CCP Games, the studio behind EVE Online, was an early proponent of VR and launched a handful of VR games as the industry was kicking off. Though it isn’t actively developing new VR titles, the studio has continued to support existing titles; Sparc (2017), a 1v1 VR sport game now has launched on Springboard VR, making it accessible to users of VR arcades running the platform. And while the title seems like it would be a great fit, CCP remains silent on whether it will bring Sparc to Quest.
Released back in 2017, Sparc is designed as a competitive VR sport, pitting two players against each other in a game which plays like a futuristic version of handball. The game is available on Oculus Rift, SteamVR, and PlayStation VR.
The game hasn’t been updated since 2019, but now CCP Games has brought Sparc to Springboard VR, an management & distribution platform for VR arcades. Any VR arcade running Springboard VR can now offer the title to its customers.
As a competitive multiplayer game that launched in the early days of VR, Sparc struggled to find a steady player base and keep players coming back for more, despite being generally well received. The friction of first-gen headsets certainly didn’t help.
With newer headsets making big strides in usability, especially the standalone Oculus Quest, Sparc is precisely the kind of game that could benefit; with rounds that last only a few minutes each, Quest’s short time-to-play makes quickly hopping in few a rounds much more appealing.
That CCP is still making some moves with Sparc suggests there’s at least a chance the game could come to Quest in the future, but when we reached out to ask we were met with “no comment” on the matter.
While Sparc is now available on Springboard VR, getting the game ported to Quest would be a much more involved affair because the game was originally designed for PC but would need to be carefully optimized for Quest’s low-power mobile processor.
With CCP having pulled out of VR back in 2017—and since being acquired—it doubtful that there’s a cohesive team presently supporting Sparc that would be up to the task of a port to Quest, making it increasingly unlikely that the studio would take on such a project.
Still, it could be a worthwhile venture. Another futuristic VR sport game, Racket: Nx, also launched on PC back in the early days of VR and had trouble finding traction. Since the game’s launch on Quest last year, it quickly became one of the best rated and most popular titles on the headset.