimately kill vr. no one want the crap meta is pushing these days. i know i don’t.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      With advancements in mobile SOCs, as the Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro is already showing, standalone VR, with PCVR streaming, will be the way forward. The biggest problem with PCVR is that it still requires a very expensive GPU to actually drive the headset, these days a decent GPU to drive the headset is even more expensive as the headset itself.
      I think it’s actually thanx to Meta that VR still hasn’t died, otherwise it would probably have died many years ago.
      The biggest advantage of PCVR is the price of the games, they can be bought way WAAAAAAAAAY cheaper as the standalone/playstation games.
      It’s that my PCVR library is massive otherwise I would even be more inclined to use standalone as that just requires me to pickup my headset, turn it on and start playing. Whereas with my PC I have to do much more to start gaming.

      PS. I still don’t own a Meta Quest headset (but I did buy myself a Pico 4 a couple of weeks ago, as I could get that one new for pretty cheap), my main headset is still a HTC Vive Pro (1) with wireless module/vive wands/Index controllers.

      • Arno van Wingerde

        Depends on your ideas of how VR ought to be.
        It is good to see mobile technology move ahead… but seriously, we are many years away from a level that can compete with even a modest graphics card. Sure, it is impressive what for instance RM2 manages on this hardware.
        Actually, to really walk in a “photorealistic” rendered VR environment, a 4090 is not nearly good enough. And obviously: if someone would mange to cram one into a headset, batteries would be dead in minutes. So even with technological advances and for instance use of foveated rendering, it will be ages before mobile technology is ready. So, it just makes sense to wireless transfer the heavy work to a PC and I am curious to see whether we will see whether streaming with bandwidth and latency will gain a foothold. I personally do not see much benefit anymore to a Deckard type console, unless it offers great graphics performance for a good price, like PS5 and Xbox, but those too are too weak for some, while being too expensive for other users…

      • Mike

        I’m a pimax crystal owner if that says anything about what I prioritize in vr.

  • Adrian Meredith

    Vr mode was the definitive easy to play the original especially considering the premise. It does sound like the sequel is more traditional compared to the first though. Unreal vr injector is a good shout and to be fair it wouldn’t be too far away from what the original did which was a low effort port imo