Star Wars: Squadrons is EA’s upcoming dogfighting game from a galaxy far far away, and it’s going to include VR support when it launches on consoles and PC in the fall. If you were hoping for an immersive in-cockpit cluster of virtual controls to poke at, you may be a bit disappointed though.
According to its Steam listing, the game is set to support Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index, although it only lists support for traditional gamepad, or keyboard and mouse on PC.
Furthermore, in the game’s FAQ EA has specified that outside of gamepad and keyboard/mouse, that both joysticks and hands on throttle-and-sticks (HOTAS) will be supported as well. The studio says it will have more details on supported sticks closer to its October 2nd launch.
All of this largely makes sense from a developer standpoint. The game is simultaneously launching on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, and serving a minority of VR players by creating an interactive cockpit with reactive virtual controls—where one likely doesn’t already exist—may be both time and cost prohibitive.
Still, it’s possible motion controllers may be supported to some degree insofar they can be used as normal gamepads—as long as all of the traditional buttons are present like on Oculus Touch and Valve’s Index controllers. Although if that’s the case, you might as well grab a HOTAS to get the immersion you’re sure to jettison behind you.