Space Junkies (2019), the multiplayer sci-fi arena shooter from Ubisoft Montpellier, has reached a pretty significant impasse; the studio is pulling its previously planned support for the flatscreen version of the game, and issuing its final update on PSVR and PC VR headsets.
In a brief blog post, the studio says that they’re no longer actively developing for Space Junkies. The servers will still be open to VR players, although if you’re looking for more content from the multiplayer arena shooter, you’re out of luck.
Here’s the full statement below:
Hello Spacers,
We will be bringing the Space Junkies non-VR open beta to a close on Wednesday August 28th at 9am UTC.
While this is the end of our journey in terms of development of the game, the team is proud to have achieved what we set out to do: create a fun and fast-paced competitive FPS in VR.
The game servers will remain open and accessible to players who purchased the VR version of Space Junkies so that Spacers can continue to take on each other in the many community tournaments we’ve seen since launch.
The current plan, however, is to not release the non-VR version of the game.
Be sure to join our official Discord to keep in touch with other Spacers.
Released in March 2019 on PC VR headsets and PSVR, we gave Space Junkies a solid [7.7/10] in our review, noting however that the admittedly standard arena shooter experience would need more than smooth visuals and Unreal Tournament-style gameplay to keep users happy in the long run.
After launch, the studio issued several updates and also organized multiple community events in an effort to stimulate ongoing user support. The game was most recently featured by ESL in Season 3 of the VR League, which saw over $25,000 go to finals winners.
Although it seems fairly early to call it quits—it’s only been a little over five months since launch—Space Junkies has benefited from the most updates and developer attention as far as Ubisoft VR titles go.
Many of Ubisoft’s VR games have basically languished after launch, including Eagle Flight (2016), Werewolves Within (2016), Transference (2018) and the VR mode in Trackmania Turbo (2016), with Star Trek: Bridge Crew (2017) as the sole exception thanks to its paid DLC centered on the Next Generation missions.
So while it seems Ubisoft has basically been treating VR as an experiment since the hardware’s general launch in 2016, it’s clear the company hasn’t given up on VR as a whole. Unearthed by VRFocus, Ubisoft is apparently hiring a 50-person team to lead an unannounced ‘AAA’ VR title now, so the company as a whole seems far from deterred.